Jersey's most decorated Island Games competitor, shooter Bob Blake, has lost his fight with cancer at the age of 65.

Festive decorations in Leicester are taken down to avoid possible damage from New Year revellers.

The stars of stage, screen and soap opera tell us how they will be spending their Christmas.

A Christmas tree and decorations are taken from outside a care home in Birmingham.

BBC News website readers have been sending us pictures of their Christmas decorations.

Christmas decorations have mysteriously appeared on a wild tree, giving walkers a festive feel.

A fire service issues a warning to people to check Christmas decorations are safe over the festive season.

The Jolie-Pitt brood exchange home-made gifts rather than buy presents. But do children still revel in making stuff from cereal packets and toilet rolls? Yes, says Blue Peter editor Tim Levell.

The bemoaning of the commercialised, anodyne, mass-produced Christmas is a familiar refrain. But are we right to idealise the Christmases of the past?

Syrian painter Hala Faisal talks about her life and some of the works which decorate her home and studio in Damascus.

Christmas trees decorated by numerous charities in Guernsey go on display on the island.

A Stourbridge artist who secretly decorated her neighbours' milk bottles is holding an exhibition after being "outed" by friends and the media.

A decorative arch in Dorking celebrates the life of a 19th Century writer who lived there.

Work gets under way to decorate a 100ft Redwood with lights at Kew's country garden near Haywards Heath.

Health and safety rules are being blamed for a decision not to erect Christmas trees as part of a town's festivities.

A man from West Sussex is told to take down his Halloween decorations after neighbours complained.

Elaborate bra straps. Designer trunks riding above low-slung jeans. The fashion for flaunting one's underwear may have more to do with conspicuous consumption than a decline in decency, says Lisa Jardine.

A painter and decorator who stabbed his girlfriend in a row about another woman is sentenced.

A couple in Bristol can longer afford to cover their house in lights at Christmas due to the increasing cost of electricity.

A funeral is held for a decorated Warwickshire soldier killed in an explosion in Afghanistan.