Browsing most athletics websites across Europe at this time of the year would not yield any track and field results as this is the period for cross-country events mainly.
In local tradition, however, the Christmas period also heralds an athletic meeting organised by Pembroke Athleta, one that fulfils a dual purpose.
The first is tied to the rule that age category is calculated on the years of an athlete as of December 31 of that year. Therefore, athletes changing categories, say from cadet to youth, do so as from the first day of the particular year.
In this sense, the meet affords a 'last chance' to better a record.
The second raison d'etre for the meet is for athletes to gauge their preparation for the new season, especially those targeting participation away from our shores.
This athletic meeting, now in its 14th year, also took on special meaning for Pembroke. It is dedicated to their former general secretary Joe M. Gerada, who passed away last year.
No athlete changing category established any record. However, in true tradition, two records did fall, both in the horizontal jumps, in the 18- to 19-year category, the junior.
First to enter the record books was Alessandra Pace, a talented Zurrieq Wolves triple jumper who has been practising this speciality for some time now.
Her second try of 11.37m bettered the previous mark by 12 cms.
The other came from Andy Grech. At his first attempt, he cleared 6.78m to better his own long jump record, set this year, by three centimetres. This event was made even more interesting by the competition provided by Andrew Cassar Torregiani, who interrupted his studies in the UK to be at this meeting.
A hectic afternoon's programme saw the staging of the now novel mile event.
Matthew Farrugia, of Savio AC, won in 4.56.18 while Hannah Pace, in the Pembroke colours, concluded her efforts in 6.19.29.
Among the senior athletes taking part, Charlene Attard led in her training partner Lara Scerri in the 60m and 200m, posting times of 7.86 and 26.03 respectively.
The short sprint was also very popular among the men.
Allcomers' man-of-the-moment Neil Borg took the honours in 7.16 seconds, elbowing Olympian Nikolai Portelli by one-hundredth of a second, with Mario Bonello third in.
Other established athletes who stamped their mark were Mario Mifsud, victor in the shot putt and discus, Giselle Camilleri and Alister Bezzina, winners in 3,000m, and Jean Paul Callus in javelin.
Another novelty was the 400m walk, in which Marylin Mintoff, Annabelle Calafato and Emma Galea, all Pembroke, produced a splendid example of the perfect gait, maintaining the proper contact with the ground in their graceful lap of the track.