Christmas Day has always been a huge anti-climax for Gerard Butler — he has always preferred the build up.
The 300 star admits the holidays are very different now than they were when he was a poor kid growing up in Glasgow. He recalls, “It was almost impossible to contain my excitement. I didn’t come from a particularly wealthy family so anything that we got was so much more appreciated.
“My mum was a single mother and, with dad living in Canada, we really didn’t get anything from him, but all the rest of the family was very close. I had a lot of aunts and uncles, great grand uncles and they would always make sure that we were alright.
“My uncle would build us a sled or we’d get these weird wonderful gifts, and I would always be thinking I would catch Santa coming down the chimney.
“Coming from a country where it gets cold and it snows, there’s a real Christmassy feeling in Scotland. Then comes the day where you have to start getting the presents and it loses that magic suddenly and Christmas becomes a huge pain in the a**.”