Our Christmas
How do our favourite celebrities celebrate their Christmas break?
‘It’s quite extravagant’
The last few years, we’ve spent Christmas Day in Spain at my sister’s place. We wake up and my daughter, Lyla, 19, always has a stocking. It’s quite an extravagant one and she loves it – she’s always excited by it and I have to hide it like she’s 13. Then, we usually get up and have huevos rancheros. When my parents were alive they loved turkey, cranberry and all the trimmings. Now, we think about what we actually want to eat. Recently, we’ve had goose. We’ll have a small token Christmas pudding too. We do dress up, it’s pretty smart for our late lunch. Afterwards, we’ll play all sorts of games. There’s one thing we do that always gets very aggressive, we call it ‘The Hat Game’. You put lots of names of famous people in a hat and then you have two teams and you have to describe as many names as you can without saying the actual name in a minute, and then the other team get to go. We get so loud and shout! Last year, my sister and her husband did a brilliant general knowledge quiz too, which we loved.
On Boxing Day, we’ll go for a long walk. And on New Year’s Eve, I try to get to bed by 10pm. It sounds so boring, but these days I just don’t see the point in staying up.
‘It’s the SIMPLE THINGS that are specıal’
Without wanting to sound terribly clichéd, Christmas is a time just to be together as a family without the busyness of life getting in the way. It’s the simple things that are so special. I mean, how many other times in a year do families sit down and play games together? But at Christmas it’s one of those things that happens that I cherish so much. We all try to do little bits so not one person is in the kitchen doing everything. The key to a simple Christmas Day is a little bit of preparation and maybe a little bit of corner cutting as well. As for Christmas dinner, I think it is one of the few things that shouldn’t evolve – it’s pretty great as it is!
I am a big fan of walking after dinner with the dog. Not only is it nice to have a walk after dinner, but there is something about passing people in the street on a Christmas Day walk – everybody seems that much happier. There is nowhere like London at Christmas. We aren’t formal when it comes to dressing up – but Christmas is absolutely the time for a jazzy jumper; that and getting all snuggly on the sofa as a family and watching a Christmas film are two of the real guilty pleasures of the Christmas period.
New Year’s Eve is definitely an excuse for a few drinks – but I don’t think it always needs to be a big affair. A local pub or having friends round for drinks and food is a great way to spend it.
‘Being with family is just MAGICAL’
Christmas is all about family, it’s absolutely br
