Well-known figures share their favourite Christmas traditions and nostalgic memories

This special time of year is all about building traditions for our families to enjoy and also to pass on to the next generation. But what makes the season special is different for everyone, so we asked some well-known people about their earliest and favourite Christmas memories

Bikes, keyboards, selection boxes — we hear about wonderful and tragic Christmas memories. File photo.

Emma Heatherington

• Emma Heatherington, bestselling author of Every Christmas Eve, lives in Tyrone with her fiancé Jim McKee. They have a blended family of five — Jordyn (29), Jade (24), Dualta (24), Adam (23) and Sonny (11) — and she says she loves making new memories to add to her own childhood ones.

“My earliest Christmas memory is when Santa brought me a yellow and red bicycle with the number 5 on the front which I thought was very cool as I wasn’t going to be five for another few months. However, he hadn’t fixed the stabilisers so when I jumped onto the bike with great excitement, I went sideways off it and cut the palm of my hand. But I really loved the bike.

"Another early memory is when I got a tiny white Casio keyboard, which heightened my love of songwriting from a very young age. And, I remember the dining table was taken into the living room on Christmas Day which made dinner feel very exciting.

"But one of the strongest memories was the first Christmas without our mother when we lost her very suddenly. As the eldest of six children, I was tasked with shopping for my younger siblings. Mummy would always lay out our gifts on Christmas Eve, so that year I helped my dad do the same thing. 

"We stood back to admire our efforts, then realised there was nothing for me. I brushed it off, but it was a big sign that things would never be the same and that I’d grown up very fast in a short time.

"That afternoon, we went to our aunt Eithna’s house where she cooked for her husband and six children, and all of us, keeping a smile on her face despite the pain of losing her youngest sister so cruelly. I remember her peeling vegetables with tears running down her cheeks — but she helped a very tough time feel a little bit easier and I’ll never forget it.”

Máire Treasa Ni Dhubhghaill

• Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill, RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta presenter , lives in Connemara with her husband John and their two daughters, Aela (7) and Luisne (4). She says Christmas is her favourite time of year and she has many happy memories from throughout her childhood.

“I come from a big family with four brothers and one sister, so just being at home at Christmas is special. We go carol-singing every Christmas Eve to raise money for charity, so I love that we’re still keeping that tradition going — and myself and my brother Eoin brave the elements by going for a swim on Christmas Day as well. 

Máire Treasa Ní Dhubhghaill (right) with Noreen D'Arcy (left) and Fintan Walsh (centre) at the launch of TG4’s new Autumn schedule. 'Christmas for me is all about family and cherishing the time we have together.' Photo: Gerard McCarthy

"When we were younger there was such excitement after mass to get home and hang our stockings, leave food out for Rudolf and Daidí na Nollag and then we all had to get up together the next morning, so we’d queue up youngest to oldest at the kitchen door, filled with excitement to see what Santaí had brought.

"Then it was all about playing with our toys together, having selection boxes with breakfast, showing Mamó and Nana what Santaí had brought and modelling our new outfits. 

Christmas for me is all about family and cherishing the time we have together. Life is so busy for everyone so to have a few days filled with excitement where we’re all at home, enjoying each other’s company is the most important thing.”

Dave Moore

• Dave Moore lives in Portmarnock, with his wife, artist Tracy Sheridan, and their four children - Andrew (16), Sam (13), and twins Anna and Nina (11). The Today FM presenter, who is also a podcast host, songwriter and music producer, has just released a new book, Dave’s Bad Jokes 2, a collection of jokes listeners have sent in to the show, and is undoubtedly busy, so really enjoys Christmas and has many happy memories of the occasion.

“I remember being in my Nana Peg and Grandfather Mick’s house in Limerick one Christmas and being blown away that Santa was able to find us so far from our own house and give us all of our presents — I got a Casio Keyboard that year that I still have today. Magical.

"But, my strongest Christmas memory is a very recent one. We have four kids, the two boys came first a couple of years apart and then, on December 19, 2014, our twin girls arrived. 

"I remember sitting in our living room on Christmas morning, in absolute awe of my wife and looking at the four kids, us two and our dog, Lorna, and just feeling so full of love and gratitude. That moment stays with me. It was just so pure.

"It’s so important to make memories for yourself and your loved ones. If I can steal a quote from my friend, Damo, “Bank memories, not cash”. I couldn’t agree more. Experiences count for so much more than things.”

Leona Forde

• Children’s author Leona Forde lives in Bandon with her husband Tonay and their four children, Asha (15), Rían (13), Isaac (10) and Indy (6). She has just released her latest book, Milly McCarthy and the St Patrick’s Day Pandemonium and has very fond memories of Christmas.

“One of my earliest Christmas memories is when I was about seven, going to visit Santa upstairs in Cash’s Store on Patrick’s Street in Cork. My Mam dressed myself and my three sisters in winter Duffle coats, with pristine white bobby socks and matching hair as we were having our photograph taken. 

"I was excited and nervous and when Santa asked what I wanted, I blurted out ‘a Wendy house’, which was the first time I had ever mentioned it to anyone. After the visit we were bought to Mandy’s on Daunt Square for a burger, which was a huge treat for us.

"I remember my mam asking all about the Wendy house and I’m happy to say that I got it that year, it was all set up in our front room beside the tree on Christmas morning and I happily spent the entire day inside it, forcing my sisters to knock first if they wanted to come in too. 

"The memory makes me feel happy and reminds me of just how magical everything feels at Christmas.”

JP McMahon

• Unsurprisingly for restaurateur, chef, and author, JP McMahon, his most prominent Christmas memories are of food but he is still nostalgic about the magic the season held for him as a child.

“Christmas was the most anticipated time of the year — from the feast itself to turkey soup, turkey-and-cheese toasties, boxes of chocolates, tins of biscuits, and an endless run of films on TV — it was the one time of year that felt entirely, unshakeably like family time.

"We seemed hermetically sealed off from the outside world. There wasn’t a shop open, so the streets were strangely silent. And apart from mass on Christmas morning, we never left the house.

Chefs JP McMahon (left) and Derry Clarke. File picture: Brian McEvoy

"There were six of us kids, so we had no need for anyone else. We were allowed only our ‘Santa’ present before mass and the sitting-room door stayed firmly locked until after, which made it all the more irresistible. My brothers would press their shoulders against it, whispering ‘please door open’ as if the house itself might surrender the treasure behind it.

"Once, it actually did, as if by enchantment — and my younger brother tumbled straight into a pile of presents. To this day, I’ve no idea how my parents managed to turn the key. Maybe we were distracted, lost in the pure magic of Christmas. Or maybe, just for that second the magic was real.

“These days Christmas is a busier affair, it’s altogether a different thing and I long for those warm days by the fire, when all the cares in the world amounted to next to nothing, or nothing much to worry about.”