WE will soon just be counting the time to Christmas in hours rather than days, so here’s hoping you have the Brussels sprouts boiling!

The argument for soggy vegetables as opposed to crunchy is not ours to solve.

It is strange that however we boil them, we have to have Brussels sprouts at Christmas - a vegetable that has often appeared on lists of the most hated vegetables.

And just in case you were wondering, this mini cabbage is called after the Belgian town because that is where they were first grown in the 16th Century.

Whatever you think, Ricky and Emma Andalcio from Zest in Whitehaven seemed proud to show off their collection of sprouts.

Central to Christmas in most parts of this country is the Christmas light switch-on, which is when the festive countdown really starts to get serious.

In Egremont there were even reindeer to feed - although the animals so central to Christmas were not letting on whether they would be sprinkled with the magic dust that would help them on their trip around the world on Christmas Eve.

The Egremont theatrical group certainly added a dollop of Christmas past to the local farmers' market with their Victorian garb which reminds us that our modern idea of Christmas started in those days after the publication of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.