CHILDLINE: Counsellors handled around 450 sessions every day over 12 days of Christmas in 2022

However, our Childline counsellors in the region and across the country will be working hard throughout the festive period, fielding calls and contacts about family conflicts, heartbreak at the thought of Christmas without a loved one and struggles with personal or familial mental health.

Last year, our counsellors delivered 5,501 sessions between December 24 and January 4 – the 12 days of Christmas.

On average, that works out as 450 counselling sessions every day, with counselling sessions about worries related to family relationships rising by seven per cent compared with the previous year.

One 14-year-old girl told our counsellors: “I feel I have no one who I can talk to or who can help me. I’m constantly arguing with my mum, and we have screaming matches every week.

“She has been destroying my things and excluding me from Christmas traditions, like decorating the house together.

"My mum wants me to go and live with my dad, but I don’t think he’s a good person. I feel I get used by my dad to get to my mum.”

Our service is lifeline for these children, so we need to be available to young people around the clock.

If they don’t want to speak over the phone, our website has a one-to-one chat service and moderated message boards, where they can speak to others going through similar experiences in a safe, moderated space.

Childline will never show up on phone bills, and the service is completely free and confidential.

If a child doesn’t want to discuss exactly what’s worrying them, they can just call us just to chat because we don’t want any child to feel they’re alone this Christmas.

And please remember that the Childline service is here for children 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, either on 0800 1111 or at www.childline.org.uk

Our counsellors will be ready to listen and support children and young people from throughout the UK, even on Christmas Day.