Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced a review into the police and national intelligence agencies after last weekend's Bondi Beach attack.

"The ISIS-inspired atrocity last Sunday reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our nation," Albanese said, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. "Our security agencies must be in the best position to respond."

A national day of reflection was being held on Sunday to mourn the 15 people killed after two gunmen opened fire at a Jewish festival at the Sydney beach.

Amid tight security, a minute of silence will be observed at 18:47pm local time (07:47 GMT), marking exactly a week since the shooting began.

Police allege the attack on December 14, which they have declared a terrorist incident, was committed by a father-son duo, inspired by "Islamic State ideology".

Naveed Akram, 24, has been charged with 59 offences, including 15 counts of murder and one of committing a terrorist act. His father Sajid was killed during the attack.

Albanese said the intelligence review, due by April 2026, would focus on ensuring authorities were equipped to tackle extremism.

He said: "The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will examine whether federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies have the right powers, structures, processes and sharing arrangements in place to keep Australians safe in the wake of the horrific antisemitic Bondi Beach terrorist attack."

In the wake of Australia's deadliest mass shooting in almost three decades, the government has announced plans to tighten gun controls, while the New South Wales is pushing to crack down on hate speech.

As part of a national day of reflection, Bondi was to host a memorial later on Sunday, exactly one week after the tragedy.

Earlier in the day, Governor-General Samantha Mostyn addressed a vigil held in Bondi, hosted by the National Council of Jewish Women Australia, where attendees largely wore white to symbolise peace.

"The entire Jewish community, whether it's here in Bondi or across our nation, you are part of the belonging story and the success of this country," she said.

Australians across the country are still reeling and there's a sense of shock and disbelief that something like this could have happened.

But this weekend, normality returned in some ways. Bondi promenade was once again filled with surfers, runners and dog-walkers returning to their regular routine.

While a sombre mood lingers, children's surf club activities – known locally as 'nippers' – resumed on Sunday as a sign of the community showing resilience.

North Bondi's Surf Life Saving president Steve Larnach told the BBC they had considered cancelling the regular nippers events.

"We were also aware of the sensitivity towards our Jewish community," Larnach said. "We did ask their opinion, they were very supportive of us going ahead but also extremely grateful for what we did."

Lifeguard volunteers were among the first on the scene at the shooting last week providing first aid, Larnach said.

Some surf lifesavers have been hailed as heroes, including one who was photographed sprinting from a neighbouring beach with a red first aid kit slung over his shoulder.

Geraldine Nordfelft, who brought her daughter to nippers, said "it was really important to return to whatever this new normal is as soon as we could".

"You have to return, you can't stay away, you can't let fear win. The beach is the Australian way of life and we all love it," she told the BBC.

Just a few days before her sudden death in late May, Zoë and her husband Andrew had a conversation that he returns to time and again.

They were driving to see a friend when the 38-year-old mum of their two young boys told him "she had everything she ever wanted in life".

Six months after losing his "kind, caring, clever and beautiful" partner to sudden adult death syndrome, he says remembering that "heart-to-heart in the car... makes me feel so much better".

Andrew, a 42-year-old mechanical engineer who works in the nuclear power industry, says the pair had been busy "doing life" until then.

Surrounded by toys, photographs and cats in the family home in Timperley, Greater Manchester, he says you can never tell your loved ones too often how much they mean to you.

"I think you take so much for granted in that they are there – that you get to just touch them, cuddle them. But do you ever tell them, 'Oh yeah, you look really good today' or 'I'm so happy that you're here'?

"You don't, do you? I wish I'd done more, I wish I'd shown more how I felt. Zoë knew but..."

Facing his first Christmas without his wife, Andrew thinks this is indicative of our wider inability to talk about death, to even contemplate facing our worst nightmare.

Many people just do not know what to say, how to behave or how to best support a family member, friend or colleague who has lost their partner.

Andrew admits he used to be "terrible at this - I was always the person that hid away and didn't approach it".

There had been nothing to suggest Zoë, a partner in a Manchester law firm, was unwell before the unexplained cardiac arrest that took her life.

Having experienced such a traumatic loss, Andrew has thought about what people can do.

"Just acknowledging the pain, the grief and there's nothing to say... being there for them is enough," he says.

"Don't ask what you can do - just do what you can do. Because I don't know what I want, I don't know what I need. I just need people to do something that they're willing to do.

