It has been going for more than half a century and is as popular as ever.

The Royal Gazette’s Christmas Short Story Contest — now renamed the Dr Stanley Ratteray Memorial Christmas Short Story Contest — attracted 125 entries this year from writers in age from 9 to 97.

The majority of stories came from the Under 13 category and, including many people entering for the first time.

Editor of The Royal Gazette, Dexter Smith, said: “Congratulations to all the contest winners. The response to the competition, and in particular the quality of the work, gives great confidence that our literary future is in good hands.”

According to our judges, the entrants showed a great deal of imagination across a wide variety of stories.

The winners were:

Adult:

First place: Helen Jardine

Second place: Maria Terry

Third place: Sherma Webbe Clarke

Under 18:

First place: Nasir Simmons

Second place: Melanie Soares-Chan

Third place: Julia Pimental

Under 13:

First place: Florence Graham-Welton

Second place: Matthew Elliott

Third place: Aria Turchiaro

On hand to present the prizes was Dr Ratteray’s widow, Patricia Ratteray.

Dr Ratteray, a dentist by profession and the Island’s first education minister under the Westminster political system, had long recognised that encouragement of the arts nourished the roots of Bermudian culture.

A longtime director of Bermuda Press Holdings Ltd, parent company of The Royal Gazette, Dr Ratteray served on this newspaper’s board from 1988 until his death in 2003.

Along with the late Sir Dudley Spurling, he established the Bermuda Arts Council and the Bermuda National Trust. He was also one of the founders of the Menuhin Foundation, served as chairman of the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society (BMDS) for three years and did a six-year stint as chairman of the Bermuda Festival.

Along with his daughter Aideen Ratteray Pryse — who helped to judge the contest in 2013 and 2014 — Dr Ratteray was also an early driving force behind the Bermuda International Film Festival of which his daughter was once the director.

To read the winning stories this year, see our special supplement in today’s newspaper.