Rachel Beck
What do you love about Christmas?
I love the attitude of giving, stopping and smelling the roses, being with family, and the feelings of gratitude and joy that surround us at this time of the year.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
My daughters – and my mother who helps me a lot during the year.
What’s the best present you’ve ever received?
It sounds very practical, but a coffee machine. I use it almost every day.
What is your favourite Christmas carol?
‘O Holy Night’. It’s so special I won’t sing it. I could never do it justice.
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
Just being in Alstonville with my whole family, who live that way, is a total joy for me every year. And juicy mangoes!
Todd McKenney
What do you love about Christmas?
Usually, I say it’s a time to slow down and gather with family and friends, but this year it’s a time to get busy again and reboot after a long break.
Carols in the Domain is always a very welcomed event in our calendar, but this year it is even more gratefully appreciated by us and the audience, and everyone involved.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
I love the opportunity to buy gifts of love and gratitude for all of my family, friends and my beautiful greyhounds, Joey and Nancye Hayes!
What’s the best present you’ve ever received?
Mum buying me lunch at a beautiful hotel on the Gold Coast for their famous seafood buffet! No gifts that year and no stress over who would hold the lunch. We all decided to simply be together and share a fantastic meal, and nobody had to wash up!
Leo Sayer
What do you love about Christmas?
That everybody, just for a precious moment, puts aside all their prejudices, personal and political agendas, and general antipathy to come together in a joyous celebration.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
I love giving gifts, so I suppose that’d be everyone I can think of!
If you could invite one famous person to Christmas lunch, who would you invite?
Santa Claus. I want to know the secret of flying…
What is your favourite Christmas carol?
When I was a kid, it was always ‘Silent Night’.
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
Contacting friends and family from all over the world. These days it must be by Zoom.
Mark Vincent
What do you love about Christmas?
What I love about Christmas is seeing all my family together getting into the Christmas spirit.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
My son, Matteo, who was born in July this year. He has been the best Christmas present of all.
What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?
The best Christmas present I’ve ever received is my beautiful wife, Stephanie. I met my wife in mid-November, eight years ago. I’ve been in love ever since.
If you could invite one famous person to Christmas lunch, who would you invite?
I would have to say Andrea Bocelli. He truly is my inspiration and somebody I’ve admired since I was 6 years old.
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
My favourite Christmas tradition is eating my Nonna’s beautiful food. Her food just gets better.
Hugh Sheridan
What do you love about Christmas?
I think it’s a time when everyone can enjoy the possibility of magic in life. Maybe we find that through children. As I get older, I like to spark the remembrance of Christmas magic in children, adults and myself.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
With a family as big as mine, we do a Kris Kringle, so I never know who I am going to get … but I love buying gifts.
What’s the best present you’ve ever received?
One of my first Christmases by myself in Los Angeles, I found a kitten on the street. It was 4 weeks old and I rescued her, and we spent a special Christmas together. That was the best present ever.
If you could invite one famous person to Christmas lunch, who would you invite?
Jesus.
What’s your favourite Christmas carol?
‘How To Make Gravy’ by Paul Kelly.
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
My family usually do a Christmas album, where everyone chooses one song to represent the year they’ve had.
Robbie Williams
What do you love about Christmas?
Christmas for me is a time to get together with family and friends.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
Watching the kids, especially my older two, open their presents on Christmas Day is special.
What’s the best Christmas present you’ve ever received?
I remember receiving a BMX bike when I was about 10.
If you could invite one famous person to Christmas lunch, who would you invite?
I would invite Ryan Reynolds – I have a man crush on him.
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
When I had my first Christmas in LA, we made out we had the British tradition ‘Breaking the Bread’, where somebody karate-chopped a baguette before dinner. So now, our LA friends believe that’s a tradition.
Penny McNamee
What do you love about Christmas?
The music! As soon as December 1 hits, Michael Buble and Mariah Carey get a solid run on Spotify.
Who is your favourite person to buy a present for?
I love buying presents for my son, Jack. Being 5, he talks a lot about what Santa might bring him for Christmas!
What’s the best present you’ve ever received?
My husband and I lived in New York for several years, and the very first year we were there it began snowing on Christmas Eve. So, naturally, we ran outside in our pyjamas!
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
Every Christmas, Mum would rent Meet Me In St. Louis and we would all watch it together. I now make my husband watch it with me on Christmas Eve (Sorry, Matt!).
Samantha Jade
What do you love about Christmas?
I love being with my family, decorating the Christmas tree and singing carols.
Who are your favourite people to buy presents for?
My brothers’ girlfriends, because they love Christmas as much as I do.
What’s the best present you’ve ever received?
A flight home to Perth! When I was living in the US, my mum and dad surprised me and flew me back.
If you could invite one famous person to Christmas lunch, who would you invite?
Beyónce – always!
What is your favourite Christmas carol?
‘O Holy Night’! It’s such a special song to me. The feeling encapsulates Christmas to me.
What’s the Christmas tradition you always look forward to?
Unwrapping the presents under the tree with my family, while my dad video tapes it all.
Woolworths Carols in the Domain will be held in the Aware Super Theatre, Sydney, and will be broadcast on Channel Seven and streamed on 7plus Wednesday, December 23 at 7.30pm.
For more, pick up the latest issue of New Idea. On sale now!