"Buy me some food or deliver some food. It doesn't matter if I eat it or not – you've at least given me the choice, but you've not asked me to choose.

"Because if you would ask me 'Shall I bring some food round?' I'm probably gonna say 'no' because I don't care. I will survive without it. But if you just do it, it's there isn't it?"

'Overwhelming responsibility'

If the bereaved person does not immediately respond, he says you should not be surprised.

"In the early days I was getting text messages all the time from people. And if you were the last one I read before I went to sleep at night, that person got everything - they just got a horrible griefy message summarising my day."

He says Benjamin Brooks-Dutton's best-selling book - It's Not Raining Daddy, It's Happy - offers an invaluable insight into the new reality of living without your partner while supporting and looking after young children.

The pain and sense of overwhelming responsibility is so clear when Andrew talks about their beloved boys, four-year-old Joey and Tommy, who was a month away from turning two when his mum died.

"I'm not their dad anymore - I'm their parent," Andrew explains. "My role has changed."

Sounding wistful for a moment, he continues: "I really liked being Dad. But I can't be the dad that I was - I have to be this. I have to do some of what she did."

Widows and widowers talk about the pain of the "firsts" without their late partner - anniversaries, birthdays, major life events.

Andrew thought he would be celebrating Zoë's 39th birthday on 23 December, quickly followed by the glorious chaos of Christmas with family, friends and their boys' wide-eyed excited innocence.

The couple met by chance in September 2014 after independently booking a cycling holiday in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.

Andrew remembers the first time they met, thinking: "Wow - she is amazing!"

He adds: "I guess the beauty of a cycling holiday is that you have to look ahead - you can't look at the person - you just talk and we talked and we hit it off."

The young couple knew it was meant to be, and Andrew soon moved from Abu Dhabi to be with Zoë in Manchester, a city where he did not know anybody else.

"It's what you dream of," he says. "You know you've got this person who understands you, believes in you, accepts you, loves you, lets you be yourself and you learn that as your relationship grows."

They moved in together before getting married in May 2017, enjoying what Andrew describes as "the perfect life - on Fridays we went to restorative yoga after work and then have a restorative pint on the way home".

After struggling to conceive naturally and a failed course of IVF, their dream of having children finally came true when Zoë became pregnant with Joey, who was born in April 2021. Little brother Tommy followed in June 2023.

Andrew says he will spend much of the festive period potty-training his younger son.

Many widows and widowers raise an eyebrow when they hear well-meaning people urging them to "be strong" and saying things like "I don't know how you do it."

Andrew says: "You do have a choice but you don't have a choice. It's like I have to be. I feel this level of expectation from her - that's who she was, that's what she was.

"So for her to be proud of me - and that's all I can do for her now, to honour her memory - is to be there for the boys, to be the best possible parent for the boys.

"Make sure they're – I don't like this – as impacted as little as possible by her loss. And they can be the people they were going to be.

"I really struggle with that because if I do a really good job as a parent her loss will be minimised. But if I do a really bad job as a parent that's the loss of her."

'Hurts so much'

Andrew, who returned to work two months after he was widowed, says he only now fully appreciates his "male privilege" and everything that "amazing mother" Zoë did to support him and their boys.

He says time is now his most precious commodity, adding: "You just don't have that backstop, do you? That extra support."

Using a sporting analogy, the keen runner - who completes Parkruns every week by pushing his sons in their buggy - says: "When a player gets sent off in a football match, you still try and win the match with 10 men don't you? And you just have to work a little bit harder.

"I feel that's the point, that I still want the boys to enjoy life. And for the boys to enjoy life, I have got to enjoy life at some point."

Andrew talks about Zoë being his "safety blanket that made me feel whole - she's gone and I don't feel whole. That's love, I think, and that's why it hurts so much."

He says seeing happy couples walk hand-in-hand while Christmas shopping, just like he and his wife used to, is incredibly hard.

"It's just accentuated at this time of year," he says. "I'm trying to wrap presents - I hate wrapping presents."

Talking about how that job always fell to Zoë, while he occupied the boys, he says: "I haven't got 'me' to distract the kids."

When you are rushing around, trying to do everything for your children and hold down a demanding job, how are there enough hours in the day?

