As Mayan fables grabbed headlines from the usual Messianic one, festive celebrations here in Frome featured a swinging End of the World Christmas Party at the Cheese&Grain with much mesmeric music and as an added bonus the 'close-up magic' of Kieron Johnson.
Meanwhile in Bristol, Five Jars theatre company decided Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without any ghoulish horror so Danann McAleer performed A Thin Ghost at the Alma Tavern Theatre, a selection of macabre tales by MR James which ~ especially disturbingly ~ all featured boys' boarding schools...  Bedtime appears particularly dangerous at this time of year, according to the festive shows in Bristol, what with undead boys flying into your room accompanied by vicious fairies, hungry Norwegian stepmothers pushing you out into the night forest, and paranoid nursery rhyme characters dragging you into a trunk with a wolf... Sleep well, children!

Recycled Stockings 2 by Show of Strength at the Southville Centre, however, achieved family fun without any shadows as three excellent actors (Angie Belcher, Oliver Millingham and Kim Hicks) delighted the children and entertained the adults with six simple but very funny scenarios. I especially enjoyed Santa's personal trainer, the boy stuck in going-to-granny's traffic, and the geriatric artificial tree yearning to be topped by a Lady GaGa fairy doll...

 And now the run-up to 25th is all over bar the flooding, I hope you're safe & dry and wish you everything you'd wish yourself for the end of this year and all of the next.