Festive favourites

GROWING up in rural Leicestershire, as a child Marc Burrows remembers listening to his parents’ 1985 Christmas album. “Now That’s What I Call Music: The Christmas Album” was the first compilation of f

CAROLS are playing softly, their melodies floating into the kitchen where Miranda is standing at the hob, gently stirring mulled wine. From the bubbling pot, the smell of cinnamon and clove wafts thro

I’M bored.” Ruth looked up from her magazine. How could something so crammed with TV programme listings have so little in it? “There’s nothing on, Max,” she said. Her husband turned his head. “Nothing

CHRISTMAS 1962. Bitterly cold. Elvis was crooning on my dad’s wind-up radio. I was nine. Mum was cleaning rich folks’ houses right up to Christmas Eve because Dad was out of work. But he had a plan. M

It happens every year around this time. I’ll be going about my day, when all of a sudden I’ll hear the faint jingle of a Christmas song. An advert or shop soundtrack with just the faintest snippet of

WE all love a good Christmas film and are blessed with the knowledge that plenty of festive classics have been created over the years. It’s also true that the same ones tend to top the best ever festi