Ten Santa-stic runners decked Melvin Halls with tinsel and snowmen, ready for the festive fun ahead.

A big Bromley welcome to Marta who joined us from Greenwich, and a welcome back to Louise. I must admit to having been a little worried when only 3 were signed up as of this morning, but my worries were unfounded, the lure of Christmas decorations proving too strong.

After a warm-up in the park, with the assistance of the trusty stress-pig, we headed off on a short run to Melvin Hall, back-marked by Clare.

We were met by Kathy who had laid out boxes and bags of decorations on the stage in the main hall for us. We initially thought we'd have a 'lick and stick' team to put together the wonderfully retro paper chains, but they strangely didn't have a sticky end, with sellotape or glue required to do the job. Bradley demonstrated his youth by not remembering paper chains the first time around! We had plenty of other decorations to put up, so we decided to leave them. The height of the ceilings could have proved a challenge but thankfully we had a trio of ladders, including a rather tall set that would have given an acrophobic nightmares. Mark demonstrated fearlessness as he scaled the heights to string two garlands from the high beam, then ingeniously hung baubles from the curtain hooks on the underside, ably assisted by Helena.

Sam set to work assembling ten snowman lanterns, having had the great idea to string them across the room to fill the rather large, empty space. The team decided to split them into 2 strings of 5 lanterns at either end of the room. Sam, Clare and Darryl strung up the first ribbon then hung the lanterns, spreading them out as they went. Tim decided on a different method for the other end and paced out the room to get the lantern spacing just so. He also eschewed the ribbon for twine, for its 'better tensile strength', and set to work tying the lanterns on. We were fast running out of time, so Tim ended with an audience as we hurried him to scale the ladder and hang the string of lanterns.

There was just time to raid the decoration boxes for some snowman and penguin deely-boppers (another blast from the past), reindeer antlers and santa hats for a group photo, before admiring our work on the way out.

Next week is another Christmas decoration task, this time at St Christopher's Hospice. It is our first visit to the hospice and we will putting up the decorations for the patients and families to enjoy, sign up here for some more festive fun. And if that wasn't enough to get you in the Santa spirit, don't forget our fabulous Christmas do next Thursday at the Bridge House. Sign up here for some food, drink and quizzing fun.