Christmas Dinner with SA SCBWI always offers something unique and 2019 was no different.

Some of us (80’s natives) were transported back in time to the days when the best thing about going to a family friendly restaurant with your folks wasn’t the food but the placemats. Ours featured SCBWI members in all their Christmas glory with a Lindt chocolate to boot. And some Santas didn’t make it past first drinks.

Everyone placed their presents under the small and simply decorated tree ready for the gift exchange then got to relax for a bit before the fun stuff got underway.

Next came the Living Tree decorating competition

SCBWI Committee members Kristin Martin (left) and Beverly McWilliams (right) volunteered (involuntarily) with prizes for the winning team as voted by SCBWI SA committee member and esteemed judge, Mandy Foot, who has zero of experience in this field. The winners are likely to leave writing behind and seek careers as interior decorators. I’m sure they know who they were.

Committee members Mandy Foot (middle) and Kelly Hibbert (right), under the watchful eye of David Lewis (left), take wrapping to the next level in the tandem gift wrapping competition. With each member having one arm out of action, partners furiously wrapped gifts with only one hand each and attempted to make theirs look presentable. All ten gifts hopefully found homes and helped fill a few kids’ hearts with joy after being placed under a Wishing Tree.

And then there was Santa… who seemed to have a particular issue with his pants.

Santa had everyone in complete hysterics before he’d even begun. Once he got whatever it was all sorted he treated us to a poem written expecially for the occasion.

That’s Not Santa poem - written by Mike Lucas and read by the jolly (albeit a tad less portly) man himself.

As his helper handed out the presents, some members took the opportunity to sit on Santa’s knee and he even got at sneaky kiss on the cheek.

Once everyone was ready with a wrapped gift in hand, Kelly explained that noone was allowed to open them.

Yet.

She began to ask questions like:

Stand up if you’ve ever burnt Christmas dinner.

Stand up if you’ve ever regifted a present (not including the one you brought here tonight).

And each time we stood we needed to either pass to the right or pass to the left. There was also some unwrap rounds and in a couple of rounds we got even to steal - I mean swap.

Some people went to great lengths with their gift purchases and contrary to what Santa thought, not all of them were crap. There were books (of course) and treats galore and the most gorgeous pair of sloth slippers which swapped recipients multiple times. The only trouble was the fact that we were all so busy eyeing off each others’ gifts that there aren’t any photos to share of the fun we all had.

And lastly, but by absolutely no means least, here are some of the sensational SCBWI members who helped spread Christmas cheer just by being there.