Carey Mulligan's traditional festivities

Carey Mulligan goes to the same church to watch the same nativity play every Christmas.

The 29-year-old actress was born in the UK, going to school in Surrey which is not too far from where she was born in London.

Even though she has been married to Marcus Mumford of folk group Mumford & Sons since 2012, for Carey the festive season is all about the traditions she's loved since she was a child.

"We go to mass at the church that I've been going to since I was like seven years old and they have a nativity extravaganza. It's been run by this amazing woman called Mrs Jacobsen, who was my teacher when I was at school, and it's been the same songs and the same play for 21 years," she laughed to British magazine Hello!

Carey was once on stage in the play and can vividly remember what it was like. One of the things she is fondest of is seeing how the children involved change as the years go by.

"I was in it! And you graduate from being a small gold angel to a silver angel to a choir member, or you get cast as Mary and Joseph or one of the kings. It's been exactly the same routine for my entire life," she giggled.

Much as Carey loved the nativity when she was little, it seems her talents weren't realised. She can't help giggling when she recalls being cast in some of the more minor parts.

"I was never Mary. I never played the lead roles," she explained.