Politicians talking turkey Does Christmas get your vote? MARION McMULLEN 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 featured on their 2010 Christmas Card and they were pictured welcoming the Olympic Torch in 2012.
In 2015, they opted for a photo of themselves returning to Downing Street after seeing the Queen to form a new government.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Theresa May chose drawings by schoolchildren from her Maidenhead constituency for her 2016 festive cards.
John Major was urging people to buy charity Christmas cards in 1996 while, the following year, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott put on an apron and went underneath the arches to cook for people sleeping on the street in London. The Christmas refuge was set up at the basement of the Admiralty Arch in the capital.
It’s a time-honoured tradition that a turkey has been presented to the prime minister by the British Turkey Federation since the days of Winston Churchill.
The British war-time Prime Minister actually left Downing Street to visit American President Roosevelt in Washington for Christmas in 1941 following the attack on Pearl Harbour.
Rationing had not yet reached the White House and the festive fare included oysters, clear soup with sherry, roast turkey with chestnut dressing and cranberry jelly and a dessert of plum pudding, ice cream, salted nuts, bonbons and coffee.
Churchill wore a dressing gown when he was photographed a few years later with his guests in Carthage after an informal luncheon party on Christmas Day 1943 to celebrate his recovery from a severe case of pneumonia.
The gathering included a number of Allied chiefs of staff such as General Dwight Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander of the British and US Expeditionary Forces in the UK for the liberation of Europe.
Churchill himself once observed: “Christmas is a season not only of rejoicing but of reflection.”