Take time to pause and appreciate true joy of Christmas

We have a strict rule in our house: no one watches a Christmas film until we have our tree up. Explaining this to our six year old has been tough, especially because the Christmas lights were switched on in our town two weeks ago and we have been bombarded by festive toy adverts since September.

But this weekend we finally dragged the jumble of decorations out of the cupboard, put up our real spruce, and sat down to a festive film feast. We started with Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman (the original one with the David Bowie introduction, of course), followed by a main course of The Polar Express and finished with a sugar-laden desert of Elf. Out of all the traditional Christmas movies, this is the one I never tire of. The genius storyline and perfect casting quickly turned this wacky comedy into a classic and it’s also now a successful musical, which comes to Scotland for the first time this winter.

When we caught up with actress Kym Marsh, who plays Elf’s girlfriend in the stage version, she had just finished filming her final scenes for Coronation Street, so she was in a reflective mood.

Kym, pictured on our cover with her youngest daughter, Polly, opens up about leaving the soap, becoming a gran at 43, and family life.

Her soldier boyfriend Scott is away this Christmas but she’ll be surrounded by her girls and new grandson Teddy.

Kym reminds me that Christmas traditions are not so important. All that really matters is you are with the ones you love. Which is, ultimately, what lies at the heart of every timeless Christmas movie.