Andrew says: "The bit that I struggle with is time. You don't have space or time to grieve and feel or reflect. I think I had two months off work. After that, I was always busy.

"And I think I was – and I still am – scared of time on my own. I'm really scared because time on my own is actually time with Zoë.

"Because she's there with me but you almost don't want that because she's not with you. You have to have it in your head."

He struggles when asked what he thinks Zoë would want for him this Christmas and in the years to come.

Eventually, he replies: "It's a horrible way to put it but she's not here to live anymore.

"It's silly for me not to live 'cos she can't. She would want me to live. I can't put it any other way."

• If you have been affected by the issues in this story, information and support is available via the BBC Action Line

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Seven wild Asian elephants, including calves, were killed when a high-speed train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in north-eastern India, local officials say.

They say another calf was injured in the incident early on Saturday in Hojai district, Assam state.

The Northeast Frontier Railway says the train driver spotted dozens of elephants and used the emergency brakes - but some animals were still hit.

Five carriages derailed after the collision, but no injuries were reported among passengers and staff on the Delhi-bound express. Train cancellations and diversions were reported in the area during the day.

The killed elephants were later examined by veterinarians and buried.

Assam has one of the biggest elephant populations in India, with nearly 6,000 animals recorded in the state.

Local railway tracks are often crossed by elephant herds - but Saturday's incident happened at a location that was not a designated elephant corridor, the Northeast Frontier Railway says.

"It's like a switch that goes on and you're instantly starving."

Tanya Hall has tried to stop taking weight loss medication multiple times. But every time she stops the injections, the food noise comes back. Loudly.

Weight loss jabs, or GLP-1s, have done for many what diets could never do. That constant background hum, telling them to eat even when they are full, has been turned off.

The drugs have given those who never thought they could lose weight a new body shape, a new outlook and in many cases, a completely different life.

But you can't continue taking them forever, can you? Or can you? Well, that's one of the issues, no-one quite knows.

They are new drugs - which mimic GLP-1, a natural hormone that regulates hunger - and the potential side effects from using them in the long term are only just beginning to emerge.

And with an estimated 1.5 million people in the UK paying for the injections privately, staying on them for a long time is not a cheap endeavour.

So what happens when you try to stop? Two women, with two very different stories but the same goal - to lose weight and keep it off - tell us what it's been like for them.

"It was like something opened up in my mind and said: 'Eat everything, go on, you deserve it because you haven't eaten anything for so long'."

Tanya, a sales manager for a large fitness company, first started taking Wegovy to prove a point. She was overweight, felt like an "imposter" and thought her opinion was not valued by her industry because of her size.

Would she be taken more seriously if she were slimmer?

Ultimately, she says her suspicions were proved right. After she started using the jabs, people would come up to her and congratulate her on her weight loss. She felt she was treated with more respect.

However, during the first few months of the treatment, Tanya struggled to sleep, felt sick all the time, had headaches and even started to lose her hair, which might not be directly due to the drug but is a potential side effect of rapid weight loss.

"My hair was falling out in clumps," she recalls. But in terms of weight, she was getting the results she'd hoped for. "I'd lost about three and a half stone."

Now, more than 18 months down the line, what started as a bit of an experiment has turned into a complete life change. She's lost six stone (38kg) and she's tried to come off Wegovy several times.

But each time, within just a few days, she says she eats so much food she's left "completely horrified".

Should she stay on the medication, and live with all the side effects that come with it, or jump into the unknown?

Wegovy's manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, said that treatment decisions should be made together with a healthcare provider and that "side effects should be taken into account as part of this".

Stopping weight loss drugs can feel like "jumping off a cliff", observes lifestyle GP Dr Hussain Al-Zubaidi.

"I often see patients who will come off it when they're on the highest dose because they've reached their target and then they stop."

According to Dr Al-Zubaidi, that can be like being hit by an "avalanche or a tsunami". The food noise comes back as quickly as the next day.

He says the evidence so far suggests that, between one and three years after stopping the medication, people will see a "significant proportion of weight" go back on.

"Somewhere in the region of 60 to 80% of the weight that you lost will return."

Ellen Ogley is determined not to let that happen. She decided to start taking weight-loss medication because she had reached a "key turning point" in her life. She was so overweight she had to sign a waiver to say she might not make it through a vital operation.

Starting on Mounjaro was her "final shot to get it right", she says.

"I was an emotional binge eater," she says.

