Just imagine a Christmas Day without the inevitable wrinkled Satsuma or battered pile of chocolate coins. Imagine a Christmas where nothing is too extravagant or too self-indulgent, where nothing could ever be too much…and when the best presents really don’t come in small packages!

Here at Romance HQ, we’ve been pondering this very question. Finally we’ve put pen to paper and, just in time to send our (incredibly ambitious and often impractical) letters off to the North Pole, have compiled our Christmas wish lists!

Samantha Walmsley (Senior Managing Editor) All I want for Christmas is…an actual present from my husband! Although no present at all is better than the year he bought me sparkplugs. A horse, a quality kit for the horse – and a side saddle, please!

Sheila Hodgson (Senior Editor) All I want for Christmas is…a guidebook of South Africa, a cookery course in an exclusive Italian palazzo or French chateau (not picky!), a new winter wardrobe with no expense spared (must include jewellery, shoes and handbags – plural), a festive hamper, a heated swimming pool plus Jacuzzi…and time to myself!

Laura McCallen (Assistant Editor/EA) All I want for Christmas is…a shopping spree at Selfridges – where nothing is off-limits!

Anne Marie (Editor) All I want for Christmas is…some spin for my tennis forehand – and a one-to-one coaching session with hunky Spanish tennis player Feliciano Lopez. Just please don’t give me any more pots of body butter!

Farah Chowdhury (EA) All I want for Christmas is…magical Christmas food that doesn’t stay on my hips forever! And talking of hips, I’d love hips that don’t lie – that Shakira must be doing something right to bag herself a Spanish footballer. Oh, and a cupboard that chooses the perfect outfit – think personal stylist meets walk-in-wardrobe!

Julia Williams (Editor) All I want for Christmas is…a week away in a spa, being utterly pampered, completely on my own and doing exactly as I please – and best of all, no cooking! Like that’s ever going to happen.

Flo Nicoll (Editor) All I want for Christmas is…unlimited credit in Richmond Anthropologie, Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights, an all-expenses paid Californian road trip – the Cadillac, the shades, the works. In reality, I’d settle for a lovely family Christmas, with a compulsory emergency escape hatch for those more… tense moments!

Nicola Caws (EA) All I want for Christmas is…a Jacuzzi bath! Oh, and a life-sized Santa and his whole host of reindeer carved from solid chocolate. Obviously.

Isabelle Gormezano (EA) All I want for Christmas is…a trip to Lapland to see the Northern Lights and stay in a luxurious log cabin! A hot air balloon, a new Vivienne Westwood bag and a trip to Vienna! So not much, really.

Pippa Roscoe (Associate Editor) All I want for Christmas is…Monty from the John Lewis advert! Preferably the real one.

Joanne Grant (Senior Executive Editor) All I want for Christmas is…a swimming pool with a hot tub like Sheila! However, as a child all I wanted was a cat and a Fireman’s pole that took me straight from my bedroom into the lounge! At least now as an adult I have a cat and now see the impracticality of a fireman’s pole in one’s home…

So ladies, dream big this Christmas! As the old saying goes, ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’ so make sure you get your Christmas wish list down in writing! Of course, the only question remains… have you been naughty or nice?

Do tell us, what’s on your ultimate Christmas wish list this year?

By The Mills & Boon team