Christmas time is here by golly, deck the hall with hunks of holly - Steve Cardownie

Christmas festivities are now well underway as groups of revellers in their best finery can be seen making their way through city centre streets to the bar or restaurant, they booked for their Christmas lunch some weeks ago.

Elvis Presley's American Trilogy

​Raucously invading pubs to the consternation of regulars who now have to fight their way to the bar in competition with inebriated office workers hellbent on continuing with their cheery get together.

This Friday will see the various political groups up at Edinburgh’s City Chambers drinking, dancing, singing and, in some cases, talking, the night away at their respective Christmas parties.

Councillors, having chipped in the agreed amount of money, will take their place among fellow members and staff as they enjoy their wine/ beer/ cider and sausage rolls.

However the Conservative Group are more likely to confine themselves to sherry and home-made quiche!

I’ve organised quite a few in my time and found that getting a financial contribution from fellow councillors was fine in theory but a tad more difficult to put into practice.

One SNP councillor in particular wouldn’t give you a fright if he was a ghost, so it was a herculean task to get him to part with any cash.

He wasn’t that well liked either and rumour had it that when he was a child he had an imaginary friend that refused to play with him!

They were never easy to organise as everyone had their own ideas about what made a good party.

But I must give an honourable mention to former SNP Councillor, Mike Bridgman, who always entertained fellow party goers when the Karaoke was on by singing a more than passable rendition of Elvis Presley’s, An American Trilogy.