It’s a very worthwhile business, giving toys for those kids who don’t get them, filling food parcels for the needy, posting treat boxes to the troops, buying the homeless a Christmas meal.

And let’s hope all these initiatives run into widescale generosity.

But sometimes I wonder how much of that finer feeling is allowed to evaporate in the rest of the winter months.

Several times in the last few weeks I’ve come across people sleeping in doorways; lying in sleeping bags on cardboard with an assortment of blankets and clothing fighting a losing battle with the icy chill. In Scotland. In 2017.

Some of them will be recent victims of benefit cuts. Some of them will be battling addictions. Some will have had domestic or employment crises which propelled them out of their normal living quarters. All of them are an affront to a would-be civilised nation.

Let’s make sure the Christmas spirit doesn’t drain entirely away until we’ve tackled this properly.

The Edinburgh-based 'Sleep in the Park' this week provoked two housing associations to come up with dozens of rented premises. We can, and must, build on that in the rest of our wee country.