Is it just me, or is ‘Twinkle Twinkle little star’ putting in a lot of appearances in children’s nativity plays? I think it’s because it’s a rhyme that little children know and it probably also provides a good number of additional parts for children (as twinkling stars) – you can only have so many sheep – so that they all have a part to play.

But it was not originally a lullaby about the star that led the wise men to Jesus. It was part of a longer poem about how stars illuminate the night sky and provide guidance for travellers.

The first verse on its own becomes a cosmological investigation into the nature of luminous spheres of plasma held together by their own gravity.

I offer you an alternative poem to the same metre:

Chocolate santa on the tree

How I hope that you’re for me

Tempting me from on the branch

Eating you would spoil my lunch

Om, nom, nom, nom, nom

Be blessed, be a blessing