A staple of the Garden City Runners calendar returned in a blaze of colour and costumes.
The Festive 5 saw 62 from the club run a five-mile road race around central Welwyn Garden City, with plenty others directing affairs or volunteering along the route and at the start and finish on Stanborough Green.
Paul Guy was first overall in a time of 29 minutes 35 seconds as well as part of a winning men’s team comprising of Peter Harvey and Nick Summers.
Harvey was third overall in 29:46 while Summers clocked 31:35 for sixth.
In the women’s event, Martha Hall was first finisher in 33:21 and part of a team with Jessica Timmins (34:58) and Alex Faulkner (34:58) that won gold for GCR women.
Janet Bream was first W65 in 46:59 and GCR's supervet, Dennis Draper, was first MV80 finishing in 1:17:25.
A spokeswoman for the club said: "In total 168 took part and congratulations to race director Dani Pruett and Rich Sidlin of Races Online for smooth as silk race organisation and timing."
There were also GCRs taking in the less than Christmassy sights and temperatures of Lanzarote.
Wayne Aylott said: "We took part in the Club La Santa running challenge where we ran four races in four days.
"They were a 10k road race, a 13k volcanic ridge run, a 5k beach run and a half marathon.
"Sophie Packman finished eighth in her age group and both Caroline O'Dwyer and myself were third in ours.
"Other GCR finishers were Emon Martin and Steve Williams."
Samantha Hastie completed her 12 half-marathons in 12 months challenge.
She did it at the Malaga Half in Spain having had stops along the way at the likes of Farnborough, Paris, Isle of Wight and Glasgow.
She said: "I naively thought it would get easier [month on month]. I was greatly mistaken.
"My November event was cancelled three days before so I ran a solo half from Edinburgh to Livingston. It was hard going alone but I got it done.
"I hadn’t appreciated the physical and mental toll 12 half-marathons in 12 months would take and it’s genuinely probably one of the hardest things I have ever done.
"However, I am so proud of myself for keeping going, even with lack of training, crazy temperatures and race cancellations, I got it done every month.
"Will I do it again? Not for a million quid but it's done and I am feeling very happy with myself."
There were 65 GCRs at parkruns too.
Jamie Rose was second overall at Stevenage, with Alex Faulkner the fourth lady.
Felicity Wadley was fourth lady too, her run coming at Panshanger where Dan Pudner was eighth overall
In pursuit of their parkrun alphabet, Tendy St Francis and Valerie Levinson ran Zuiderpark Parkrun in The Hague, Netherlands, while Sharon Threlfall completed her triple alphabet parkrun challenge at Jesmond Dene in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
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