By David McCullagh and Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
The presents have all been opened, the selection boxes are finished and the last of the turkey sandwiches have been made. So, it must be time to take a look at the annual release of State Papers.
Every year, previously secret government files are transferred to the National Archives in Dublin, where they can be viewed by the public (once the Reading Room in the National Archives reopens after Christmas on 2 January).
There are a lot of files to look at, over 10,000 this year alone, and over the next few days, we'll be bringing you a selection of the best stories from those files.
Material is usually released after 30 years, so this year, many of the files relate to 1994.
One of the stories that year was Boris Yeltsin’s planned stopover in Shannon, which didn't go entirely according to plan, thanks to an apparent overindulgence in vodka.
The documents also reveal a row in government over buying arms and ammunition from Israel, with then-minister for foreign affairs David Andrews criticising Israel's behaviour in south Lebanon.
But it's not just 1994. Files dealing with Northern Ireland and relations with Britain are released after 20 years (to keep pace with the release of documents in the United Kingdom).
So we have documents going right up to 2004 to look at as well.
Among the stories contained in them are new insights into loyalist paramilitarism – including how one terrorist was nabbed by the police after taking a shower.
There is also extraordinary criticism of the British government, by the senior British solider in the north, over the establishment of the Saville Inquiry into Bloody Sunday.
And there are lots of other stories too, including Jack Lynch worrying about having to pay for the reburial of a famous Irish writer.
