Carols by Candlelight

Ponti's Italian Kitchen is hosting Carols by Candlelight on Wednesday 16 December, one of those mid-December dates that works well if you want to get your Christmas sorting done before the proper rush kicks in. It's a combined evening: carols and a three-course dinner, so it's as much a meal as it is a musical night. The whole thing is set at Ponti's, which is over at Fox Valley in Sheffield.

If you haven't been, Ponti's is an independently owned, family-run restaurant inspired by Italy's Emilia-Romagna region, and it's built around casual, family-friendly dining. It was part of the original line-up when the Fox Valley centre opened back in 2016, and it's got a private dining room as well as a first-floor event space that's earned a following across South Yorkshire for a pretty wide-ranging diary of bookings — opera and Elvis, wine tasting and salsa, all in the same room. The venue also runs festive family days like 'The Christmas Lab', a free session with a Christmas grotto, hook-a-duck, face painting, a live brass band and free gifts for the kids. Its private hire arm trades under the name Perini & Perini.

The Carols by Candlelight night follows a similar family-friendly thread. It's a three-course dinner with the carols as the main feature, so you're eating and listening rather than just popping in for a quick drink. It's the kind of thing that works for a group of friends or a family get-together when you'd rather have the food and the music in one go than organise them separately.

On the practical side, arrival is from 6:30pm and you'll be seated by 7pm, so you've got a half-hour window to get there and settle in before the evening gets going. The price is £65, which includes the three-course dinner. It's at Ponti's Italian Kitchen, Fox Valley, Sheffield — 16 Harry Brearley House, 6 Fox Valley Way, Sheffield S36 2AE.