Image
© AFPMembers of the Bournemouth Spartans swimming club taking to the Channel for their Christmas Day swim in Boscombe near Bournemouth, Dorset.
The traditional British Christmas: a cosy fire, turkey, mince pies and sherry. Or, for some brave souls, stripping off in the bitter winter chill and charging headlong into the sea.

In Brighton, and at Porthcawl on the south Wales shore, hundreds of people, some in fancy dress, joined in the annual festive dips, to the bemusement of onlookers.

In the capital, swimmers in more traditional bathing costumes and caps made do by plunging into The Serpentine lake in Hyde Park.

The Brighton Swimming Club's traditional dip -- bracing might best describe it -- was first recorded in 1885.

"Spectators-wise, I've never seen so many people here. There must have been around 1,500 to 2,000," said club chairman John Ottaway.

"Some people went in and got out straight away, our water polo team had a ball and were throwing that about, and the rest of us swam for around 10 minutes."

The water temperature in the Channel was 6.5 degrees Celsius at Brighton.

Meanwhile hundreds turned up for the 45th annual Christmas Day charity swim in the Bristol Channel at Porthcawl.

Some 866 people registered to take part, with those brave enough receiving a commemorative mug.

"It's a lovely sunny day and the tide was partially in, so it was a quick turnaround," said swim treasurer Marilyn Richards.

"The first lot were coming back when the last lot were going in. A lot of people said it was not that cold.

"They didn't look freezing. They looked cold and happy, but there were no casualties."