So the Christmas and New Year festive season has come and gone for another year.

After months of planning, spending, cooking, baking (well, no baking for me obviously) and, of course, shopping, it is over and we are left feeling jaded and a little rough around the edges.

Not unlike those poor brown sprouts that haven’t quite made it into one of the ‘leftovers’ meals, and are doomed to be thrown – unceremoniously – out.

I hope you all had a wonderful time and that Santa was kind to you. I had a relaxed and pleasant, though not overly exciting, Christmas. I didn’t get caught up with too much partying, but I did go along with the ridiculous and utterly expected business of overeating.

Now, those of you who have read my columns regularly will know that I’m a lifelong fan of food and am not exactly what you might call slender. However, I still don’t understand why on that one day of the year, when all we’re actually doing is making a roast dinner, do we allow ourselves to eat so much more than normal.

We generally end up comatose on the sofa with buttons undone, yet still find the space to shovel down an extra bowl of Christmas pudding along with half a pound of stilton (not necessarily at the same time).

Now talking of Christmas pudding, I have to announce that I had two of the best ever this year, and I do count myself as something of a connoisseur. I don’t really have much of a sweet tooth and maybe that’s why I like Christmas pudding, because it has such savouriness about it.

‘Excellent pudding number one’ was one we were lucky enough to be given by a friend and it was hand-made by Claridges. It was so posh that it couldn’t be microwaved and had to be steamed (haven’t had to do that for years), but it was well worth the wait. It was amazing: light and fruity and truly delicious.

I even had to have a second bowl just to check it really was that good.

On Boxing Day, convinced that the Claridges pudding couldn’t possibly be beaten, we were at my brother’s house and he served up ‘excellent pudding number two’, the most popular pud of the 2011 season, Heston Blumenthal’s orange-filled spectacular.

Now for those who don’t know, this pudding has caused an internet sensation this year, as self-styled pudding-touts were buying up these delicacies at normal retail price of £13.99 and once they’d pretty much sold out at Waitrose, they started flogging them on ebay for up to £250!

Am not sure who was more ridiculous: Waitrose for not stocking enough, or the fools who really thought it was worth spending that amount of money on a Christmas pudding.

But I have to say, Heston hit the jackpot. His pudding was completely different from the Claridges one, but equally gorgeous. This time it was heavier and almost syrupy but with that fabulous citrus zest throughout. Wow.

So the point is, if it’s that good, and people go to such lengths to get the pudding of their dreams, why on earth aren’t they re-packaged and sold at other times of the year?

If we had the same pud throughout the year, would we not want it at Christmas?

Is the main reason for Christmas gorging the fact that generally we eat things that we don’t normally eat?

Well, maybe if we did eat pudding, turkey, sprouts, pigs in blankets et al throughout the year, we wouldn’t pig out so much on Christmas day. I’m probably wrong.

Perhaps gluttony and Christmas day just go hand in hand, like turkey and cranberries, sage and onion, or crackers and silly hats.

My point is that if we want to eat Christmas food at other times of the year, then we should be allowed to.

So if you have an urge to make mince pies in September, go ahead. If you feel like roast turkey in June, why not? And if you’ve got a larder full of Heston’s Christmas puddings left over and fancy eating one in April, then go for it.

NOTE TO SELF: A Christmas pudding is for life, not just for Christmas.