MY CHRISTMAS... TOM DAVIS

TIME SPENT WITH THE FAMILY AND OVER-THE-TOP DECORATIONS ARE THE COMEDIAN’S FESTIVE WISHES

COMEDIAN Tom Davis, 41, is the brains behind comedy detective show Murder In Successville and now stars in hit sitcom King Gary. The series returns with a Christmas special on December 23.

What does Christmas mean to you?

It’s about coming together with your family. Both my parents worked a lot when I was a kid and Christmas was a time I cherished everyone being together.

Real tree or artificial?

The last two years I’ve had an artificial tree but I’ve got a cracking real one this year. I like the pine needle smell and going out and picking the tree. The artificial tree had fake snow on it. It’s in the garage now. It’s quite sad – he probably thought he had a job year after year and now he’s redundant.

Do you like a lot of Christmas decorations or a minimal look?

My house looks like Christmas has been sick on it. We’ve got a light-up reindeer at the front, light-up wreaths with bows on, garlands, lights all over the windows and guttering. It’s pretty special.

Do you have any decorations of sentimental value?

A beanbag Santa Claus I’ve had since

I was seven. He looks at odds with the rest of the tree, which is quite classy with expensive baubles, but he holds his own. He’s the real meaning of Christmas.

What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?

A Playmobil galleon pirate ship when I was seven. I was obsessed with pirates as a kid. It had canons in the bottom, which you could fire and you could put it in the bath and it floated.

What’s the most disappointing Christmas present you’ve received?

I got a bike one year. My dad was really excited about teaching me how to ride it. But I crashed it within 15 minutes of getting it and I didn’t ride a bike again for years. I scraped my knee and chin pretty badly. It was the first time I saw disappointment in my dad’s eyes. He was planning long bike rides together but it wasn’t to be. I sold it because it became a constant reminder of all my failures.

As a child, did you ever repeatedly ask Father Christmas for a present that you never received?

When I was a kid I really loved the MASK toys – vehicles with little men in them. Their base was called Boulder Hill, which was really expensive. They had one in a toy shop in Sutton, where I’m from, for years. I wrote begging letters to Santa every year saying ‘If you don’t know where to get one there’s one in the toy shop in Sutton.’ I never got it. As an adult I thought about buying it on eBay but it’s still too expensive. They’re real collectors items.

Do you go for a traditional turkey Christmas dinner?

It’s always got to be turkey with all the trimmings. I do all the cooking on Christmas Day. I thoroughly enjoy it. You’ve got to have it all – stuffing, both sausage and sage and onion, cauliflower cheese, pigs in blankets, carrots, parsnips, swede, Yorkshire puddings and a prawn cocktail to kick it off with. Afterwards you need Christmas pudding and brandy butter.

What do you like most about Christmas and what do you like least?

I was the last kid in the class to still really believe in Christmas. My little sister, who is three years younger than me, was the first person to tell me the truth – that’s how much I loved Christmas. I don’t like the commercialism of it. You don’t need to spend a vast amount of money. My parents didn’t have much money when we were kids and we didn’t often get what we wanted but it didn’t make Christmas any less enjoyable. Being together with friends and family, where possible now, is the most important thing.

Were you ever in a school nativity?

We had quite a hippie-ish teacher who decided to include a bit about how the Earth was created one year in our nativity. I played a dolphin. My mum made the costume. The dolphin’s beak came out of my forehead. It was only when I was halfway down the aisle and all the dads started laughing that my mum realised I looked like

I had a massive phallus on my head. Then the teachers started making all the kids who got the lowest grades, including me, sing From A Distance every nativity as a punishment. It was awful.

Favourite Christmas films?

I love It’s A Wonderful Life – it’s an incredible film and you can learn a lot from it. I love Elf, National Lampoon, Home Alone... there are lots. We’ve included little references to all those films in the King Gary Christmas Special.

Do you prefer Christmas or New Year’s Eve?

Christmas – I loathe New Year’s Eve. There’s so much pressure about how you’ve got to have a good time. When I was 17, me and my friends went up to London. One of our friends looked very young so nowhere would let us in. We’d been drinking cans of lager then one of my friends got a bottle of horrible brandy out and we drank that while sitting in Trafalgar Square. It was a very depressing experience. I spent years looking for a good New Year’s Eve and never found it. Now I’m 41 that quest is over.

The King Gary Christmas Special can be seen on December 23 at 10pm on BBC1.