Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a party and this heart-warming selection shows that there are all sorts of ways of staging a festive celebration.

In DA Prince’s opening poem, we find that even the birds in the garden are “quivering in best-party feathers”. Elsewhere, there’s a Boxing Day game of sardines and a grandmother who arrives in silver curls and a velvet coat bearing a badly-chosen gift. There’s also a family gathering populated by a whole host of seasonal TV characters; Del and Rodney appear in fancy dress as Batman and Robin while the Vicar of Dibley arrives:

“…after eating four Christmas lunches,
sodden from jumping in deep puddles.”

from ‘Partying with The Vicar of Dibley’ by Jeanette Burton

What the poems illustrate is that a Christmas party doesn’t depend on mistletoe, tinsel or mulled wine. In fact, all that’s really needed to make merry is “a warm room of friends”.