Alexander Armstrong on Christmas traditions
Alexander Armstrong on his show celebrating Christmas traditions…
So much of the spirit of Christmas involves TV
Best Christmas
Ever with Alexander Armstrong sunday / ITV / 9Pm
Alexander Armstrong could rival Santa for seasonal cheer, so he’s the perfect host for ITV’S Best Christmas Ever, which sees a wealth of well-known faces championing their favourite aspects of the festive season. Here, Xander, 48, tells TV Times more…
How would you sum up the show? Its main function is to wallow in all the things we love about Christmas. The things we fall back on generally are music, good company and booze, but also
films, games and all the many little flavours of Christmas that we genuinely love.
Why do we all have these quirky Christmas traditions?
It’s the one time of year when we go out and seek all the things we’ve loved about it in the past. If something happens twice, then it’s a tradition forever more. It’s a brilliant thing we do every year.
What kinds of things will the celebrities be championing?
I’m hoping I won’t know until they start championing them. I want to get surprises in there. Sometimes families have their own slightly mad traditions. Ours is that we always stand on the stairs and sing O Come, All Ye Faithful at teatime on Christmas Eve. Each year it gets a little bit more elaborate. One year, someone decided to light lots of candles and turn the lights off and by the following year that was the tradition! Will you be singing on the show?
Oh God, will I! We have a fabulous house band. I think it’s fair to say everyone will be singing.
How much do you love Christmas? I look forward to it from 2 January! I’m sort of elf-like in my adoration of the Yule. Everything about Christmas is to be cherished. What’s your top Christmas food? I absolutely love Brussels sprouts and I have a sprout recipe I would challenge anyone not to like!
Are you the chef on the big day? My wife and I tend to divide and conquer. I don’t know why it’s such hard work. We can make a decent lunch any day of the week without it having to be such a drama! What are your other jobs? I’m in charge of booze all through the Christmas period. Also filling log baskets and any kind of manual labour. Oh, and I’m in charge of smoked salmon!
Is it fun to be on TV at Christmas? It’s so exciting, partly because people of my generation would sit down with the TV magazine and draw circles round everything we’d like to watch. So much of the spirit of Christmas involves sitting together as a family around the TV.
Will you be making any
New Year’s resolutions?
I recently worked with my lovely friend Ben Miller, hosting Prince Charles’ 70th birthday event [ITV’S We Are Most Amused and Amazed] and I’d love to do more stuff with him. Also, I’m going to try to give up sugar. We keep chocolates in the fridge so they last longer but they’re even more delicious. I have to stop that or I’m going to be enormous… Best Christmas ever with alexander armstrong Is PREVIEWED on pages 44-45