CHRISTMAS comes but once a year… which is such a shame because that means we have to wait so long for the next session from this award-winning Worcestershire band.

This was a jingle-bells-all-the-way show with a festive stocking jammed solid with seasonal goodies served up to an eager audience by some of the best players around.

Of course, the trick is to make the audience wait a while for the best bits. So this concert at Worcester’s Huntingdon Hall slowly found its feet with Entry of the Gladiators, Somethin’ Stupid – originally by Frank Sinatra and not Nicole Kidman, Mr Conductor – before a breakneck version of Madness’s Baggy Trousers that would have left Santa’s sleigh standing.

Karen Taylor then delivered a trombone solo in The Acrobat, which despite the odd tumble, eventually steadied itself into a fine piece.

Then it was the turn of Pitmaston Primary School Choir. The children from St John’s, Worcester, enchanted everyone with a number of perfectly delivered selections, the best of which was a moving rendition of How Can This Be?

After the interval, director Chris License’s merry band urged those reindeer on with just a pit stop for A Policeman’s Lot is Not a Happy One. This featured the surprisingly agile B-flat bass of Brian Cobley, with him very much looking the part, thanks to his Victorian chin-strap beard.

The choir then consolidated their earlier successes with tunes ancient and modern, from Silent Night to the contemporary Let It Go.

However, the sixpence in this particular pudding was the finale, a gloriously celebratory take on Merry Christmas Everybody, with Brian Cobley looking for all the world like Noddy Holder’s dad.

This year’s charity was the Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust and the capacity crowd undoubtedly dug deep into their pockets to ensure that no one was left out of this wonderful Christmas treat of a show.