"If I was happy, I would binge. If I was sad, I was binging. It didn't really matter, I had no filter whatsoever."

But when she started using the jabs, "all that switched off".

Life without food noise gave Ellen the space to redesign her relationship with eating. She started to read up on nutrition and create a healthy diet that helped fuel her body.

She was on the medication for 16 weeks before she began to taper, cutting down over a period of six weeks. She lost 3st 7lb (22kg).

As she lost more weight, she found she could exercise more and when she was feeling "low", instead of "going to to the cupboards and filling my face", she would go for a run.

But when Ellen stopped taking Mounjaro, she began to see her weight creep up, which she says "messed my head up a little bit".

This is why the right support is crucial, Dr Al-Zubaidi says. The UK's medicine watchdog, Nice, has recommended that patients receive at least a year of ongoing advice and tailored action plans after they've stopped treatment, helping them to make practical changes to their lives so they can keep the weight off and most importantly, stay healthy.

But for those who pay for the drugs privately, like Tanya and Ellen, this kind of support is not always guaranteed.

For the past few months, Tanya's weight has stayed the same, and she feels the medication is having little impact. But she's not going to come off it, she says.

She's finally at a weight she feels comfortable with and each time she's tried to stop, the fear of putting the weight back on quickly becomes too great and she finds a reason to go back on the medication.

"For the first 38 years of my life, I was overweight - now I'm six stone (38kg) lighter," says Tanya.

"Therefore, there's part of me that feels like there's an addiction to keep it going because it makes me feel the way that I feel, it makes me feel in control."

She stops for a second. Maybe it's the other way round, she muses, maybe it's the drug that controls her.

"It's all about having an exit strategy," Dr Al-Zubaidi explains. "The question is: what are these people's experiences once they come off the injection?"

He is worried that without additional support for people making the transition, society's unhealthy relationship with food means little will change.

"The environment that people live in needs to be one that promotes health, not weight gain.

"Obesity is not a GLP-1 deficiency," he says.

In some respects, many people enter a game of weight-loss roulette when it comes to stopping their weight-loss medication. Factors like lifestyle, support, mindset and timing all play into how futures post-GLP-1s unfold.

Tanya is staying on the medication and is fully aware of the pros and cons of this decision.

Ellen feels that chapter has now closed. She's lost more than eight stone (51kg) now.

"I want people to know that life after Mounjaro can be sustainable as well," she says.

Eli Lilly, the company which makes Mounjaro, says "patient safety is Lilly's top priority", and that it "actively engages" in monitoring, evaluating and reporting information to regulators and prescribers.

Universal's UK theme park was given the green light this week, a decision which created buzz for families up and down the country who might one day want to go.

After months of discussions, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Steve Reed gave planning permission for the park to be constructed in Kempston Hardwick, close to Bedford.

This isn't just another attraction - it's an attempt by the US entertainment giant to build one of the biggest theme parks in the world.

Universal mentioned in planning documents that a country like the UK should have at least two global theme parks, and this project was described as a "generational opportunity".

But can Universal pull off something of quite this scale? As BBC News heard from locals, it might be a tall order - and not everyone is happy.

Living on the doorstep of a theme park

"They haven't bought enough land; what they should be buying is 2,000 acres somewhere and put their theme park in the middle," says Claudia Pixley, 46, who lives in a bungalow on Manor Road where the theme park entrance will be built.

"But as it happens, some of these roads around here are tiny village roads."

"Anything goes wrong on the M1 or the A421, this whole area is at a standstill... and then you want to put Universal Studios in the middle of that."

She describes the project as "absolute madness" and says representatives of Universal have approached her about buying her home, where she's lived for the last decade, but she wants to stay put in her "little slice of Eden".

She may well be one of few people in the area unhappy about the new park. According to Universal, in the Bedford area 92% of those who responded to its survey of 6,000 people were supportive of the development.

But it raises an interesting point about what might and might not be achievable in the grand vision for the theme park to rival the biggest and best existing equivalents around the world.

Slated to open by 2031, the park is expected to draw 8.5 million annual visitors and could feature the tallest rides seen in Europe. The total size of the resort would be 268 hectares (662 acres), with the theme park 96.7 hectares (238 acres).

Universal said visitor numbers were expected to rise to 12 million by 2051, which would make it the most-visited park in Europe. According to Forbes, Disneyland Paris held that title last year with 10.2 million visitors.

