‘I will cook my Christmas dinner in the pub kitchen’

Liz Fletcher, 47, runs the Devon & Cornwall Inn in Millbrook, Cornwall. The mum-of-two, from Devon, has worked the last five Christmases in her pub and B&B. This Christmas, my seven-year-old son, William, is at his dad’s and my 16-year-old son, George, won’t surface until lunchtime, so I’ll be up early getting breakfast ready for all our B&B guests. We’re fully booked with five rooms. I’ll open the doors to the pub at midday and while we don’t serve food, we’re always packed. I buy all my regulars a drink – they joke that they have to wait all year for me to get them one! We have a real mix of people who come in – groups of friends, families, people who use it as an excuse to get out from under the feet of the designated cooks.

I live 100 yards down the road and I’ll cook my Christmas dinner in the pub kitchen so I can keep an eye on it while I’m working.

I give all our staff Christmas Day off, so it’s just me – and I rope in my partner, Garry, too. The lights are twinkling, the tree is up, the Christmas songs are playing and it’s a lovely atmosphere. We close at 3.45pm and I’ll carry my Christmas dinner up the road to celebrate with George.

I sometimes speak to friends who work in offices, who have a week or two off at Christmas, and while I’m always a bit envious, once we get into the festive swing in the pub, I soon get carried away.

Christmas is exhausting, though. I don’t get home on Christmas Eve until around 1.30am so I’m shattered. But I wouldn’t change it for anything.

‘I buy all my regulars a drink’