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Lifting the gloom is very much the role of a magazine’s first issue of a new year.   As the decorations come down and the long slog towards Easter starts, Horse & Hound knew its job with the opening issue of 1960, capturing this glorious image of horsemanship...

Some 64 years ago today, this edition of Horse & Hound hit the newsstands, with a cover that could not fail to bring a bit of Christmas cheer to one and all.   They knew a bit about catching the moment in those days didn’t they, even in black & white?...

You can’t have the great British Christmas without a dose of Morecambe & Wise, now can you? Throw in a bit of James Bond for good measure and you had the archetypal 1970s TV line-up.   For Morecambe & Wise, 1978 saw their first Christmas show back at ITV...

Not every Christmas is one of comfort and joy, whether that is individually, or on a more global scale.   Back in 1915, Golf Monthly was not blind to the conflict raging in Europe, giving over its cover to an illustration of the hoped for advance in the coming...

Footballers’ Christmas parties of the past tended to be the thing of legend and, quite often, public record as they inevitably got out of hand and ended up with somebody in casualty on the quiet.   The era of the mobile phone and everything happening on camera...

Just what do you get for the motoring man who has everything at Christmas?   Well, according to this ad from Lucas in the 16 December 1966 edition of Autosport, what he really wants is a stop light indicator, a reversing lamp or a battery filler made of...

In days of Christmas past, before computer games took hold of the world, the young rugby enthusiast would have awoke on the big day hoping that Santa had delivered for him a box containing the Subbuteo Rugby game, plugged in the Christmas issue of Rugby World in...

Bring me the head of Des O’Connor.   No, it’s not an edict from Morecambe & Wise, but rather the cover of the Christmas TV Times from 1969, pieced together in the days before photoshop. Des was the host of ITV’s Christmas Day extravaganza, the ‘All Star...

You can’t get further into the Christmas spirit than the cover of Horse & Hound’s Christmas issue in 1980 can you? If you can’t hear the sound of Prokofiev’s ‘Lieutenant Kije’ rattling around your head after a glance at that, I suggest you see a doctor before it’s...

Christmas is, of course, a time for peace, goodwill and rampant shopping.   Golf Monthly has, like all magazines, long laid its pages open for the forces of commerce to flog their pre-Christmas wares, including Slazenger who had a full page advert prepared for...

Christmas Day is one of those few moments nowadays where the sporting carousel stops turning, but it wasn’t always the case, as Rugby World’s Vivian Jenkins reminisced upon in his editorial for the January 1963 edition of the magazine.   “The Rugby man’s...

Formula 1 these days is the epitome of professionalism, with every i dotted, every t crossed, and every second of sleep and every calorie consumed scrupulously counted.   Back in the ‘60s, things were a little different, racers make the most of every moment in an...

Manchester City don’t have their troubles to seek just at the moment, but look on the bright side Pep – at least you don’t have Mario Balotelli organising the Christmas party this year.   That was the doomsday scenario that FourFourTwo reported on back in its...

Christmas time is a period where we get to look back over the course of a year just ending, as Golf Monthly did in January 1988, reflecting on a seismic 1987 for European golf.   Nick Faldo parred his way to the Open Championship, Ian Woosnam collected the World...

Horse & Hound has always had a penchant for getting its Christmas issue in early and 1991 was no exception, coming out on 14 November, just to give you time to get your Christmas gifts in the post in a pre-Amazon world.   As well as all manner of equestrian...

Does anything say ‘it's Christmas’ more than Martin Johnson’s cherubic face peering out at you from the cover of Rugby World?   Well, yes, many things do actually, but let’s not let that get in the way of today’s advent calendar tale. Back in December 1998, the...

It’s probably all down to Charles Dickens, but Christmas is a time when we are drawn to stories of days gone by, of heroes and villains, tall tales and all round good eggs.   With that in mind, FourFourTwo got the frying pan out in December 2000 to retell the...

TV Times was going all ‘Celebrity Squares’ on its front cover of the double Christmas issue for 1976, showcasing some of the big names who were to be found on ITV across the Christmas holiday – more amazing yet, we can still show all of these faces without having to...

By 1979, Autosport was well into its now traditional practice of producing a double issue over Christmas, which doubled as a look back at the year that was.   But there was room for a guest column or two for you to enjoy in front of the roaring fire and the...

Seventy Christmases ago, somewhere between the publication of ‘A Christmas Carol’ and another ‘Gavin & Stacey’ revival, Golf Monthly was getting into the Christmas spirit with a front cover featuring the deep dreams of a golfer bent on success on golf courses yet...