With Christmas nearly upon us, ex-RTE star Grainne Seoige has revealed a festive family tradition describing it as "so special".

Galway native Grainne married her South African husband in 2019 and had spent time in the country of his birth, South Africa, before relocating back to Ireland.

Now, the Virgin Media presenter has spilled the beans on what Christmas traditions her family get up to. As it turn out, they play a card game called 25 which is very big in Galway and the surrounding areas.

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"In our house on Christmas day night often there’s a big movie on but people are in and out of the sitting room not everyone is going to sit and watch the movie or have the concentration for a couple of hours," she said.

"But we often play cards on Christmas day night and it’s just for fun and we play a game called 25 and it’s very popular down the country. So we would do that and we would have a few drinks and the Christmas cake is going around and the fire is blazing and we’re playing 25 and we’re having great craic."

"Because my parents have played it since they were children and they are really good and we play it one day every year and we’re not really good except for my husband Leon who is from the other side of the world and he seemed to have picked it up super fast and they usually end up winning and making eejits of all of us."

She added: "And often we would have a sing-song at the end of the night and we’re all sort of singers in our house so I love it it’s really special."

It's been an exciting year for Grainne after the launch of her dating show with a difference.

That difference is that the Irish language will be a centrepiece to the new dating show which is called Grá and Trá. It was a major part of Virgin Media's autumn schedule.

"I read the first news bulletin on the station and it has taken until now for them to make a programme with the Irish language as a centre piece", Grainne said at the time of the launch.

"So I’m excited about that. It shows that the Irish language is a commercial point that cannot be ignored anymore. So many young people are coming through the Gaelscoil experience who don’t have the hangs-ups about the Irish language that older people have.”

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