We dip into the Journal's archives to get into the festive spirit with some Christmas images from Northumberland's recent past.
Send your seasonal images of the county to northumberland@ncjmedia.co.uk if you would like to share them on our community sites.
It's a sob story with a happy ending. More than 50 years ago , John Waldie, then aged six, put a brave face on things after an accident in a hotel in Berwick in Northumberland.
John, now 57 and living near Hexham in Northumberland, held a heavy door open for two ladies and saw stars when it swung back in his face.
But John didn't cry - and that impressed a fellow guest at the Castle Hotel.
That guest in August 1958 turned out to be the artist LS Lowry, who said: "That's a brave boy for not crying."
As a reward, Lowry sketched a street scene on a sheet of hotel notepaper, signed and dated it, and gave it to young John.
Blacksmith Stephen Mather has forged a memorial to one of the North East's bloodiest battles.
Steel gates which incorporate images from the Battle of Flodden in 1513 will be installed at the site where the English army camped before and after their victory over the Scots.
The site is now part of Barmoor Castle Country Park in north Northumberland, eight miles south of Berwick.
The park, which has 104 caravan pitches, is run by Hedley and Ann Lamb and their son Jamie. Its Flodden links are only part of the site's rich history.
It was the medieval home of the Muschamp family and in 1341 a licence to crenellate (to fortify a building) was granted to Thomas de Muschamp, In 1415 a tower was recorded and in 1801 work began on the present castle-style mansion.
Taste feature: A feast fit for a queen is promised next month as Berwick's Slow Food Group takes a leaf out of our Victorian ancestors' book. Jane Hall reports
They gave us the package holiday, rail transport, standardised time, better hygiene, X-rays, the telephone and the largest empire the world had ever seen.
Alan and Val Knowles enjoy a victorian banquet within the walls of Berwick Barracks, pictured with Derek Sharman of Berwick's Slow Food Group
The Victorians also taught us how to eat, drink and be merry.
Holy Island's long and interesting past has for the first time been pulled together into a complete history of its human occupation.
Canon Kate Tristram, who lives on Lindisfarne, has written The Story of Holy Island, which chronicles the lives of people living on the island from the earliest civilisation to the present day.
Strangely, despite much being written about the island's past, she believes it is the first time it has all been pulled together in one place. The author feels this will appeal to tourists but also to some islanders.
A Northumberland woman wants your childhood memories to help uncover the history of a county show.
Berwick archivist Linda Bankier and colleagues are putting together an exhibition charting the history of the Glendale Show as part of an ongoing food heritage project.
They already have many items of interest from the Records Office and the show's own archives, but hope people will come forward and bring the information to life with personal experiences.
Tony Henderson on the impending anniversary of a Northumberland battle which changed European history.
In just three hours of savage, face-to-face fighting in a Northumberland field, 15,000 men lost their lives in the most brutal of ways.
Sarah Rushton from Northumberland County Council Conservation Team with volunteers from local archaeological and history groups at the summit of Flodden Hill, believed to be the location of the camp of the Scottish army of King James IV in the two weeks prior to the Battle of Flodden.
The scale of the butchery in 1513 at the Battle of Flodden, near the village of Branxton, is astonishing in an age well before the mechanised killing capabilities of modern artillery.
An engine which may have powered a wartime escape mission from Norway to Holy Island has turned up in a Northumberland back garden.
Last month, The Journal told the story of five men who sailed across the North sea in 1941, in a bid to flee the German occupation of their country and join the war effort here.
The amazing journey of Sven Moe and his four accomplices took place in an open boat powered by a single engine.
A former pupil has returned to her Berwick school more than 75 years after leaving.
Mary Robson - nee Storey - was a pupil at Longridge Towers School from 1928 to 1930 at a time when it was known as Miss Gordon-Smith's Academy.
Longridge Towers Head Boy Matthew Hislop, former pupil Mary Storey and Head Girl Melissa Binnie
Mrs Robson, who was a farmer's daughter from Ponteland, was a full-time boarder at the school.
A daring wartime escape mission was relived on Holy Island.
The niece of a resistance fighter who fled from Norway to Holy Island when it was under German occupation in 1941 was in Northumberland to retrace his steps.
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