It was not just the midwives singing - there is also a Male voice choir. Male & female voices joining together is lovely to hear.
This concert has become an annual tradition and is very well attended. It is held in the Maternity reception, so often visitors passing through to visit their relatives and friends in hospital stop and join in with the carols. 
A few solstice facts from the national Geographic web site - I have learnt something new here today!
Solstice in Space: Astronomy of the First Day of Winter
During the winter solstice the sun hugs closer to the horizon than at any other time during the year, yielding the least amount of daylight annually. On the bright side, the day after the winter solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days leading up to the summer solstice.
"Solstice" is derived from the Latin phrase for "sun stands still."
That's because—after months of growing shorter and lower since the summer solstice—the sun's arc through the sky appears to stabilize, with the sun seeming to rise and set in the same two places for several days. Then the arc begins growing longer and higher in the sky, reaching its peak at the summer solstice.
The solstices occur twice a year (around December 21 and June 21), because Earth is tilted by an average of 23.5 degrees as it orbits the sun—the same phenomenon that drives the seasons.
During the warmer half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun. The northern winter solstice occurs when the "top" half of Earth is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle of the year.
Being the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice is essentially the year's darkest day, but it's not the coldest.
Because the oceans are slow to heat and cool, in December they still retain some warmth from summer, delaying the coldest of winter days for another month and a half. Similarly, summer doesn't hit its heat peak until August, a month or two after the summer solstice.
This get together has become an annual tradition now on the last Sunday before Christmas and it is lovely to meet up with all Steven's side of the family.
Crikey how do I choose just one photo again?
Actually managed to catch a squirrel still for one second in Newsham park - they are very quick creatures - I ended up with quite a few photos of blank trees or end of their tails. I like the gentle sprinkling of snow on the ground.
Even though they had not had much snow - it had been very cold and all 3 of the pools in the park had frozen solid - this one had just started to defrost - love the old red sandstone building behind it. It reminds me of a view from Central Park (I wish !)
Some Canadian geese having to stand on the ice - though there is a little glimmer of the ice starting to defrost - they had better watch out they don't fall in!
I called into a place called Cronton to do a geocache at these stocks. They are very old - but they are sited right in the middle of the village, so everyone could see who was being punished!. They would have usually made a great photo on their own - but this Christmas tree has been put up right next to it - so for some reason necessitating a metal fence around it - which spoils the whole effect - so this one is interesting but won't be my POTD. 
Just some info about the stocks.
I saw these new metal signs on the motorway gantries, as I drove in and thought they would make a good photo - but they don't really. I prefer this shot below - which just focus's on the the metal painting.
