Sally Lindsay: ‘This is probably the last year my twins are young enough to believe in Santa!’

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s fair to say Sally Lindsay is excited, especially as she’s aware time is running out for her nine-year-old twin sons Louie and Victor when it comes to believing in the magic of it all.

The 46-year-old actress, who recently starred in the hit Channel 5 drama Cold Call, reveals she doesn’t get to spend much time with her drummer husband Steve White throughout the year, as they’re always off working in different parts of the country.

'It’s never too early to start thinking about Christmas when you’ve got children!'

In October, I got so excited because we’ve always had an open fireplace in the back room that ‘Santa comes down’. We couldn’t use it for years because of the children, so it’s just been empty and we stuck a candle in it. But last month, we had it cleaned and this Christmas we’re going to have an open fire.

'When you’re young, you’re just sort of partied out from all the drinking'

I remember spending Christmas Day hungover for most of my 20s, thinking ‘When’s this going to end?’ But now it’s really lovely.

'I love decorating the house with the boys'

We always put a film on, and they place their baubles at the bottom of the tree, so I then have to wait until they go to bed to share them out around the rest of the tree. We also have ‘Elf’ day, where we all sit with elf hats on, watch Elf and eat sweets. And every Christmas Eve we watch A Christmas Carol before they go to bed – it’s the best story ever written.

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'What’s really nice is getting presents off the kids that they make at school'

I know it sounds trite, but I love getting that stuff because I know it’s for such a finite time. But I also enjoy buying them gifts and pretending it’s from Father Christmas.

'This is probably the last year the twins are young enough to believe in Santa, they’re nine now'

They’re very bright and have started asking, and I’m obviously so hard-faced about it, like, ‘Yeah, why are you asking?’ It’s bad lying to your kids, isn’t it? But I think it just sort of happens naturally that they start to not believe. My stepkids are 26 and 23, and we still say, ‘He’s been!’ and they go with it!

'Because we’ve got loads of friends in panto, our Christmas is always planned around which pantos we’re going to go and see, which the boys adore'

They feel short-changed if they’ve not seen at least three pantos in a year and been on stage. They don’t realise how lucky they are.

'My engagement ring was my best Christmas present'

I got it on Christmas morning and I was so glad I hadn’t bought Steve something rubbish like drumsticks or bicycle clips! For some reason, I’d got him a really expensive coat that I knew he wanted. I’d never buy that now with kids, but that was back in the day, when we could actually spend some money on ourselves! I was sort of expecting it, but also I wasn’t because I really didn’t think he was into marriage.

'It took us 10 years to get married and that was after four of being engaged'

We had four kids by then, and we only really did it because we thought it would be a laugh. Although the ring was too big and it fell off. I remember wearing it on Mastermind with a bit of tin foil wrapped around it to keep it on.

'This is how boring we are now. Steve’s getting his Rolex watch fixed for Christmas because it’s actually quite expensive – so rock and roll!'

Apparently it’s meant to be serviced every five years and he’s had it for 20 years, so the bill came in and I said ‘that’s your Christmas present’. Steve is actually really brilliant at buying presents, I’ll mention something and six months later, he’ll buy it!

'We’ve been together for 16 years. I absolutely adore him, he’s my best friend'

I tell him everything, we make decisions together, we bring the kids up together, but we also have quite a bit of time apart. I know it’s bad, but I do think that’s a good thing because it means we miss each other and miss being together as a family. And he’s ace, I picked a good’un!

Cold Call is available to watch on Channel 5 On Demand