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December 2019 | REDONLINE.CO.UKI
love Christmas, but that wasn’t always so.
I adored the sights: fairy lights, trees and brightly
decorated shop windows, and the smells: roasting
chestnuts, figgy puddings and candles. But, as
someone born on 25th December, I remember,
as a child, feeling that Christmas symbolised
the takeover of my birthday.
Unlike most others, there was never one day in the year
when I felt special – Christmas saw to that. Stores selling
cards could only cope with so much back then, so even
though my mother always bought my birthday card in
November, before Christmas officially got underway
(remember those days?), all my other cards were Christmas
ones with ‘and Happy Birthday’ scribbled on them.
My parents, both immigrants and short on money,
used the day to entertain their friends. There was almost
no other family. A lively lunch with much joking and
chat, and virtually no presents. And, for me, even after
Christmas, there was no birthday cake, no schoolmates
over. Occasionally, I got a pound note from one of my
parents’ friends who knew what the day meant to me,
and that was that. I don’t blame them at all. They’d been
through a lot. Their memories of Christmas could only
have been heartbreaking; their own parents having
perished in the Holocaust.
In the midst of this noisy, very continental throng,
everything stopped for the Queen’s speech. Everyone
crowded round either our radio or, later, our tiny
black-and-white TV bought in anticipation of the
coronation in 1953. I did get a new dress to watch that.
I’ve never been sure if my parents thought that on this
special day Her Majesty could see me.
Christmas changes completely once you have your own
children. More than anything, you want to give them all
the happy memories you can. While still in her cot, my
daughter, Claudia [Winkleman], had the teeniest stocking
with a matching teddy that I bought in a very expensive
boutique in Paris during Fashion Week.
Eve
Pollard
FROM THE QUEEN’S SPEECH AND BUYING TEDDIES
FOR HER DAUGHTER CLAUDIA WINKLEMAN’S STOCKING
TO HER OWN BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS, EVE POLLARD
REVEALS WHAT THE HOLIDAY SEASON MEANS TO HER
Later on, Christmas in our house became even
happier. My stepchildren came to stay and, on Christmas
mornings, we all went to a crowded Guyanese breakfast
with friends and their families, then we staggered home
for the traditional lunch and were joined by my
ex-husband and his family. Joyful times!
After they left, we all madly cleared away and prepared
ourselves for an army of waifs and single strays. Not
strangers, but journalists. By this time, both my husband,
Nick, and I were editors of national newspapers. We knew
many journalists who had to go to work on Boxing Day
and transport into central London was difficult. They all
came for supper. How we did it I will never know! How
I cooked for them all is even stranger.Now I would say I have the perfect Christmas. Yes,
I am a million years old, but I also have grandchildren.
Now I really can weave a magic spell. Trips to see Father
Christmas and going to the theatre are part of the whole
thing. Not only that, but we’re lucky enough to have
several lovely in-laws, who all want to be with their
children and grandchildren. So we all get together.
There’s no way I can fit everyone around our table, not
to mention do the cooking for them all, so we rent a room
in a hotel and the whole family comes along. It’s somewhere
quiet and private, where others do the heavy lifting.
At last, I don’t have to cut out those articles that say,
‘Something new to do with kale at Christmas’. I can just
enjoy it all. There are speeches, too – even the five-year-old
made one two years ago. As to having a birthday at
Christmas, with a bit of luck, no one will notice!‘WE PREPARED FOR
AN ARMY OF WAIFS
AND SINGLE STRAYS’
For Eve Pollard,
25th December
wasn’t always the
most wonderful
time of the year.