‘I realise how lucky I am to have relatives around’
Vinny Hurrell (35) lives in north Belfast. He presents his own show on BBC Radio Ulster each Monday evening at 10pm. He says:
Usually I would go home to Randalstown for Christmas Day but this year I’m having the whole family come to me. This time last year I bought a new house and we’ve been doing it up all year so it seemed like a great idea to invite everyone here a year ago. That will be mum, dad, two brothers and a sister — the other sister is having her in-laws to her house.
My mum is really great at Christmas so I have very happy memories of the festive season when I was growing up because of all the effort she put in. Mum made it look effortless so it’s only now that I’m realising just how much there is to do. You can’t prepare too far in advance either or the food will all be off by Christmas. Everyone has a job — one brother is doing cheese and crackers and another is doing cocktails, while my sister does desserts.
I’m not a bad cook but I’ve spent years trying to eat well and I’ve been told a lot that my food is bland and tasteless. I’m going to try and go against the grain on Christmas Day and make things taste really good. My mum may have made it all look easy but I know that it’s really not. Still, I’m trying to do everything the way that mum does it because I have no idea what to do otherwise. The only big change I’m doing is adding bacon to the Brussels sprouts, which mum never did. My best ever Christmas? That would be the year that my present was a motorised go-kart. We came downstairs to find a petrol can in the living room with a note telling us to look in the garage. That was the gift we got the most use from — hours and hours of fun.
Now, I realise that the best gift can be the people you spend Christmas with. As I get older I appreciate how lucky I am to have my family around me at this time of the year — you take so much for granted when you’re young.