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They weaved in Sinead's favourite Christmas themes, made mulled wine and played songs from the film Love Actually.

Across the country, German Christmas markets have proliferated, with wooden chalet style trading units, mulled wine, sausages, and twinkly lights.

Lately, publishers have been mulling over how to bring those theatrical audiences back into their games, where they can spend money on digital items.

The out-of-office is on, the mulled wine is mulling, and the highlighter pen is out as families look ahead to the best of this year's Christmas TV.

I meet her now in the bustling Neumarkt Square in Cologne, surrounded by Christmas market stalls where locals eat sausage and drink mulled wine, and the dramas of Syria seem far away.