Co-op Juniors' Christmas Spectacular at Snape Maltings until December 21.IT'S old-fashioned. It's traditional. It's the way you remember Christmas entertainment.

Co-op Juniors' Christmas Spectacular at Snape Maltings until December 21.

IT'S old-fashioned. It's traditional. It's the way you remember Christmas entertainment.

And it's 100 per cent pure gold - a truly magical way to melt the hardest heart and get even Uncle Ebenezer into the Christmas spirit!

This is the Juniors' third excursion up the A12 to Snape Maltings for the Christmas season and they are starting to feel really at home in the Suffolk countryside.

The minute you walk into the building from the frosty banks of the River Alde you can tell there is something special in the air.

The hall itself is dressed like a huge grotto with icicles down the walls, and the set is festooned with Christmas trees.

But all that pales into insignificance once the performance starts.

The Juniors are a talented bunch - the audience all knows that anyway - but they have now come together in a disciplined way to present a tight two-hour show that really does them great credit and leaves the audience wanting more.

From the first chorus announcing “Joy to the World” to the grand Christmas finale this is a show that moves with great pace and enthusiasm.

The cast is huge but there really are no individual stars, everyone works together unselfishly to produce a spectacle that is so much more than the sum of the individual parts.

There cannot have been anyone in the audience who did not smile when the smallest members of the cast had their moments - the young lads in a sequence called “The Boys are Back in Town” had all the mums in the audience a-quiver as they took to the stage!

Singers Julie Locke and Tim Holder introduced some real professionalism to the show and the comic turns of Nick Pandolfi and Lady Felicity helped bring some extra smiles to the show (even if some of the jokes came straight out of last year's crackers!).

As well as Christmas songs ancient and modern there were also a few carols and reminders of the real meaning of the festive season.

All in all this was a pretty perfect way to get into the festive mood. It's the kind of Christmas show many of us remember from years gone by but which is sadly not so common nowadays.

Which makes it even more special - not only does it feature dozens of children it also has the ability to transport the audience back to their own childhood.

This is real magic.

Paul Geater