Details are for life not just Christmas

TWAS the night before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..."

- Vanessa Feltz is away

The much-loved poem will be read tonight to my children at bedtime. Having set out scotch and mince pies for Father Christmas and milk and carrots for Prancer and Dancer, they'll lean eagerly into the words I recite to them each year.My kids are in their 20s now. The older they get, the more nostalgia grips them. There is reassurance in turning back. Amid the turmoil and gloom of now, the comfort and hope of then feel more compelling.

Dylan Thomas's beloved book A Child's Christmas In Wales, another family favourite, is a distillation of my late father's boyhood. It tells of mistletoe hung from front-parlour gas brackets, sherry and walnuts, and of Auntie Hannah lacing tea with rum because after all it was only once a year.