British pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor has come clean about her family's bizarre Christmas rituals, which involve hanging joke presents on the tree and singing to their dessert.

The Murder on the Dancefloor singer admits she realised her family's festive traditions were slightly unusual after she married The Feeling bassist Richard Jones and introduced him to the annual gatherings.

She tells Britain's Observer Magazine, "I wasn't aware of our Christmas eccentricities until I got married to Richard and had to introduce him to my family. We do something called tree presents: little gifts that hang from the tree. We do main presents in the morning, and once everyone's full of lunch and kind of lounging around, we do the tree presents. They're very annoying to buy because they need to be thoughtful but not too nice, and light enough to hang up...

"The other thing we do, and I'm blushing slightly as I confess this, is to sing when the Christmas pudding has been lit with the brandy. We have to carry it around the house and then sing: 'Here comes the Christmas pudding' to the tune of 'For He's A Jolly Good Fellow'. I really don't know why."