'Christmas is all about coming together - so I'm hosting 22 people!'

Presenter and activist Katie Piper shares her festive plans and how she makes sure Christmas is meaningful

- NIKKI ONAFUYE

Christmas starts early at Katie Piper’s house - very early. The Loose Women presenter and campaigner says it usually begins before most of us have even found the storage box with the baubles in.

“My daughter's a Christmas baby. She's born in December, so my Christmas starts in November,” Katie tells us with that familiar bright smile. “My trees are up, I’m sorting her birthday, I’ve ordered my turkey... I’m that annoying person around this time of year.”

At 42, Katie admits her life is chaotic, but it’s one that she loves. The star, who has two daughters with her husband Richie Sutton — Belle, 11, and Penelope, seven — says her Hampshire home is always lively, loud and full of love. And as Christmas rolls around, it becomes the festive HQ for the entire extended family.

“Me and my husband are from similar backgrounds - we don’t come from privilege. It was always about people coming together, not the presents,” she says. “But because we have that outlook, that means I’ve got to host, like, 22 people on Christmas Day.”

She adds, “Our house is the house where everyone comes. I actually make a Google live doc in the WhatsApp chats — Twiglets, chocolate buttons — and everyone has to bring their own little bag of bits. We cook the main dinner and then everyone else brings all the picky stuff.”

Katie insists she’s not uber-organised like this all year, though, saying “It’s just Christmas I go mad.”

The traditions she and Richie keep going are a reminder that, at heart, she’s still the little girl who grew up chasing Santa on a “really rubbish sleigh” through her childhood estate in Hampshire. “We did that every year until we were about 15,” she laughs. “It was brilliant.”