TWO old chums, press photographers, are wearing Santa hats and shaking tambourines towards the Lord Provost. Unusual activity for photographers, at least when sober, it has to be said. Sadie Docherty, the Lord Provost, has a baby on her knee, the Provost’s gold chain of office around her neck, and a smile on her face.

Waiting in a relaxed queue across the floor of the grandiose Banqueting Hall in the City Chambers is a patient army of parents holding babies – gently rocking them, talking to them, wafting soft toys in front of them; using the universal catalogue of soothing actions that keep babies from crying.

The mothers and fathers are remarkably successful as there are few tears being shed by the babes in arms. Perhaps the chandeliers and murals are soporific distractions. Or perhaps the glint of gold is catching baby eyes. There are Glasgow Bailies wearing gold chains of office, as are Keith Brown, Deacon Convener of the Trades House of Glasgow, and John MacLeod, Lord Dean of Guild from the Merchants’ House. This is a very benign chain gang.

Outside the City Chambers on George Square there is a Christmas Market. It’s an attempt to recreate the semblance of such a market in Germany with stalls selling bratwurst and lager while other narrow rows of rickety stalls sell Christmas trinkets. As a former colleague rather harshly put it: “The beer bar looked as enticing as the waiting lounge at Glasgow Airport on Fair Friday just before the last flight to Magaluf.”

So for many people, the commercialism of George Square this year is hardly portraying the true spirit of Christmas. That Christmas spirit though was awash just yards away in the City Chambers on Saturday when the Lord Provost held the annual ceremony entitled Baby’s First Christmas.

It started eight years ago as an adjunct to the Blessing Of The Crib in George Square when parents could bring their babies to meet the Lord Provost and even have a certificate recording the fact. Now it has moved inside to the City Chambers after previous Lord Provost Bob Winter felt a chilly temporary marquee in the Square in December was not the best surroundings to keep babies waiting in.

There was a slight concern that taking babies up two floors of a marble staircase – one of Europe’s most impressive marble staircases – might be a risk if a baby fell, but wiser counsel pointed out that parents are usually pretty good at carrying babies without dropping them.

In October, parents apply online to bring their babies. The only restriction is that they have to live within the city’s boundaries. No other local authority appears to hold such an event, so many requests from outside Glasgow are regrettably turned down.

The first 250 who apply meet the Lord Provost, although the ceremony is more fulfilling than simply meeting a charming woman wearing a chain. A certificate with the baby’s name records the event. After all, the baby is not going to remember it so the certificate is a future heirloom.

A photograph is taken, which explains my former colleagues with tambourines, attracting baby’s attention towards the camera. Now photographers don’t like being known as softies, but I have to reveal that Martin and John on this occasion are. One baby girl screws her face up in tears as soon as mum hands her to the Lord Provost. It spoils the photograph.

Baby is handed back to mum who is asked to try again in a few minutes. The photographers persuade her to try four times before they are happy with the result.

The pictures are printed straight away and put in a folder for parents to take away.

As Lord Provost Sadie told me in a lull between pictures: “I was on a flight to Cyprus when a woman tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘You’re the Lord Provost aren’t you?’ When I said I was, she said, ‘I’ve got your picture on the mantelpiece in my living room’.”

The fellow traveller was not obsessed with Glasgow’s First Citizen, but had the picture of the Lord Provost holding her child from a previous Baby’s First Christmas.

From the lap of the Lord Provost, babies then go to see Santa where they are given a teddy bear donated by Hamley’s toy store. There is also a beautifully wrapped silver Christmas bauble given to all which the children can hang on their Christmas trees. It is hoped that the child can take it out every year and be reminded by parents that it was a gift from Glasgow.

There are even library staff on hand to give babies their first library card to encourage them to read in the future. I spot the Reverend Dr Laurence Whitley, minister at Glasgow Cathedral, who is conversing with parents as they wait for the picture to be taken. He doesn’t appear to be proselytising, merely chatting cheerfully. Besides if a Christian leader can’t make a brief appearance at Christmas when can he?

People of all faiths though are welcome to come along to what is a cheerful, welcoming event, rather than anything overtly religious.

Very praiseworthy is the cheery tolerance of the Lord Provost. Having 250 babies sit on your lap can be exhausting, especially when twins are involved and you are trying to juggle – not literally of course – both of them on your knee.

I ask Lyn, mother of four-month-old John Luc, what prompted her to apply, particularly as young John Luc himself will not remember the day. “It’s a nice tradition,” she says, “although I did not know it took place until I read about it on my news feed on Facebook. It’s about creating memories together.”

And a nicer memory, without doubt, than eating an overpriced bratwurst in the chill wind of George Square.