As a child, silent nights were rare at my home in Churchtown in Dublin over Christmas. My mother Maureen was a singer in the Royalettes and the Rockettes at the Theatre Royal on Hawkins Street in Dublin during the late 1940s and 1950s.
So, in between popping the turkey in the oven, helping us children write our letters to Santa and decorating the tree, she would sing around the house.
Judy Garland s Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, from the movie Meet Me in St Louis was a particular favourite of hers - and ours.
She would insist my little sister Marina and I dance around the tree, to Brenda Lee s Rockin Around The Christmas Tree. It was non-negotiable. And why would you want to negotiate? Our Yuletide was a time of visions of silver bells ringing and sugar plums dancing in our imaginations and, for me, great music.