THANKS, cheers, appreciated.

All of the above, this week, are driving me crazy. When was the last time you looked someone in the eye and said ‘Thank you’?

It wouldn’t have to have been a particularly selfless act on their part, maybe they made you a cup of tea or held a door open for you – but did you honestly make direct eye contact and mean your ‘thank you’?

I’m certain that in my lifetime, I have uttered several variations on thankyou about a million times and not meant it in the slightest, but perhaps this week has made me reconsider.

I was first prompted to consider my manners when last week I was at work, and made a little boy a cup of squash and got him a biscuit.

He was maybe seven or eight years old, and he didn’t thank me.

I dismissed his lack of manners as preoccupation with the biscuit, but his mother exploded into a massive lecture on being polite.

The threats were unleashed, and only when the mother threatened to take his Nintendo DS from him, did the young man look up and listen to what his mum was saying.

His mother was of course right about being polite, but never once did she herself attempt to excuse her son, or to ask him to actually thank me.

I wondered, as I walked away, to what extent manners have become our habit over a genuine display of appreciation.

I wondered if the words ‘thank you’ were banned for a month, and our habit of saying it were to be broken, how many would continue to use it?

Then, as I went Christmas shopping in Birmingham on Monday (teacher training day, not bunking off, I promise), where everybody is out to buy for themselves, I noticed how few thank yous were being said.

In going out and buying presents for family and friends, we are letting ourselves down by being selfish and single minded in our approach.

A janitor in the Bullring held a toilet door open for maybe six or seven women, and I don’t think even half of them said thank you.

Christmas is a rush, and Advent is particularly manic for everyone, but I don’t think that’s any excuse for us all to be downright rude to one and other.

Buying expensive presents for people isn’t the end of our Christmas goodwill duty, and it would be naïve of us to think so. I don’t think anyone can use the Christmas rush as reason enough to be actively rude.

Even if it’s just holding the door open or smiling as you pass someone, you’re contributing to the season of goodwill, and ultimately making someone’s day marginally better.