Life & Style

Dear Santa: ‘You never brought the Sylvanian Family Mansion that I asked for every single year’

Sailor and Olympic silver medallist Annalise Murphy is looking forward to enjoying Christmas dinner after years on a strict diet

Annalise Murphy with her Olympic silver medal: Santa brought her wetsuits and sailing equipment in her teenage years. Photograph: Eric Luke

Lauren Murphy's face
Lauren Murphy
Mon Dec 12 2016 - 00:00

Dear Santa,

Let's get straight to the point – we didn't really get off on the best foot all those years ago, did we? Remember the first time we met? My dad was in the Air Corps, and you took some time out of your busy schedule to make an appearance at Baldonnel Aerodrome for me, Finn and Claudine and all the other Air Corps kids. There's a photo of the two of us together and to say that I don't look impressed would be an understatement. I look horrified, in fact. Don't take it personally.

You’ve been quite good to me over the years; you even sent a reply to one or two letters that I sent you, although you never brought the Sylvanian Family Mansion that I asked for every single year. What’s with that? You always managed the wetsuits and sailing equipment that I requested in my teenage years, though. Cheers for that, they came in handy.

Speaking of sailing, I’ve had a good year, Santa. I went to the Olympics and I even won a silver medal for Ireland. It’s kind of weird, I still don’t know how I managed to do it. I used to love telling my friends that my mum was an Olympian, I was so proud of her – hopefully she’s just as proud of me, now, too.

Every Christmas, there's a big extended Murphy family gathering for dinner – there could be up to 25 people in the house but the past few years haven't been as fun because I've been on a pretty strict training regime and diet – yep, even on Christmas Day. This year, I'm going to enjoy myself a bit more, eat a ton of turkey – and I'll have my new bling to show off, too. It's starting to get a little bit battered-looking from being passed around so much, but there's no point in being precious about it, is there? I'll leave it on the fireplace so you can have a look at it yourself on Christmas Eve.

Safe travels,
Annalise

Former RTÉ Sports Person of the Year nominee, 26-year-old Annalise Murphy won silver at her second Olympic games in the Laser Redial sailing competition in Rio in August

Christmas