The Christmas I'd rather forget Writers on the exotic, bizarre and just plain difficult Christmases they've had to negotiate over the years
The Christmas I realised that I wasn’t going to be Jesus the second Pippa Evans As a teenager, I thought helping at a homeless shelter would help me polish my halo, says comedian Pippa Evans
You can’t escape Christmas – not even with a Caribbean holiday Fay Schopen I had a miserable time, losing repeatedly at Scrabble – and ending up with pubic lice, says freelance journalist Fay Schopen
The school Christmas disco was a training ground for life David Barnett
Santa was always super-scary – but Christmas without him was awful Stefanie Preissner
The first Christmas after my father’s death, I took my grief out on a pavlova Jean Hannah Edelstein My mother and I had to survive the festivities somehow, says New York-based writer Jean Hannah Edelstein
It was my turn, dammit. No matter what, we’d spend Christmas with my folks Sam Leith The long drive, the cold pork, the room full of older strangers … this is where my stubbornness had led us, writes Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator
Tears, heartbreak and a missing goose: my darkest winter solstice of all Katy Guest Getting dumped wasn’t the best preparation for my annual midwinter party, says Katy Guest
We flew to New York to create a Home Alone Christmas. Careful what you wish for Phoebe-Jane Boyd Only one good thing came out of my family’s quest to ape the McCallisters, says writer Phoebe-Jane Boyd
