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Does Christmas get your vote? looks at the political party festive celebrations over the years

IT’S TIME to deck Downing Street with boughs of holly... and festive lights and one of the biggest Christmas trees around. The Number 10 tree has been a regular fixture outside Downing Street for decades and everyone from Margaret Thatcher to Theresa May has been photographed next to it.

The traditional favourite normally stands around 20ft tall and has featured in many of the official Downing Street Christmas cards.

The most famous stray cat in Britain, Humphrey, also had the distinction of adorning the Cabinet Office Christmas card not once, but twice in the 1990s.

The moggie was employed as Chief Mouser and was named after Nigel Hawthorne’s character Sir Humphrey Appleby from TV political comedy Yes, Minister.

Humphrey was around during the days of Margaret Thatcher, John Major and Tony Blair and popped up on the official Cabinet Office card a second time in 1997 despite having been retired on the grounds of ill health. The move came as a bit of a surprise to Westminster watchers, MPs and peers who thought they had seen the last of the feline.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher enjoyed an impromptu festive party with Downing Street staff and press on board a VC-10 plane in 1984. They were accompanying her on a world tour and among her presents was a special gift from American President Ronald Reagan.

She once said: “Christmas is a day of meaning and traditions. A special day spent in the warm circle of family and friends.”

Prime Minister Tony Blair’s wife Cherie bumped into TV’s Mr Blobby when she attended the House Of Commons Christmas Party for 350 children in 1997 and she also got a hug from Sooty in 2000 during the Chancellor of the Exchequer children’s Christmas party at 11 Downing Street.

Family was often the theme of the Blair Christmas card although photographer Terry O’Neill took a special picture of just Tony and Cherie in the State Rooms at Downing Street for their 1999 card.

Downing Street staff also sent out more than 1,000 official Christmas cards on behalf of Tony Blair and his family in 2002.

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha along with their newborn baby daughter Florence Rose Endellion

Prime ministers come and go, but Humphrey was a regular at No 10, and even appeared on a couple of Christmas cards Cherie Blair meets Sooty at the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s children’s Christmas partyMr Blobby makes his bid to take charge of the country

Christmas 1943 and Winston Churchill celebrates Christmas after recovering from pneumonia, with General Dwight Eisenhower and Allied chiefs of staff

John Major outside Number 10, urging people to buy charity Christmas cards Mrs Thatcher opens President Reagan’s present David and Samantha Cameron used this picture of Kate Nesbitt carrying the Olympic Torch for their 2012 card PM Theresa May last year watching as the Downing Street Christmas tree lights are switched on