Each year, I send Christmas cards. This year, I got them out later than ever before – so late indeed that they were sent in January, barely even before Twelfth Night.

For once, I didn’t blog the newsletter. This is because in telling my friends and family I’d been on Come Dine With Me, I used photos that were embargoed until after the show aired.

So now, even later, and for my own memories and archives as much as for the edification of any other readers, here is a copy of my 2010 Christmas “nilesletter”.

And Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without my annual caution: if you are sending Christmas cards, please put your name and address on the outside of the card, just in case one of your nearest and dearest has carked it since you last heard from them.