How do you celebrate holidays?

Any particular holiday? All of them? Well, I guess we’ll look at what are historically two of the UK’s biggest holidays: Easter and Christmas.

As a kid, Easter was about Easter Eggs. Big, delicious, chocolatey Easter Eggs. As an adult, not much has changed! Easter Sunday also happens to be one of only two days where most workplaces are required to close, so these days, Easter is all about a day off too!

Christmas is a bigger occasion for me. As a kid, there was the magic of Santa, big family gatherings, and lots of good food. As an adult, the presents are less important to me, and it’s all about the family gatherings. As a kid, the gatherings were of my aunts and uncles and cousins, and now we all have families of our own, so those sorts of gathering are less common, especially around Christmas. In terms of celebrating the festive season, it’s about good company, the excitement of the build-up to the big day, and decadent indulgence in food and drink! There may also be a fair bit of Christmas music on offer, which, for my sins, I do rather enjoy!

Food is a big part of Christmas Day, and I grew up with a traditional Christmas turkey (along with all the trimmings). Turkey is nice, but it can be a little dry. My parents would sometimes prepare a joint of beef to go alongside it, and in my house, we (well, me, being the only carnivore in the house) tend to get a three-or-four-bird roast. This rather unusual creation tends to be a turkey, stuffed with a chicken, stuffed with a duck, or some such combo. Right in the middle is normally stuffing. I’m getting a little hungry as I type.

A joint of beef or lamb also works for me, and I can get other meals out of it. Then there’s the pigs in blankets (mini sausages wrapped in bacon), the stuffing, brussel sprouts (believe it or not, some people don’t like these), and then for pudding, Christmas Pudding and mince pies. Yup, definitely hungry.

I see Christmas as a warm, loving occasion. It’s a chance to get together with loved ones, and to be generous towards them. What can be better than that?