Crack open the Quality Street, stick on the kettle and pull out the fluffy socks, the Late Late Toy Show is back - with a brand new Toy Man!
The most wonderful, magical and unpredictable night of the year returns with a celebration of movie magic, Christmas in the big city and pure fun as it takes beloved film Elf as its theme for 2023.
A Hollywood-worthy set was revealed to journalists earlier this week at the Toy Show press day, where the magic of the Big Apple was brought to life featuring New York's Central Park, The Toy Shop, Candy Cane Forest, and the film's Post Office Workshop, all expertly created by RTÉ's own elves, the fantastic production designers.
And there's no better man to step into the shoes of funnyman and Elf star Will Ferrell than our own Patrick Kielty, who spoke about his excitement and profound gratitude ahead of hosting the once-a-year toy spectacular.
Kielty himself hadn't glimpsed the set until just a half an hour before welcoming press to the world of the Toy Show, and he said that Elf is a firm Christmas favourite for him and his family.
"For me, having kids myself who are in the absolute sweet spot for this show, it's a big, big thing and as someone who grew up watching the show, walking around that set you turn back into being eight years of age and sitting there in Dundrum with a fire lit, watching this show with Gay Byrne.
"For me, it's a massive, massive honour to be walking out on Friday night and be part of this party."
Kielty promised a true party, with perhaps "one or two surprises", costume changes and plenty of singing and dancing - though whether he'll be the one doing it remains to be seen!
On whether he's nervous about the big night, the host said that the way he looks at it, "This isn't my show. This is the kids' show, and this show belongs to everybody Irish, home and abroad, and in a lot of ways I think it's Irish Thanksgiving".
"Wherever you are in the world you want to connect with people around this event", he added.
Noting how he's a "fairly emotional person anyway", he stressed how emotional the experience that hosting would be for him, joking that the team have been "trying to work out how we can build some hanky space in some of the costumes".
Acknowledging that he's part of an exclusive but influential set of presenters, with Gay Byrne, Pat Kenny and Ryan Tubridy hosting the show before him, Kielty said: "I think the influence of anybody watching Gay Byrne doing the Toy Show is that nobody is going to be Gay Byrne, and if anybody hopes they're going to get only close to Gay, that is not going to happen.
Thinking back on the guests Byrne would welcome, Kielty said: "Gay treated everybody the same, and I think that's a good message in life, let alone as a host. In terms of Pat or Ryan or Gay, you can only be yourself, and I've been to enough five- or seven-year old birthday parties over the last few years that you can pretend to be whoever you want to be, but you be yourself, that's how kids are in life and that's how it should be."
Speaking to RTÉ Lifestyle at the press day, Kielty said the reality of his new gig hasn't really sunk in in the Kielty household yet.
"The penny hasn't dropped", he said. "We're doing that in baby steps. They've got their pyjamas all ready, they've got their Toy Show slippers, they're running around asking how late they can stay up. That'll be up to their mum! So we'll have to wait and see how much they watch live, how much they watch on [RTÉ] Player when I get back on Saturday. But the excitement's building, there's no doubt about it!
"What's funny about it is whenever you look back on it, there's toys you remember and there's different bits and pieces you remember, and you remember the stuff you thought you might have got if you wrote it on a note and stuck it up the chimney on the Sunday.
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"I remember Gay [Byrne] turning up one year in an electric car, like this battery operated car, we thought this is just the future! And then two plastic pedal tractors turned up, not electric!"
Another toy that sticks out in his memory is an Evel Knievel action figure, and making him jump over the family dog while his parents' country Western records played in the background.
"Though, looking back on all that, none of that really matters. Most people when they're watching the Toy Show, they're remembering who they're watching it with and how it makes them feel, who's in that room and who they're texting.
"The most important thing about the Toy Show, weirdly, is who you're watching it [with] and how it makes you feel when you're with them."
