Christmas good cheer was brought to the elderly residents of Helston as they whiled away a few happy hours reminiscing with the town's mayor.

Helston mayor Ronnie Williams and his wife, Debbie, began their Christmas visits talking to patients at Helston Community Hospital.

Next they visited residents at three of Helston's care homes - Trengrouse House, Godolphin House and Penhellis House - bearing gifts in the form of tins of chocolates wherever they went.

Mr Williams said: "It was lovely. And the enjoyment on their faces that the mayor and mayoress had come just to see them and have a chat meant a lot to them.

When someone comes to visit them like this it just gives them the feeling that they aren't forgotten and it gives me a lot of pleasure also, to see them so happy."

Visits from the mayor in office have become a traditional fixture of the Christmas calendar and in the past have been carried out on Christmas Day. However, this year Mr Williams decided to move the visits to the day before, as in the past he has found that the homes have been full of relatives, with no room to move.

"My memory from the past was that there were so many people in there that quite often it was packed. You would have people there with their family and you felt you could be interfering a little bit," he explained.

And he added that the change of day had proved to be so successful that if he was still in office next year he would plan to visit on Christmas Eve again.

The visits provided the opportunity for many of the residents to reminisce on days gone by and even brought back memories for Mr Williams. One particular trip down memory lane came when Mr Williams met his former school teacher, Margaret Jenkin, now a resident at Godolphin House.

Mr Williams concluded: "All of us were made so welcome and I saw people I haven't seen for years. We normally allow an hour in each place but really it wasn't enough. The town looks lovely with the lights and visiting these people puts the seal, for us, on a lovely Christmas."