DAWN’S CHRISTMAS

Where will you spend it? At mine, just because we have the biggest table. There’s loads of food, so enough for whoever’s around – the kids and their other halves, my brother Gary and his family, my in-laws…

Who’ll do the cooking? Not me! I do the shopping, lay the table and see which young people I can bribe to do the washing-up. But Biggs will cook. He’ll do turkey – we don’t have it any other time, so really look forward to it.

Do you get dressed up? Ideally I’ll be wearing new pyjamas all day. I like it if everyone else wears theirs, too! What’s on your Christmas playlist? Handel’s Messiah first thing, then quite a lot of reggae, Nat King Cole, and Kirsty Maccoll and The Pogues.

Best gift you’ve ever received? Billie makes a card for me every Christmas and that’s always my favourite thing because she puts real thought into it.

Worst gift ever? My grandmother,

Lil O’brien, was queen of rubbish gifts. One year she bought everyone a log ornament with some birds on it carved out of mushrooms! Favourite festive indulgences? Without doubt, the stuffing. And my favourite tipple is Baileys on ice, which I only ever have at Christmas. Do you go out on Christmas Day? I am very lucky that my best friend lives nearby. She’ll have her family on Christmas Day, too, but at some point during the day, she and I will escape to the beach for a walk and a gossip.

What’s your most treasured festive memory? My mum always went very cheesy at Christmas and gave me things like a locket with ‘darling daughter’ on it – the sort of thing I’d never wear but really treasure. I will think about her a lot at Christmas.

Any New Year resolutions? I hate resolutions but, as I explain in the book, I’m going to have a small list of intentions: drink less coffee, walk more, kiss for longer, make more time for family stuff, donate to a new charity, and make sure wanting stuff doesn’t make me forget what I have.