In Wavendon, the annual Dankworth get-together is as much a part of the Christmas festivities as opening the advent calendar or writing out the seasonal cards.
Thought up by the late Sir John Dankworth and Dame Cleo Laine, the musical feasts have been a staple for decades, writes Sammy Jones.
Baby, it's cold outside, really bitterly so, but inside The Stables on Friday evening, it was warm and welcoming, and a near-capacity audience was on hand when the band made the stage and delivered a Christmas medley of seasonal staples.
John and Cleo's son Alec is curating, and playing bass in his usual formidable style.
Long-time family friend of the Dankworth's Lorna Dallas is introduced and lets her voice fill Pure Imagination, before violinist Chris Garrick delivers Popcorn. Nope, he's not selling the sweet and salty stuff rather delivering the instrumental hit from a few decades past.
Gershwin's Summertime is also let loose. Yep, at a Christmas show.
'It's for anyone from Australia who's missing home!' is the explanation.
If there is one thing that sounds better than one exquisite violinist, it's two together, and when Garrick is joined by Peter Fisher for Jacob Gade's Jalousie the instruments positively sing in delight and the routine is pure ear bliss.
The music is spliced by introductions, chat and occasionally giggles (“There will be something missing from Christmas next year...Brussels!”) and then Memphis-native, pianist Charlie Wood delivers The Little Drummer Boy, 'by way of the Mississippi Delta,' he explains before the tempo is increased.
The music ceases long enough for actor Kevin Whately to recite words by the American poet Ogden Nash.
The Boy Who Laughed At Santa Claus is warming and witty, and delivered with a lovely intonation, before Alec's daughter Emily pulls from the festive sack of carols, letting loose Jingle Bells and Santa Claus Is Coming to Town. Later she will air one of her own compositions to a warm reaction.
Jacqui Dankworth recalls growing up with Sondheim's Send in the Clowns, and Howlin' Wolf's Sitting On Top Of The World, and the Woburn Sands Band bring a Scottish flavour with their segment.
Things continue to a pace over the rest of the evening: Guests return with more music, more readings and more humour, but it is called Cleo's Christmas Show for a reason, and Dame Cleo arrives to close the evening with more merriment and song.
Daughter Jacqui leads a little potted history of her mother, scratching the surface of an incredible life, and glittering career, and so we are regaled by little tales as the mother and daughter spark from each other with a quick wit, and Cleo usually stealing the laughs.
'What a beautiful man,' Cleo says, when an image of her late husband is shown on the big screen. She's correct in her observation, of course, and Cleo too was quite the stunner.
Together they were the full package; They exuded glamour, but that paled next to their untouchable, incredible talent.
Now, at 91-years-old Cleo, still with a twinkle in her eye, has a little advice for us; ''Follow your desires,” she says, “If you have a passion, develop it. "Then go and kill the audiences!”
And heeding her own words, that's what she does this evening, joining her family and friends on stage, and those in the auditorium she founded with John, for a rousing finale which is met by a standing ovation.
Dame Cleo; A true legend and a true star. The perfect finale to this most warming of seasonal traditions.
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