I cannot believe that in a few weeks’ time I’ll be climbing into the loft to bring down the Christmas decorations. It feels like five minutes since they were packed away at the start of the year. Each time, I tell myself that I’ll tidy and reduce the number of boxes before Twelfth Night arrives, yet somehow I can’t bring myself to do it. The thing is, these aren’t just boxes of random tinsel and baubles: they are treasure caskets packed with cherished mementos of family Christmases. There’s the white paper Angel Gabriel, with remnants of red glitter scattered across its wings (lovingly created by my daughter in her first year at primary school); a “rudimentary” Rudolph, constructed of loo roll, cotton wool and felt (so carefully glued together and proudly presented to me by my three-year old son when he was at nursery); and a small collection of children’s Christmas books that I just can’t bear to part with. Call me nostalgic, but they remind me of dark December evenings spent decking the tree with the children and then reading to them at bedtime as they snuggled under their duvets, barely able to contain their excitement as Christmas approached.
Poignant memories of bygone times are all reinforced by our lovely interview with comedian, actor and children’s author Ben Miller (page 48), In it, Ben (below right) shares his instinctive understanding of how to write for children, their love of descriptive sensory detail and their wide-eyed belief of the magic of Christmas. I’m tempted to buy his new children’s book, Adventures of a Christmas Elf, for myself !
And there are more warm-hearted stories in this issue. Our editorial team have pulled out all the stops to bring you some great reads that focus on community, kindness and humanity –
