I remember times going to the Christmas Carol concert while not speaking to my mother, or having to cook Christmas dinner as a teenager because she took to her bed with the stress of it all.

My little brother regularly has spectacular festive hangovers and the entrance of my elder brother and his family over from Stockholm always provides some kind of dramatic incident.

And now there's the excitement of a whole new side of the family, will my brother-in-law make it over from America? Will I get on with his new girlfriend? Will my mother and father-in-law insist on doing all of the cooking and cleaning, leaving me with a guilty delight?

I love Christmas and embrace it in all its multi-faceted tumult of emotions.

I am childishly excited by seeing what people think of the gifts I have given them (although I still haven't bought my husband's or my dad's) and I am simultaneously dreading and looking forward to all of the family merry-making which will ensue between our house, my parents' house and my in-laws' house.

Then there's that feeling of excitement and expectation in the air and it's the one time of the year you're allowed to feel unashamedly sentimental. That condensing of emotion from seeing so much of family and friends really puts you on a rollercoaster.

I will cry. I shall be missing my Swedish niece, Amanda, and nephew, Joseph, along with my extended Swedish relations, and my grandparents and aunties and uncles.

On Christmas Eve I normally weep at some kind of sentimental advert or Christmas film, and will continue
to do so for most of the festive season.

I will feel shattered and tipsy at some point.

I will sing carols, which despite being a non-believer, I really love.

And I will delight in giving my two-year-old son his stocking (which filled as it is with "It's £1" gifts he will probably love more than the train set I actually spent money on).

I shall be drinking sherry and Irish whiskey cream along with some bubbly for breakfast (I'm not driving) and eating some M&S version of what vegetarians should eat instead of turkey or game on Christmas Day.

I don't think you'll ever find me isolated on a beach, reading a quiet novel and feeling smug that I've somehow "escaped" Christmas for the year.

Nope, I'll be forever insisting people wear their hats out of their crackers and pushing for a game of charades.

I wish everyone a very Happy Christmas and health and prosperity in the New Year.

Now excuse me while I sob over Toy Story...