However, even at opening, 8.5 million is more than three times the attendance of the UK's biggest parks today:

• Legoland Windsor Resort, Berkshire: 61 hectares (150 acres), 2.42 million annual visitors (2023)
• Alton Towers, Staffordshire: 222 hectares (550 acres), 2.35 million annual visitors (2023)
• Thorpe Park, Surrey: 200 hectares (490 acres), 1.62 million annual visitors (2023)
• Chessington World of Adventures Resort: 52 hectares (128 acres), 1.5 million annual visitors (2022)

How good can Universal UK be?

For content creator Theme Park Kate, who specialises in theme parks and attractions on TikTok, Universal's future attraction could be "a huge game changer within Europe" and the ambition with its size and rides is realistic.

"It will potentially be a theme park that can compete with the popularity of Disneyland Paris, which has dominated the European theme park market for many years now," she tells BBC News.

The theme park fan speculated that the park would benefit from using intellectual property (IP) that has not been used at other locations around the world.

She added: "Harry Potter has been done now at various Universal parks, but a new IP like the rumoured James Bond or Lord of the Rings will be unique to the park and bring in a large amount of fans that will want to see these brand new experiences for themselves for the very first time."

Last year, a source told the BBC that the new park could include James Bond, The Lord of the Rings, Paddington and Jurassic World-themed rides - although a Universal spokesperson said it was too early to confirm this.

Theme Park Kate is hopeful this could have a ripple effect of boosting the country's existing parks and force them to "step up their game" to match Universal.

YouTuber Jack Silkstone, who visits theme parks around the world, agrees with the sentiment. He lives "next door" to Thorpe Park - and his message to any unhappy Bedford residents like Claudia is that living on the doorstep of a theme park is "honestly a dream".

"Everyone has some form of connection to the park - whether they work there themselves, they know someone that works there, they love to visit, or they aspire to work at the park when they're older," he said.

"It creates a real sense of community that then spills out into the wider surrounding towns."

Jack sees the projected scale of the Universal UK park as a huge oportunity for the UK's economy, and seems confident that the company can pull off its aims for scale.

"We're very lucky, we've got some amazing, classic theme parks already in this country. But Universal are global leaders in the theme park industry; they do it different."

'Winners and losers'

Universal said it expected to directly create 8,050 jobs when it opens, with many staff coming from the surrounding areas.

Wixams, a town which will border the new theme park, will also get an upgraded four-platform railway station as part of the proposals.

Despite the concern expressed by some like Claudia that the area may not be able to cope with an influx of visitors, Bedford borough councillor Marc Frost said councillors had been assured that traffic surveys were complete and road infrastructure would be in place.

Universal's engagement with local officials suggested they "genuinely want to work and get on with their neighbours", he added.

Another consideration for those in the local area is property prices - and some could fare better than others.

Nick Kier, a partner at Lane & Holmes estate agents, says he already knows of some people who have already bought property close to the Universal site, which they plan to rent out to visitors in the future.

He explains that "there are definite winners and losers in this scenario" and "you cannot expect, with that amount of investment coming in... that the prices won't go up".

"The people who are living here for a completely other reason will find it more expensive... That's the losing side."

At the same time, he acknowledges that local hotels for miles would be likely to benefit.

What is clear is that the Universal park could dwarf much of its competition if all goes to plan, and while the impacts can be a double-edged sword, many are excited to see what its opening brings.

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Tinsel, foil garlands, multi-coloured floral lights and a lounge that looks like Christmas threw up all over it are making a return.

Retro-themed decor is in, with trees jam-packed full of bold, mismatching decorations, as more people try to recreate a festive season from their childhood.

The nostalgic shift started last year, say experts, but over-the-top (and tacky to some) has become one of the top decor trends for 2025.

"After a long run of pared-back, neutral or traditional Christmases, people seem much more willing to embrace fun, excess and nostalgia again," says Harry Bradshaw, from events and interiors styling company At Last Events.

Retailers say they're seeing growing demand for decorations that can help recreate that familiar Christmas magic from years gone by.

"Maximalism is making a bold return," says Abi Wilson, head of seasonal and gift buying at Habitat, adding that people are turning to '80s and '90s-style colourful bells and bows, oversized ornaments and paper decorations.

