I intend to keep writing Christmas songs. There's still a lot more about Christmas that can be captured and feel like old-time Christmas. A lot of the traditions haven't been explained in song.

I don't want to see people decorating a house or digging a garden. As for guys like Jonathan Ross he got an award there last Christmas. What for? He doesn't sing dance or tell jokes does he?

There are very few people who have done more than one Christmas album.

I'm well-travelled so I can see places coming up. I went to St. Croix in the West Indies at Christmas and it had been hit by a really bad tornado. Values there have gone down but I guarantee they will be up again in eight years. So I'll get in now while it's cheap as chips.

People have nannies and big cars and they want to go to Maui for Christmas. When there are those kind of stakes involved people get ruthless.

When I was eight years old I got a dummy for Christmas and started teaching myself. I got books and records and sat in front of the bathroom mirror practising. I did my first show in the third grade and just kept going there was no reason to quit.

I think the people who are making Christmas-themed movies today feel that people are more cynical about Christmas. There's more of an edge.

I got a guitar when I was about 14 for a Christmas present and went from there.

He put a ring in the toe of a stocking. On Christmas Eve we opened our stockings and it was there at the bottom of the toe. Then he got down on his knees and he was shaking.

It's more like Christmas you know when you get a shot in that looks great and it's exactly what you want. It's a great feeling and there's nothing like it.

Christmas is taken very seriously in this household. I believe in Father Christmas and there's no way I'd do anything to undermine that belief.

It's hard and sometimes it's scary. It still amazes my mother. I went home for Christmas one year and there were fans all over the front lawn hoping to see me.

And of course there's so much music in and around our family. I had a piano during Christmas because it's obviously useful through the season. There are so many people songwriters who are around.

What I'm not saying is that all government spending is bad. It's not - far far from it but there is no free lunch as a former colleague of mine used to say. There is no public tooth fairy. Father Christmas does not work on the Treasury staff this year. You can never bail someone out of trouble without putting someone else into trouble.

When I was five my parents bought me a ukulele for Christmas. I quickly learned how to play it with my father's guidance. Thereafter my father regularly taught me all the good old fashioned songs.

I don't know of too many double Christmas albums so it is something that's new and hopefully will be fun and there's plenty of stuff out there to cut.

There's been a concerted effort to steal Christmas.