Parents, eh? What are they like? It’s as if the whole reason they raise you is to joke at your expense, make your life difficult and remind you they won’t be around forever. So when Mum died in 2009 during my last weeks of university thanks to the Big C, it was just so her. A larger than life character, she had been the orchestrator when it came to making Christmas special. After she’d gone, our desire for a traditional family Christmas flatlined too.