Christmas vacation is my favorite time of year and I love everything about it.

I can't understand people being cynical about it. It's what you make it, after all. I do understand people being lonely at this time of year but I'm very lucky to have my family around me on Christmas vacation.

It was a very special time when the kids were little, as every parent will know.

Seeing their stockings lined up and their excited faces waiting for Santa was the magic of the Christmas vacation. Waiting for them to go to sleep so we could creep into their bedrooms and fill Santa's sack sometimes kept us up late. We would always leave a slice of Christmas cake and a sherry for Santa and this had always disappeared by morning, remarkably.

The best thing about Christmas is family, the second best is the food!

I love my food at all times but Christmas dinner reigns supreme. I like a traditional meal of turkey with all the trimmings. It must have roast potatoes, mashed potatoes, onion gravy, chestnut stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and sprouts. A Christmas vacation isn't real until you've had Christmas pudding and brandy sauce. The leftovers are great too on the next day. When the dinner is finally digested, it's time for turkey sandwiches and warmed mince pies.

Presents are of course, very welcome.

I love to see them all wrapped up in bows and sitting expectantly under the tree. The Christmas vacation is just as enjoyable for giving them as receiving them. I love tracking down the exact thing for my loved ones and seeing their faces light up on Christmas morning. After dinner is usually our quiet time when we read our new books or play our new games. When our children were young, much of the Christmas vacation was spent building Lego sets or building up train tracks.

It's also a good time to relax and watch TV.

There's normally a few good movies on and it doesn't matter if we've all seen The Wizard of Oz twenty times. The big dinner usually makes me doze off for a bit anyway! And how could we forget Jimmy Stewert in It's a Wonderful Life?

The magic of Christmas has stayed with our children, now they are older, I'm glad to say.

I hope it always does and I can't wait to spoil my grandchildren on their Christmas vacation. We'll have to order a bigger dinner table then, and a bigger turkey.

For some, Christmas vacation means a real vacation, away from home.

Some take the whole family and visit a new city or country every year. For others, it is return to a Christmas vacation spot visited every year, as much a tradition to their Christmas vacation as Christmas dinner at home is to others. While my ideal Christmas is at home with family, seeing Christmas as it is celebrated somewhere else is a real eye opener. It can be a wonderful way to spend a Christmas vacation that you will remember the rest of your life.

No matter how you spend your Christmas vacation, remember what is most important.

Do not get caught up too much in the hype and commercialism of Christmas. If you do, you may end up looking more like Norman Rockwell's portrait of a storekeeper than one of his other wonderful Christmas family ideals.

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