It begins well before December 25, when we start to make lists of potential gifts for friends and family to see wrapped under the tree.

The aim is to identify and then fill small gaps in their lives, buying items or experiences that we think they would like to have, but don’t.

Do they lack some new gadget for the kitchen? Is there something in their wardrobe that should have been thrown out and replaced? Is there a new book or album that should be on their shelf at home but isn’t?

Asked for ideas on what we would like to receive for Christmas, we are encouraged to run our eyes over our own life, peering at it from all angles and looking for things we haven’t had the time, the money or the inclination to buy for ourselves.

“I want to buy you something you’re going to use,” we’re told. So we look for something that’s not there already.

And as the wrapping paper is stuffed into the bin, the Christmas hats fall from tired heads and the end of the year rolls around, we look ahead to January 1 and wonder what we can do to improve ourselves in the next 12 months.

What can we add to our life? Gym membership, a better savings plan, a self-improvement hobby? A backyard vegetable garden, an overseas holiday, a kitchen renovation?

We know what happens when we spend the Christmas and new year period focusing on what we don’t have.

But what would happen if we focused on what we do have?

Gathered with family and friends by barbecues or at dining room tables, maybe we could spend a little more time this year cataloguing our blessings rather than teasing out our deficiencies.

We could examine our pleasures and successes in 2017 rather than letting our minds rush ahead to 2018 and how we can make that year better.

We could remind ourselves that in an uncertain world, we live in one of the most safe, peaceful and prosperous nations on earth. And in that nation, we live in a bustling, vibrant, welcoming regional city whose appeal is so strong that hundreds of new residents moved here in the last year alone.

That’s a Christmas gift to be savoured, if we make the choice to do so.