Primark said younger Gen X, millennials, and older Gen Z shoppers were buying decor that reminded them of their childhood.

Marks & Spencer noted strong sales of its tinsel rosettes and tinsel tree skirts this year, while John Lewis said sales of "retro-nostalgic decor" had soared 180% in 2025.

Felicity Hayward is going all out this year to find that Christmas joy.

Back in October, as she browsed the charity shops near where she lives in Margate, Kent, she stumbled across a collection of colourful festive foil stars that reminded her of Christmas at her grandparents' house when she was a child.

The 50p decorations started what became a two-month endeavour, looking for retro baubles, garlands, and anything she could find to recreate those special years growing up in the '90s.

"Christmas always revolved around my grandparents," Felicity, 37, says. The family would spend the day eating homemade cheese straws, listening to Frank Sinatra, watching Christmas movies and playing board games.

"When I think back to Christmas, I think back to their living room, and I think back to their decorations."

Felicity hadn't bothered with any Christmas decorations since 2019. The combination of the pandemic and her grandparents' deaths in 2022 and 2023 had left her feeling far from festive.

But this year, her living room is an explosion of colour, bedecked with foil stars, tinsel and homemade paper chains and ribbon garlands.

Some people might see her decorations as "tacky", but Felicity says that "for me, all of those colours bring me calm".

"I literally cannot wait to get home on a night and turn all my Christmas lights on and lie on the sofa," she says.

Liza Prideaux agrees understated decorations are overrated and has embraced "nostalgic, vintage" decor at Christmas for the last two years.

"There isn't a strict theme, it's more about colour, texture and creating a cosy, lived-in feeling," the 36-year-old from Devon says.

"The colourful incandescent lights are my favourite," she says. "They make everything feel warm and cosy."

How we sprinkle festive magic in our homes is a "physical representation of what we emotionally need from our Christmas celebrations", says Hannah Bartlett, who runs the business The Christmas Insider.

The season is always a "steady anchor" and coming back to the same rituals and traditions each year can help "ground us", she says.

But Ms Bartlett notes that the current "uncertainty" in the world is making people find even more comfort in those traditions that remind them of their childhood. There's a desire to "return to simpler times", she says.

Decorations like tinsel and brightly-coloured lights "take us back", agrees 52-year-old Pandora Maxton from York, an influencer who means business with her elaborate festive displays.

"I think that's why it's having a revival, because it just takes people back to being kids. And that's what Christmas is about, isn't it?"

Holly Langley was born in 1990. But that didn't stop her from hosting an '80s-themed Christmas some 40 years later.

Holly, 34, from Reading, hunted in charity shops and vintage fairs for foil decorations, satin baubles, tablecloths and china. On the day, she served Christmas cocktails and jam roly poly, with '80s music playing and a quiz about the decade.

"Every year we do the same thing, right? Everyone gets out their Christmas pyjamas, we watch the same TV shows, we eat the same food," Holly says. Her '80s-themed Christmas was "a little bit different, a bit quirky, a bit fun".

Want to create your own retro Christmas? Here are Felicity, Holly and Lucy's tips:

• Check charity shops, especially immediately after Christmas when people might be having a clear-out
• Look on resale sites and apps, though be careful buying second-hand electronics like lights
• Make paper chains that you can reuse for other celebrations
• Ask relatives if they have any unwanted decorations
• Play '70s and '80s music videos, films or adverts in the background

So why were decorations so bold and bright in the past?

In 1970s Britain people were looking for a "signal of hope", says vintage decor collector Lucy Scott, in a time of austerity, trade union action and miners' strikes.

It was also the age of flamboyant glam rock - Brits were going crazy for eye-catching style.

But there were also simply fewer options available in the 1970s.

"There wasn't necessarily a massive amount of choice, but the choice was for these kind of bright space age tinsel decorations... the majority from Hong Kong," says Lucy, 45, from Birmingham.

This started to change in the 1980s, when more people owned their homes and retailers like Woolworths and BHS started selling a wider choice of decorations, Lucy says.

But Felicity says she bought most of her decorations second hand. "If you think about it, these tinsels are 20 to 30 years old and they're still intact," she says.

And it's not just a trend for her.

"This won't be a Christmas, this will be my Christmas now forever."

When Anne and Ross Campbell were watching the news on the night of 21 December 1988, they already had "go-bags" ready.

