At six years old, Kate Ritchie vividly remembers gazing into the night sky on Christmas Eve, looking hard for Santa’s arrival.
To her delight, she spotted a red glow – it was Rudolph’s nose, she delightedly told her mother.
Today she is a mother herself to six-year-old Mae and this is just one of many childhood traditions the duo will share this year and for more to come.
“Seeing the simple pleasures and joys of Christmas though your children’s eyes is magical,” she says.
And that includes the annual Christmas concert – now put on by Mae and her six cousins.
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“I was the bossy eldest of four and I would direct and produce our Christmas concerts,” the Nova Drive host laughs. “If my younger siblings didn’t do as they were told I would get them to sign a Christmas contract. That’s what happens when you’ve been working in the industry since you were eight years old!”
The former Home and Away star enjoys Christmas with her daughter, Mae.
Luckily for the Ritchie’s, the whole family are based in NSW so nobody will be missing on December 25.
It’s a blessing that Kate, 42, keenly appreciates and one that sustained her through the rollercoaster year that was 2020.
Mae has continued Kate’s Christmas tradition.
(Instagram)“If anything good has come, it’s that we’ve reassessed our priorities and part of that has been reconnecting with family and a reinvigorated sense of community,” she says.
“All I really wish for in 2021 is good health for my mum and dad.”
Read more in the Christmas issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly, on sale now.
