Cousins' 39-year Xmas card game

Many of the presents people open on Christmas Day may not last a week, let alone a year.

But one pair of cousins have been sending each other the same card for 39 years - and counting.

The boomerang greeting was originally sent from Roger Dowding in Bristol to his cousin Rod Braxton in Southampton in 1965.

Mr Dowding joked that Mr Braxton should send it back the following year - he did, and a tradition began.

The card is shaped like a door and boasts a Christmas-themed 'knock, knock' joke which caught Mr Dowding's eye back in the 1960s.

"I chuckled over the joke and decided to inflict it on Rod, and the following year he decided to inflict it on me," he said. "We've been sending it back and forwards ever since.

"It is looking a little frayed around the edges now - like all of us - but it is still in one piece.

"We write something new in it each year, but it is getting harder and harder to squeeze in a message into a card which is nearly 40 years old."

He added: "I do send Rod a normal card too - and we're not still using the original tuppenny ha'penny stamps - we're not that tight!"