Christmas may come but once a year, but oh how quickly that year seems to speed by. It was our annual festive gathering once again and we had some of the usual suspects supplying festive cheer along with some newer additions to the festive roster of entertainment at our Christmas gatherings. This was the first time holding our Christmas party in the new meeting place so it took a minute to decide what would go where (we had it down to a fine art in the previous meeting hall we had been using up to recently). It being slightly smaller gave the evening a more intimate feel, but the party was definitely none the worse for it. As ever, our Christmas cheer was boosted by the drinks, kindly arranged by Gina who was sporting some fetching post-operative bruises and bandages following knee surgery (she was happy to share them with those who cared to see!). The food was arranged by the society’s committee and featured the usual array of mince pies, sausage rolls and other bits. Julie organised the raffle and whilst my table was not quite so lucky as last year, many were very pleased with their good fortune. Roy Cartwright appeared to be unofficial photographer for the evening, and indeed, all the photographs you see here are courtesy of Roy (thank you Roy), who is pictured here with his raffle prize. Our entertainment for the evening came in the form of two team quizzes. The first was some Christmas-themed anagrams, courtesy of Jennie. Our team (The Bonkers Bunch) were too busy chatting away and eating the chocolates on the table to remember to fill this one in past the first few – whoops! The second quiz was kindly written by Emily King and featured several rounds, such as Swindon Celebrities. Many of us were genuinely stumped by a few of these questions – who knew that cricketer Lauren Bell was born in Swindon; or that Andy Binks was a celebrity (although he’s definitely Swindon-famous)! Despite that, The Bonkers Bunch had a good showing, ending up just one point short of the winning team. Huge thanks to Emily for putting that together and then marking all the papers on the evening too. Such a good time was had by all that we had to do some hasty clearing up, as time got away from us a little in a way it never has before at the Christmas party. But as usual everyone pitched in, clearing tables and binning rubbish so that we were all done in double-quick time. We can’t have a Christmas party for our members without our members though, so thanks for coming along and hopefully having a wonderful time. We look forward to seeing you all in the New Year and wish you a very happy and healthy 2026. Kelly Blake - December 2025