But anyway, I know what you mean about keeping traditions alive and so does my Mum. It was important enough to her to make sure that the magic of Christmas didn’t die as I grew up and it didn’t. It just changed. I’m in my early twenties now and Mum and I will always be found in the kitchen from mid-October (Our enthusiasm for Christmas does occasionally border on insanity), making something or other. Christmas cakes, sausage rolls, mince pies, cheese straws, Christmas puddings and whatever new project we’ve got in the works. It’s not “cooking” exactly but last year, our “new thing” was cookie mixes in jars. So this year, we’ll be making more. And the year before, it was a gingerbread house, and the less said about that, the better. The oldest “new” tradition, if that makes sense, are our chocolates. We used to buy all our Christmas chocolates, then we decided to have a go at making our own one year. The rest, as they say, is history.

I’ll always be grateful to my Mum for passing her love of Christmas on to me and to her Dad, for passing it on to her.