Clowns, candymen and a pocket calculator: a poem celebrating human ingenuity and playfulness, with Neil Hegarty, Henrietta McKervey, Leo Cullen, Evelyn Conlon, AM Cousins and James Harpur

Arboreal hieroglyphics, respectable attire, Gershwin’s Irish influence and a love that couldn’t be stopped. With Kevin McDermott, Margaret Galvin, Jim Doherty, Lourdes Mackey, Moya Canon, Denise Blake and James Harpur

Nervous patients, home from home and the saint among the box hedges, with Rebecca Hunter, Jenny Beale, Peter Trant, Barbara Scully, Niall McArdle and Margaret Galvin

From Old Moore’s Almanac to the jellyfish apocalypse with birdwatching on the Dodder and capturing a flapper skate along the way, with Joe Kearney, Rebecca Hunter, Fiona Hyland, Alexander McMaster, Pier Kuipers and Vincent Woods

Stepping out to dance class, serenading a new arrival, skulduggery in a Scottish graveyard – and rereading the searing Diary of Anne Frank, with Elizabeth Oxley, Peter Cunningham, Emer O’Kelly, Rory Gleeson, Paul Johnston and Vincent Woods

Paintings and poetry, mending and making do, reciting Yeats in New Delhi and a long night of the soul in the Emergency Department, with Daniel Mulhall, Catherine Foley, John MacKenna, Aidan Mathews, Margaret Hickey and Nidhi Zak/Aria Eip

The 'big snow', the real Gabriel Conroy, finding profundity in simplicity and tumbles on winter streets, with Alexander McMaster, Enda Wyley, Conall Hamill, John F Deane, Michael O'Connor and Mary O'Donnell

Absent angels, a post-Christmas brush with the law, and a reckoning with Yeats country, with Grace Wilentz, Michael Harding, John MacKenna, Enda Wyley, Brian Leyden, and Sharon Hogan

Christmas trimmings from Miscellany regular contributors John F Deane, James Harpur and Enda Wyley

A special Miscellany from the National Opera House, Wexford, with writers Joe Kearney, Margaret Galvin, Paul Rouse, Antonia Gunko Karelina, Joe Brennan and Alison Ní Mháirtín, and music extracts from the RTÉ Concert Orchestra conducted by David Brophy with special guests Piaras Ó Lorcáin and John Molloy