Rotherham United's Jonson Clarke-Harris eyeing Boxing Day goal for Nanna Norma!

For many families, Christmas Day is the highlight of the festive calendar, but for the Clarke-Harrises Boxing Day is the special date.

After this afternoon's home clash with Wigan Athletic, the captain will be travelling to Leicester and the home of Nanna Norma to meet up with the rest of the C-H clan.

“All my family get together at Nanna's,” he said. "She's getting on a bit but she still likes to see us all there.”

The centre-forward will be hoping to have a goal for himself and a win for his team to tell her about as the Millers seek to use the busy Yuletide schedule to climb the League One table.

At 30, he's a bit long in tooth for the magic of Santa Claus, but Yuletide is a time of year he loves for football reasons.

“It's brilliant,” he said. “All momentum, no time to dwell on mistakes. Win, lose or draw, it's, bang, straight into the next game. A couple of wins can really push you up the league.”

Talking of momentum, the Millers had generated some with three straight wins before last Saturday’s loss at Mansfield Town stalled their progress.

A new-year push for the play-off places remains the aim of manager Steve Evans and his squad.

“We have high standards in the changing room,” Clarke-Harris said. “We're a tight-knit group and we all want to do our best for each other.

“The camp had been a bit low but that changes when you put a few wins together. The mood lifts and now the boys are full of confidence.”

The summer signing has twice topped the third tier's scoring charts in his career.

A six-week injury absence in October and November has hit his numbers this term – he will kick off against the Latics with seven goals to his name – but he isn't giving up on landing a famous hat-trick.

“It's great to be playing again and I'm feeling really good,” he said. “Absolutely my target is still 20-plus goals. That was always the plan for me when I came here: promotion and the Golden Boot.

“If you look at the top scorers at the moment, there's not much in it. It's really tight and no-one is running away with it. You get two goals here, one there ... they all add up and you're right in it.

“Even if success doesn't come for me with winning the Golden Boot, as long as we push up the league and finish where we want to, I'll be made up.”

Rotherham finally have nearly all their main men available and the return to action after 14 months on the sidelines of attacker Andre Green has given them an extra lift.

Green set up one of Clarke-Harris's two goals in the recent win over Northampton Town.

“Listen, I've always liked Andre,” the skipper said. "I liked him when he was at Aston Villa. The stuff you see him do on the training pitch, to say that he's been out for such a long time, wow! He looks sharp.

“More match minutes for him and he'll be like a brand-new signing. He's definitely someone who can push us up that league table.”

Victory today, meanwhile, would mean more to ‘JCH’ than anything waiting under the tree at Nanna Norma's.

“I'm not too keen on Christmas celebrations,” he said with a smile.

“As I've got older, the presents I receive have got less and the gifts I buy have got more expensive!”