CHRISTMAS for millions just would not be Christmas without a dose of their favourite soap.

Whether it is a heart warming Christmas get together, a family drama or (more often than not) an unexpected death, the soaps can normally be relied on to serve up their own special brand of festive spirit (or lack of it!).

And, for many, indulging in the Christmas Day dramas of those in soapland are as much part of the Christmas Day tradition as their turkey and sprouts or the Queen's speech.

The Daily Echo has gone down memory lane and picked out some of the best Christmas soap moments over the decades.

1. Eastenders - 'Dirty' Den and Angie's divorce

For soap aficionados Eastenders on Christmas Day 1986 has gone down as one of the soap's greatest moments - when Queen Vic landlord Dirty Den gave wife Angie Watts a nasty shock when he served divorce papers on her - attracting around 30 million viewers.

2. Eastenders - Max and Stacey's affair revealed

How could anyone forget another much talked of Eastenders long-running family saga that unravelled on Christmas Day 2007 when Max Branning's affair with Stacey, his son Bradley's wife, was revealed through a DVD played in front of the whole family and the subsequent fall-out.

3. Coronation Street - the tram crash

Deaths and accidents are a staple of many Christmas soap cliffhangers. A storyline that ran throughout the Christmas period in 2010 was Coronation Street's tram crash. It killed Ashley Peacock and leaves others like Peter Barlow fighting for their lives. 

4. Emmerdale - The storm/Tricia Dingle's death

In true soap style a Christmas disaster hit the Dales ending in a heartbreaking decision for one character in 2003. A freak storm led to the death of Tricia Dingle when the Woolpack pub wall collapsed on her. It was left to husband Marlon to turn off her life support machine.

5. Emmerdale - The plane crash

Ten years before the Christmas storm Emmerdale had another cliffhanger storyline in 1993 with a plane crash that left four mainstay characters dead and resulted in the soap's highest ever viewing figures at 18 million. 

6. Eastenders - Tiffany dies after hit by car

Can you remember when in 1998 Tiffany Mitchell, was one of Eastenders' most popular characters, met her end. On New Years' Eve her partner Grant Mitchell takes their child Courtney and as Tiffany chased him she is hit and killed by a car driven by Frank Butcher. The episode was watched by 22 million.

7. Coronation Street - Leanne and Nick's wedding

Long-term on-and-off couple Nick and Leanne are set for a Christmas Day wedding until his ex Eva reveals Leanne met up with her ex-husband Peter before the wedding - causing the groom to call the whole thing off.

8. Hollyoaks - Clare's murderous plot

Soap lovers are unlikely to forget the Clare Devine murder plot to kill husband Max that hit screens at Christmas in 2006 - evil Clare, realising that her husband has a life insurance policy worth £500,000, throws his brother Tom's coat into an icy lake in the hope of finishing her husband off when he jumps to save him, but her plan fails after he is rescued at the last minute.

9. Coronation Street - 'Killman' Hillman strikes again  

Coronation Street's serial killer Richard Hillman had already done away with his wife, left his business partner to die and tried to kill his mother-in-law but at Christmas 2003 he murders Maxine Peacock and nearly kills soap stalwart Emily Bishop.

10. Eastenders - Pauline collapses in the Square

Do you remember the death of Albert Square matriarch Pauline Fowler who collapsed in the Square in 2006 after more than 20 years in Eastenders? Her death from a brain haemorrhage sparked a murder inquiry and it was later revealed her second husband Joe Macer was the killer.