Christmas may not be the most wonderful time of the year on Coronation Street after all.

For some characters, the holiday season on the famed cobblestone street will actually be full of anguish and heartbreak.

Roy (David Neilson) will learn the painful news that this will be his last Christmas with Hayley (Julie Hesmondlagh), whose cancer is getting worse.

In an interview with Radio Times, Hesmondlagh assures fans that while it will still have its sad moments, there will still be some joy in the couple's last Christmas together.

"There's a lovely scene where there's a snowball fight and the residents make snow statues of Roy and Hayley," she said. "There's all this joy and life around her and she loves that, but she is tired and she does fall asleep a lot over Christmas, which is really sad."

Christmas dinner at the Platt house will also be significantly less joyful when Nick (Ben Price) slaps Leanne (Jane Danson) at the dinner table for making a joke. The dinner will prove to be a potential turning point in the couple's strained marriage, Price teased in his own interview. 

"At that point, something dies in their relationship," he said. "They're lost that trust and he's done the worst thing he can imagine. She's shocked, upset and disappointed and Nick realizes at this point that they're not going to be fine."

A potential new love interest will pop up for Sophie (Brooke Vincent) when she and her mother Sally (Sally Dynevor) go to the soup kitchen and run into the homeless Maddie (newcomer Amy Kelly).

"Maddie shakes things up, she's very much a Kylie Platt or Becky McDonald character, but a lot worse," Vincent said. "She's very demanding and hard to read-you're intrigued by her. I think she's a good match for Sophie, who stand her ground with her."

Coronation Street returns with an all-new episode Wednesday, Dec. 18. Christmas episodes begin to air Sunday, Dec. 23.

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