Welcome to our Christmas Special 2025, for the blind and visually impaired community in Sandwell. We hope it gets you into a festive mood!
Each year our regular volunteers, their families and friends and other guests bring you poems, stories, music, interviews, a quiz and a little bit of nostalgia. So dip in and enjoy.
Contents (in track order)
[If you would like to skip from track to track, it may be easier for you to use the Talking News Federation web player (opens in a new window)]
- Introduction by our editor Ray and Chair Tony. With “Jingle Bells” sung by SVI Choir, followed by Christmas greetings from Sandwell Talking News volunteers and SVI staff.
Featuring our youngest contributors:
- Olivia (volunteer Sarah-Ann’s daughter) reads two poems by Denise Rogers (@ClassroomPoems.com) – “What Am I?” and “It’s Cold”
- Christmas jokes told by Ethan, with his mum, Rachel
- Remi (volunteer Sarbjit’s daughter) sings ‘A Starry Night’
- Olivia reads the Christmas quiz. Kindly compiled by quiz enthusiast Dianne. Answers later.
Poetry corner:
- “Santa 2025” by Graham Price, founder member and former Chair of SVI, read by volunteer Gavin.
- Jan, another newer volunteer, reads “Christmas” by John Betjeman
- Rachel reads some of her festive favourites: ‘The First Christmas” by Marian Swinger; “Help Wanted” by Timothy Tocher and “On the first day of Xmas My True Love Phoned Me Up” by Dave Calder – (from books of selected poems published by Pan MacMillan and available on their website of favourite poems for Christmas)
- Jan reads “Goodwill to Men, Give Us Your Money” by Pam Ayres – (thanks to Pam Ayres, Platypus Publishers and Acorn Entertainments.)
- “Our Christmas Tree”, an original poem written for us and read by one of our extremely talented younger, regular volunteers Lauren
- “Another Night Before Christmas” by Carol Ann Duffy – read by Sue, our longstanding volunteer who selects the news articles for us every week.
- “A Christmas Night” an entertaining view of Santa, written and read by our newest volunteer, Mia
- “A Traditional Family Christmas” by Brian Bilston read by Jennie (with kind permission of Brian Bilston)
Stories, comment and interviews:
- “Christmas Card” – An original ghost story written especially for us by volunteer Debbie and read for us by Mark
- All the way from the Pacific Northwest, USA – our most remote volunteer Rosie goes to fetch her Christmas tree from the local goat farm
- A Magical Memory of Christmas – much closer to home, Janet remembers a Christmas highlight of her childhood in 1950s West Bromwich.
- Volunteer Sarbjit interviews her daughter Remi (also a regular seasonal volunteer!) who recently went all the way to London on a school trip to see the Nutcracker ballet.
- Ardent Baggies fan, our volunteer Trevor, on football at Christmas
- Olivia with the answers to the Christmas Quiz
- Roving reporter Prince checks out the latest at Firkins bakery, West Bromwich and finds out what Christmas means to people there.
- Brandhall Community Choir sing ‘Mary Did You Know?’ at a pre Christmas rehearsal. Brandhall Community Choir welcomes everyone – no audition required – they meet at The Oak Tree Centre , Oldbury. (We can signpost you if you are interested in joining)
- Prince reads an article he wrote about how toys (lamb teddies) have been used to bring Bible stories to visually impaired children
- A visit to the “Winter Tales” exhibition at Bromwich Hall (also known as The Manor House), West Bromwich – thanks to Wednesbury Creative Network, Sandwell Museums Service and friends.
- Pam gets an exclusive interview with Santa, who appears every year at the SVI Christmas Party – this year the party was at West Bromwich Town Hall, a different venue…so it’s lucky he found us!
- Credits and final thanks from Ray
Further credits
Piano backing track to volunteers greetings compilation is Angels We Have Heard by Kevin MacLeod | https://incompetech.com/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who have made the Sandwell Talking News possible over the last year.
More ways to listen
- Use the Talking News Federation web player (opens in a new window)
- Listen on Alexa (Find out how to listen on Alexa)
- Listen on your phone – call 0121 699 6696. Full instructions are available when you dial in. You can also leave feedback for us via phone message on this service. Local call charges apply.
Not confident with the internet? We also offer Sandwell Talking News on a USB (pen drive) or CD in the post every week. This postal service is for visually impaired people who live in and around Sandwell. Want to sign up for this free service? Contact us via Sandwell Visually Impaired.
Support us
If you’d like to join our volunteer team, submit an article or donate please get in touch. You don’t have to read for us, there may be other behind the scenes roles you can help with. Email us on sandwelltn@gmail.com
For this week’s STN, recent editions and more information:
https://sandwellvisuallyimpaired.org.uk/sandwell-talking-news/
