Delightful dips on warmest Xmas Day for five years

WHILE some of us - including the Beckham family - pulled on matching PJs and cosied up indoors, braver souls stripped off for an outside swim yesterday.

- Emily Braeger

Luckily temperatures were milder than usual for the Christmas morning dip, which has become a tradition in towns and cities up and down the country.

Among the most historic of the swims was the annual Peter Pan Cup race, held by the Serpentine Swimming Club in London's Hyde Park.

It is believed to be the world's oldest continuously contested swimming competition, having been run, or rather swum, since 1864.

But this year the event was more bearable than usual thanks to clement weather.

Snow

Exeter Airport, near the popular swim in Exmouth, and Merryfield in Somerset both recorded 13.2C (56F), making yesterday the warmest Christmas Day since 2018, when 13.3C was reached.

The Met Office also provisionally confirmed the highest daily minimum temperature on Christmas Day on record thanks to Exeter Airport and East Malling in Kent not falling below 12.4C.