IT'S the time of year that every parent relishes - watching their ‘little darlings’ perform in the school or nursery Christmas concert or nativity play.

As our selection of photographs shows, children across the borough have been beautifully depicting the nativity for years as they remind those caught up in the festive shopping frenzy the real story of Christmas.

The smartphone age meant that the show is often dominated by proud parents snapping eagerly away trying to capture the perfect picture.

However, more recently school privacy policies have come into play, with some schools ruling that it is unacceptable to take pictures or videos of the show.

It probably means that photographs like these, from the time our photographers rushed around every school, are a thing of the past.

Pg 20, top: The Nativity at Tonge Fold County Infants School in 1975; bottom left: The Nativity at Harwood Methodist Infants School in 1979; bottom right: The Nativity at Brandwood County Primary in 1975; Pg 21, top left: The Nativity at St Paul's School, Astley Bridge in 1979; top right: The Nativity at Church Road Infants School in 1977; bottom: The Nativity at Church Road Infants school in 1980.