George Osborne tried to play Santa and The Grinch during his Autumn Statement (in December, I know) with a sack full of presents under the tree tempered by an insistence there’s no money for decorations. Or welfare, for that matter.
Deficit targets were missed but not as badly as predicted as the Chancellor managed to produce improved growth forecasts and thus avoid a duffing up from Ed Balls.
Christmas cheer came for Scotland with £213 million more in the Scottish Government’s coffers. Extra money is always good news and there is now some added cash to invest in our NHS, presuming the consequentials are used in the same way they will be south of the border.
Then there was the great tax giveaway stashed inside our cards. Nothing like a wee cheque to perk up the festive feeling when you open your pay packet, which will come for both lower and higher rate earners under these plans.
A similar strategy is behind a cut in Air Passenger Duty. What could cheer up a gloomy household having to start scraping the frost off their cars more than being able to plot a cut price getaway somewhere warm?
Make no mistake, the general election may be five months away but its impending presence loomed large over this statement.
What it disguised was the fact there are also major savings to be imposed, with one think tank calculating the combined departmental cuts needed over the next parliament as £54 billion, including a £9 billion slashing of defence funds.
All Osborne needed was a fake white beard and a red hat the way he was rolling out headline grabbing announcements in a jolly fashion.
The clichd New Year belt tightening is going to be mighty tough, though. Even if it does arrive over the summer.