Nikki Sanderson lets a "dark haired stranger" out of her house and back in again as part of a festive tradition.
The ‘Hollyoaks star – who plays Maxine Minniver in the Channel 4 soap – always makes sure the mystery person, who she admits is usually her mum, leaves her abode near the end of December only to come back in again to "let the old year out and the new year in".
She said: "We have a new year tradition rather than a Christmas tradition, every year we would have a ‘dark haired stranger’ go out of the back door and in through the front, it is essentially to let the old year out and the new year in.
"But obviously you aren’t going to let a dark-haired stranger wander through your house, so it was my mum and she used to bring in with her a piece of coal, some money – even just a one penny piece, a piece of bread and a drink.
"So essentially the coal was so you could have heat for the year, the money for wealth for the year, bread for food for the year and drink for drink for the year. Letting the old out the back and bring in good fortune through the front."
But the former ‘Coronation Street’ actress isn’t the only ‘Oaks’ star with festive traditions.
Jennifer Metcalfe – who, along with Nikki and several other ‘Hollyoaks’ stars, has teamed up with Outfit to create the ultimate party edit – loves to down wine and cheese over the Christmas period.
The raven-haired beauty – who has 16-month-old son Daye – said: "My party season always involves a lot of vino, maybe not so much this year with my little boy, but it always has done in the past.
"Also cheese, cheese and red wine – everyone just gets cheese and red wine out wherever you go.
"But just drink as much water as you can, so that when you do have a little tipple every now and again then it’s not so bad on the body."
Nikki Sanderson’s ‘stranger’ festive tradition
