This Morning stars reflect on Christmas

For the fifth year running, ITV’s This Morning will air a Christmas Day special packed with festive fun and cheer…

As well as the festive offering the long-running magazine series will be keeping viewers company in the run up to the new year, the show will also air on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31st December 2024.

“Join Ben Shephard, Cat Deeley, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary on This Morning on Christmas Day from 10am on ITV1, ITVX, STV and the STV Player” – ITV

As This Morning’s Ben Shephard, Cat Deeley, Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary prepare for this year’s Christmas Day show, the hosts share their favourite festive traditions and what else they have planned for the 2024 holiday season.

What kicks off the Christmas season for you usually? When do you start feeling festive? 

Ben Shephard: Christmas is the most exciting time, I love it. We put up the decorations quite late at home but the lovely thing is that the studios here start getting decorated very early in December and that is when I really start thinking that Christmas is just around the corner.

Cat Deeley: It’s normally decorating the Christmas tree, with Michael Buble or Frank Sinatra on the stereo and a glass of champagne! 

Alison Hammond: I think as soon as we start doing mince pies on This Morning – that’s usually my cue to go home that night and get the tree out and get my trimmings up!

Dermot O’Leary: Yes, as soon as all the trees go up in the studio for me. Our art department does such a good job, so that’s usually the time for me. 

What are your earliest Christmas memories as a child? 

Ben Shephard: My birthday is just a couple of weeks before Christmas, so December is always a really exciting month anyway. The couple of weeks before Christmas would be the build up to my birthday and then fly into Christmas after that. So, I would get excited about my birthday first and then you’d have two weeks of pre-Christmas warm up! 

Cat Deeley: My earliest memories of Christmas are always waking up super early! As a little girl, I remember waking up at 3am and going into my mum and dad asking, ‘Has Santa been?’ and they’d try and get me to go back to sleep for a bit. They’d always say, ‘Don’t wake up your brother whatever you do!’. They’d make me wait until about 6am but that was probably the latest they could ever manage and then I’d race downstairs and usually squeal with delight. 

Dermot O’Leary: I still remember Father Christmas getting me a toy car garage, I was about five. I remember playing with my dad in London, when we went to spend Christmas with my Auntie Ange. I also remember us having a snowball fight! I’ve got a picture of it, it was a white Christmas and it was great.

Alison Hammond: My earliest memory is of my mum telling me that she didn’t think Santa could afford to get me a BMX bike and I said, ‘It’s ok mum’… but then on Christmas day, Santa, I don’t know how he did it but he got me a BMX! It was the best day ever. I must have definitely been on the good list.

Do you and your family have any festive traditions? 

Alison Hammond: Anyone that’s staying with me at Christmas gets matching pyjamas!

Dermot O’Leary: My family used to always do a big coastal walk on Boxing Day and a paddle in the sea, and now that’s what we do if we’re hosting, we’ll do similar – even go for a swim in the sea if we can!

Ben Shephard: I think there’s going to be 26 family members together this year and our traditions are; Christmas carols on the 23rd of December in the pub, there’s Christmas carols on Christmas Eve in a different pub in the village and then we go to Midnight Mass. There tends to be quite a lot of celebration in pubs and with family! We try to get together as much as we can. Lots of families do a year on, year off, with in-laws and what have you, but this year everybody wanted to be together and that’s ace. 

Cat Deeley: My mum usually cooks the turkey the night before so, it’s actually lovely because you can usually smell it roasting from Christmas Eve. We’ll also usually always have left-over turkey sandwiches on Christmas Day night too! 

Describe a typical Christmas Day for you?

Cat Deeley: Our usual Christmas Day involves my mum’s turkey and stuffing but we usually get up early because my boys are six and eight. So, they’re true believers in the magic of Christmas and obviously very, very excited. They’ll get up and open any Christmas presents in a ‘ginormously’ enthusiastic Christmas whirlwind. Then we’ll usually have scrambled eggs, some smoked salmon and coffee for the grown ups, before building [any toys]. We do all of that and then I usually help mum with Christmas dinner. 

Ben Shephard: We’re not up too early as the boys are late teens now – I think Annie really misses them storming in because Santa’s been though! On Christmas morning, we might go for a swim in the sea and then we’ll have a lovely, big breakfast all together as a family. Probably with a few glasses of champagne! 

Alison Hammond: I am hosting Christmas this year for the first time in my new house, but everyone’s got a job to do! My sister’s doing the turkey, my nephew is doing the lamb, I’ll do all the veg, the gravy and I might do a ham too… There’s a Christmas group chat so we know what everyone’s doing and can make sure there’s enough. 

Dermot O’Leary: We have a bit of an open house for family to come over. I love cooking for about two weeks straight before Christmas day! 

What has been your 2024 highlight? 

Ben Shephard: My 2024 highlight is just getting to know Cat and working alongside somebody who has just been joyous, fun, smart and hilarious. The more we work together, the more I’m learning about her and the more we’re getting to know each other, which has just been really exciting. 

I love working with people that I can learn from. The fantastic thing about the This Morning team is that everyone’s so passionate and energetic about what they do. I just feel like every day we’re learning, and having fun whilst we do it, and that’s really inspiring – Cat’s at the heart of that.

Cat Deeley: Starting the show is my highlight. It was all such a whirlwind, flying back from America, landing and then we went live on TV the next day! But, that’s what made it so exciting and so fun. Getting to know Ben too – he’s just such a smashing chap. I’m lucky enough to go to work every day with someone I absolutely adore, so that’s my highlight.  

Alison Hammond: I do smile when I look back at this year – I had the April Fools prank played on me and I also had to do a Bush Tucker trial recently! The Halloween show was great , we really enjoyed that, and it’s been so lovely having Buddy [our autism assistance dog in training] this year and watching him grow. He’s grown so much and he’s just part of the family now.

Dermot O’Leary: Buddy is such a sweet dog. But we’ve enjoyed so many interviews this year too – Billy Bob Thornton was so lovely and chatting to Sir Chris Hoy and his wife were just so brilliant too. 

This Morning airs weekdays from 10am on ITV1, STV, STV Player and ITVX