The Christmas lights seem to be shining brighter this year, despite all the gloom.

I’m noticing more trees in people’s windows, as if the decorations are intended as a sign of encouragement, like when kids were putting up rainbows to be seen from the street, back in the turbulent days of the first lockdown.

In these festive homes, there will be empty chairs at dinner tables tomorrow. We get on with things as best we can, but family and friends will feel a sense of separation.

Then there’s the Glasgow diaspora, the city’s weans around the world, unable to return and renew their relationship with where they are from.

Billy Connolly used to say the moment he stepped onto the platform at Central Station he could feel Glasgow start to be absorbed back through the soles of his feet.

I spent just over ten years living in Dublin and I would love flying back and going into town over Christmas, making sure everything was where I’d left it.

I’ve tried to capture a sense of the place in The Best of Glasgow book, which I published earlier this month. It’s intended as an invitation to explore local neighbourhoods. I also wanted to produce a guide with stories for people who live elsewhere but maintain a Glaswegian connection.

Jack House used to playfully refer to Glasgow as a city-state when he wrote in the Evening Times. It has certainly felt like that this year. An enthusiastic advocate for all things local, as a food reviewer he once noted that his restaurant table view down Great Western Road was "like the Champs Elysées – only better.”

I was thinking about Jack and his unshakeable belief in the exceptionalism of Glasgow as I sat in Wee Paree in Broomhill. Brunch in the French themed bistro is a delight - try Stornoway black pudding with poached egg, red onion marmalade and crispy French ham on sourdough. While the Crow Road bears no resemblance to a Parisian boulevard you can still appreciate the view with a sense of civic pride.

Many of the people and places that make life more interesting will go into winter hibernation later this week. The best of the city will be harder to find. In 1965 Jack House wrote, “It’s difficult to explain the hold that Glasgow gets on its natives and its visitors. There is plenty of beauty in Glasgow, but you have to search for it. Glasgow must be seen through the eyes of love.” If there was ever a time to love your city, it’s now.

This year will be remembered for challenges and missed opportunities. It should also be remembered for the determined and resilient response, the arm that was put around the shoulders of vulnerable people in the community and local businesses looking to the future.

You can order your copy of The Best of Glasgow at glasgowtimes.co.uk/best-of-glasgow-book

Glasgow’s Best Bars Amidst the stop-start year for hospitality

I have had a few great meals this year - The Gannet, Gamba, The Spanish Butcher, Ka Pao, Glaschu, Cafe Gandolfi spring to mind. They’ve been cherished moments amidst the stop-start of hospitality uncertainty. 

Cafes have been at the heart of things for local communities providing a warm welcome, conversation and strong coffee to sustain us. There was that brief point in the year where sunny beer gardens and sitting at a table in the pub was possible. Then bars were stopped and now the opportunity to stand with friends and pints remains stubbornly stuck in the distance. To remember old acquaintances ahead of Hogmanay, here’s the top five bars in Glasgow. We’ll see them again.

5 Oran Mor Top of Byres Road, G12 8QX, 0141 357 6200, oran-mor.co.uk Oran Mor, within the stately surroundings of what was Kelvinside Parish Church, with its tall Gothic spire, was saved from being turned into flats by Colin Beattie. He created one of the great bars in the West End and an important venue for art, culture and food.

4 The Locale The creation of second generation publican Josh Barr. They have one of the biggest and most in-demand beer gardens in the city where you’ll find weekend barbecues and good-looking people wearing Wayfarer sunglasses drinking Aperol spritz. They make their own Limoncello and there’s a New York style dive bar in the basement.

3 Kelvingrove Cafe 1161 Argyle Street, G3 8TB, 0141 221 8988, kelvingrovecafe.com Kelvingrove Café claimed this corner of Argyle Street in 2013 just as an overlooked stretch of the West End found a new lease of life. The bar and brasserie has become a fixed point amidst a fluctuating Finnieston scene. Closure this year allowed them to complete plans to extend the ground floor with the addition of a new dining room. The bar and brasserie will return with a renewed focus on cocktails, brunch, sharing plates and good times.

2 Tabac 10 Mitchell Lane, G1 3NU, 0141 572 1448, tabacbar.com A world of influences coalesce in this classy drinking den on Mitchell Lane. Take a table by the window for the best view. To your right, they have added a neat side-bar with organic wine available by the glass. Much of the distinctive interior remains from when this was Bar Ten, opened in 1991 and designed by Ben Kelly who was also responsible for Manchester’s Hacienda nightclub. Popular for Tinder dates during the week. Progressive music policy, good chat and strong drinks at the weekend.

1 The Gate 251 Gallowgate, G4 0TP, thegateglasgow.com Andy Gemmell created The Gate within an unassuming building across from the Barrowland Ballroom. You enter through the original close before the room is revealed, an impressive, comfortable mix of the old and the new. Andy says “I wanted to create somewhere that everyone’s going to understand and feel welcome when they come in.” The idea was to fuse his enthusiasm for traditional Scottish pubs with influences from the worlds’ best cocktail venues. A new cocktail list is introduced every six weeks. It’s a sociable space where market traders have a pint sitting alongside established whisky aficionados and a fashionable new generation. Framed pictures of local characters by Glasgow photographer Mark Leslie on the way give the bar a sense of place.