'Christmas is a time for family and a time for joy' - Millie Walsh

What’s your favourite Christmas film or song?

I love the hymns, I look forward to them at Midnight Mass. Silent Night – that is Christmas.

Who cooks Christmas dinner in your house and what’s your favourite part?

The wife – Kathleen. She cooks me Christmas dinner every year and we all sit down together at half past five. That’s my favourite part. Christmas is a time for family and a time for joy.

Do you have any Christmas family traditions?

Not really, I just love the joy of Christmas. Christmas for me now can be hard because I work, but I love to see people happy. Being honest, I do like the week after, it’s less crazy and you can enjoy it more.

What’s your best Christmas memory?

My best Christmas memory is my youth. Santa Claus, we all believed until we were 13, and that time there wouldn’t be many airplanes in the sky, and if we saw a plane in October, we were waving up thinking it was Santy. We had fantastic parents, I mean people cannot be grateful enough for their parents. There was nine of us reared on nothing, but Santy left presents for us all in 49 Green Road, Mullingar. Best town in Ireland! And the capital of Westmeath!

How do you spend Christmas afternoon?

I open every Christmas morning at half six and I close at 3 o’clock, and I’m usually at home and sitting down for my Christmas dinner at half five. People like you being open, and that’s the reason our dinner is always late.

Are you an organised shopper, or a Christmas Eve one?

I’m a great believer in vouchers. We do the Maxol vouchers here, and the beauty of the Maxol voucher is of course they can be changed at ‘Millies’! Or any Maxol station. The Chamber of Commerce Mullingar is absolutely fantastic. I’m involved with them this year, and they have the Chamber vouchers, and you can use the gift voucher in outlets from Mullingar to Ballynacargy.