Catherine O'Mahoney: Off Message

Not everyone’s Christmas is like the soft-focus Dunnes Stores advert

Nobody’s Christmas is like the ones you see on the telly

Christmas planning. For me, it starts in September. And no, I am not talking presents, I’m talking logistics.

For people like me – whose family is geographically scattered, and includes a rather complex tangle of interconnected people, of whom surprisingly few share a surname – Christmas is the kind of occasion that makes me wish I still had a Filofax.

There’s organising the sprog, first and foremost, who spends alternate Christmases with her ...