Victoria White: The ‘ghost’ of Christmas past is the childhood you long for or regret

‘There's something about Christmas,” goes the Barry’s Tea radio ad. “Something that creeps inside and finds the child in you.” This is the year I’m not going to bawl, I thought. Every year, I bawl. This year, it was over the ironing board.

I held out until I heard the voice of the little boy, from his black-and-white world of Christmas past, shouting, “Mam, Dad, look what Santa brought.” And then themature voice of the actor Donal McCann, the boy now grown, echoed the words from the Christmas of his childhood.