The Ayrshire-based couple were part of the Radio Amateurs' Emergency Network (Raynet), a UK-wide radio communications service.

Staffed by volunteers, it was formed in the aftermath of the North Sea flood in 1953 with a simple aim: during major events and emergencies, licensed Raynet operators would step in to provide essential radio communications.

When news broke that an aircraft had crashed in a small Dumfries and Galloway town, Anne and Ross got the call from their local controller: "You're on standby for Lockerbie."

At the time of the disaster, Anne and Ross, along with friends Tom Stewart and William Jamieson were all keen radio enthusiasts in their 20s and 30s.

And they were all members of Ayrshire's Raynet chapter.

"You worked away, doing exercises for the council and road races, but you always had in the back of your mind, there could come a general emergency," said Ross.

He had been involved in the group for a couple of years at the time but added: "You never imagined something like Lockerbie."

Pan Am 103 was flying from Heathrow to New York when a bomb exploded in the skies above the town, killing all 259 passengers and crew on board – as well as 11 people on the ground.

It remains the biggest terror attack to have taken place on British soil.

As part of the search and rescue efforts, hundreds of volunteers arrived at the scene to help – including many from Raynet.

Their expertise – and equipment – was desperately needed.

Ross said: "Strathclyde Police radios had their own frequency.

"Dumfries and Galloway Police had a separate one.

"Every police service had their own, as did ambulance services, so they couldn't communicate with one another."

Each search party at Lockerbie was teamed with a Raynet operator who would send messages back to Lockerbie Academy, the disaster control room.

They accompanied search and rescue dogs, air accident investigation units, the FBI, and the police.

Volunteer Tom, who had been in the fire service for 10 years, made the call to Anne, Ross and William to tell them to report to the scene the following morning.

Anne and Ross were both stationed at Tundergarth, in the field where the plane's nose cone lay.

"I still remember the press, with huge lenses, leaning over the fence, trying to get pictures of them bringing the bodies out," said Anne.

"That horrified me, I just thought these people deserve a wee bit of respect."

While Tom was used to scenes of emergency from his time in the fire service, nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

"The devastation, it was horrendous," he said.

"For other members of the group that didn't have that background, it was harder."

Tom's main role was with search and rescue dog teams, which had been tasked with searching for bodies and collecting debris and evidence from the crash.

"I can still remember the Chinook helicopters flying above.

"They were bringing out body bags and rescue equipment.

"We sent messages back, and the helicopter came with bags, and they came and took them away."

For William, one of the most striking moments was passing on the message that his team had found evidence of an explosion.

"We came across a baggage container, and from the damage to the container, they knew instantly there was a bomb.

"I was asked if I could radio in saying we had found evidence of a bomb, but because the press were there, they were going to be listening, and I advised them I couldn't send that message because it would be on the telly before we even got back.

"We changed it to asking for an urgent recovery of that item."

Earlier this year, William returned to Lockerbie for the first time in almost 38 years to pay his respects.

"I'd always meant to go back, but I've never been, because it does bring up memories," he said.

William, who was 22 at the time, said one of his most harrowing memories was finding a passenger still in their seat.

"To find something like that and knowing there was nothing you could do to help them, it was certainly upsetting."

Tom, who returned with his three friends, still struggles with what he experienced.

"I'd still never seen anything on that scale.

"I can still remember seeing people's letters and personal belongings and thinking that was someone's son, someone's daughter."

Anne said: "I'm proud that I managed to have a wee bit of input.

"But there were a lot of people who did a lot more than we did."

All four feel the role of volunteers needs to be acknowledged.

Search and rescue teams and their dogs, the Salvation Army, the Women's Royal Voluntary Service, and locals from the town were all involved.

"They gave their free time willingly at Lockerbie and went back home and yet nobody knows of them," Ross said.

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Houston from Police Scotland's organised crime, counter terrorism and intelligence unit has thanked Raynet for the role they played.

He told BBC Scotland: "The assistance Raynet provided the police and other emergency services in the aftermath of the darkest day Lockerbie has ever endured will never be forgotten.

"We are grateful for their support and expertise that afforded vital communications between emergency services at such a critical time.

"Our thoughts remain with the families and friends of those who lost loved ones in 1988 and who continue to show incredible dignity and strength."

Additional reporting by Charles Ross.

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