Not every child is as fortunate as mine

IT’S the most wonderful time of the year for Weekend AM presenter Anna Daly. The mum of three boisterous boys admits she adores Christmas and all the rituals attached to it.

‘I am a big child myself,’ she says. ‘I adore the pantios and so on I can’t get enough of it.

‘I think my favourite time is all the fuss around Santa, getting the house ready and putting out the mince pie for him and carrots for the reindeers.’

Anna has three boys Rhys, two, James, seven, and Euan, five, with her husband Ben Ward, and insists she wants her children to realise that not every child is as fortunate as they are at Christmas.

‘My kids, like so many others, are being brought to panto after panto and Christmas shows,’ she says.

‘They have elaborate Santa lists full of presents. But I think it is important to try and drive home the point that not everyone is as lucky as we are.

‘I read an article this week that pointed out the divide is greater than ever between the haves and the have nots. It is such an important message to get across to your children.. I know it probably goes in one ear and out the other. I would feel better if I try and explain it to them that not everyone is as fortunate.’

Anna is fronting this weekend’s Tesco Ireland charity appeal which kicks off tomorrow. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a ‘shopping list’ of potential items to donate will be available for Tesco shoppers in store.

These include non-perishable foods like tea bags, pasta and rice, breakfast cereals and tinned goods and household necessities such as toiletries, nappies, small clothing items and toys.

Customers are encouraged to pick up just one item as they shop and donate it to the Christmas Appeal Trolley at the front of the store on their way out.

All of the items donated during the appeal in Tesco stores will be given to 130 partner causes from the Tesco surplus food donations programme, which is run in partnership with FoodCloud.

And Anna wants her own children to be involved in charity events over the festive season.

‘Schools are really good at that now,’ she says. ‘There are all sorts of different days where they pay €2 to wear a Christmas jumper or something like that. There are loads of toy initiatives where they buy a toy for another child. I think all those lessons are really important.’

But this time of year is as much about making memories as it is presents, Anna believes.

‘Christmas is about experiences as well,’ she says. ‘My mother-in-law drives home the point that experiences are more important over presents. You are building memories with all those little trips and shows. Yesterday we went to see Santa - it was probably Rhys’s first time getting up close and personal with Santa.

‘He is two and he absolutely hated every moment of it - he was so overwhelmed but the other two lads who are five and seven were having full-on chats with him about they wanted. In a really serious way. It was just adorable.’

Anna was reminded of one of her own special Christmas moments when someone sent in a photo of a gift they had received as a child.

‘It was one of those little typewriters — a Petit I think they were called. I absolutely loved mine. I set it up at a desk in my room and pretended I was running a hotel. And for December 25, there won’t be any cooking in Anna’s house as all five of them will be heading to her parents.

‘Christmas is noisy with three boys but that’s not just December 25, it’s every day of the year,’ she says. ‘We descend on my parents house for Christmas day and this year my brother is coming home from Australia.

‘My mam loves to do Christmas Dinner at home herself and I am more than happy to indulge her. We do my husband’s family on St Stephen’s day so everyone is kept happy. It is busy but it is fun and my parents love it. They adore the kids being there — or if they don’t they put on a very good act.

‘So we descend on my parents’ house, wreck it and then leg it.’