That's New Year all over – until 2001

"Something in me resists the calendar expectation of happiness" - JB Priestley… Christmas has come at last, and quickly vanished again. It's an unusual time in a pub. People see the place full night after night and expect you to be making a small fortune, failing to realise that we are trying to cram three months' trade into three weeks.

The seasonal downturn before and after the festive season means that December needs to be both busy and profitable to compensate. Not that we can grumble too much - trade was slightly up on last year and everything went like clockwork, a tribute to all the hard work everybody put in.

The only disappointment this year was the amount of parties that decreased in size between booking and arrival - one failed to arrive altogether, cancelling the day before.

We have never taken deposits for bookings, preferring to take them on trust, and we accept that numbers will vary due to illness etc, but when a booking for 20 arrives as a five we feel that we need to do something.

It's not the reduction of the party itself that is annoying, it's the business that we have refused, often for regular customers, that really grates. Next year, we feel we have little option but to take a small, non-returnable deposit.

New Year's Eve was a success again - a hot buffet, disco and party attended by most of our friends in the village - but it was impossible to avoid the question of what we are doing next year. The answer simply is "nothing".

We feel that it would be unfair to ask staff to work and, given the costs of staffing and entertainment, the prices that we would need to charge to break even with such limited space would be astronomical. It seems that many smaller pubs are thinking the same.

Of course, with the New Year come the resolutions.

First, I will stop worrying about our beer prices - people seem not to be too concerned by price and I may simply be losing profit.

Second, I will reduce my menu slightly in size, but enhance the content, reducing wastage and offering a better product on the plate.

Finally, I will be sweetness and light to my wife and my staff all year long. They are, after all, the basis on which we build the business.

I will let you know how I get on. n

Ian Vipond is chef-patron of the New Inn, a free house pub in Hunton on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales

Next diary from Ian Vipond: 25 February