Christmas Q&A - Conor Moore

What are your favourite Christmas film and song?

My favourite song is Fairy Tale of New York by The Pogues, just from living in New York, it gets played in every bar all day long. For me, it’s a real Christmas in New York song.

I don’t watch many films but growing up, Miracle on 34th Street was my favourite Christmas film. That made me feel it was really Christmas.

Who cooks dinner in your house and what’s your favourite part?

My mother usually cooks dinner. It’s the traditional turkey and ham and it is always delicious. I suppose for everybody, their mother’s Christmas dinner is delicious. It’s the stuffing for me, definitely. I try to stay away from it all year round so that on that one day a year I love it.

Do you have any family traditions?

We have our dinner and then we go out to my mam’s family home, Tuites. We will go out there this year and we’ll have to listen to my cousin Tom talk about how The Downs got to the Leinster final and Shamrocks got nowhere this year. This year will be tough, but it is always good craic out there with them.

We’ll leave there and then we head to a cousin’s houses for a Moore get-together, where we talk politics and football. It could got either way at that stage (laughs), but it’s all in good spirit, though.

On St Stephen’s Day we have the Yopra Cup. We pick a couple of charities to raise money for. We raised over €20,000 last year. There is a big push on again this year. The captains are Niall Hardiman and my brother Dean. The two boys are doing huge work at the minute. We will have a game down at Shamrocks around 11 o’clock. It’s a day of craic and we raise a bit of money as well for some good causes.

Do you have a standout Christmas memory?

I wouldn’t have a particular year, but when I think of Christmas when I was younger I’d associate it with my granny and granddad Moore. When they were alive they were the focal point of the family. Every Christmas was out there. We’d sneak a bit of drink when we were 14 or 15 and my granddad would come down and take it off us (laughs). They are my best memories. The craic we would have on Christmas night when everyone would get together.

It’s a Land Commission house. It was nice and cosy. We’d all be in top each other and there would always be a sing song.

Are you an organised shopper or do you rush around on Christmas Eve?

I used to rush around on Christmas Eve, but now that I have a wife she usually does it on the first week in December. She is brilliant. I say ‘What am I getting my mother or father and she hands it me’. She is the organised one. I’d say goldfish would have a better attention span than I have. My Christmases in the last few years have been a lot more organised, but I can’t take the credit for it.

You seem to be a big fan of Christmas.

I love it. I absolutely adore it. It is 100 per cent my favourite time of the year. In recent years, sometimes I have been in New York on the run-up to Christmas and I just love it there. I have to say there is probably no better city in the run-up to Christmas. It is cold. All the bars are lit up. There is something so Christmassy about New York and then when you come home, home is home. It’s real Christmas.

I have never actually missed a Christmas at home yet. Some people travel for it, but it is not my thing.

• Mullingar comedian Conor Moore recently signed with Creative Artists Agency. He is bringing his acclaimed Conor Sketches Live tour to Mullingar Arts Centre for a three-night run in February. All three shows are sold out.