Each Christmas I find myself haunted by ghosts of presents past | Justine Toh

Everyday hauntings suggest that ordinary life is no less sacred than within the walls of a church

When you're a kid, Christmas is about the presents. Now middle age has made me maudlin, it still is about the presents - but in a different way. It's about people's presence as much as the gifts they give.

Cue the eye roll, sure. But I'm serious. Even if Christmas is stripped of religious significance for many Australians, our relationship with treasured gifts gives us away. If we get sentimental about our things, it's because we treat them sacramentally - as bearers of the presence of another. So even the biggest agnostic may be kind of religious without realising it.