24/12/2015 Reporting Scotland

Shopping centres across Scotland are busy with last minute shoppers

out in force looking for that final Christmas present.

Retailers are hoping last minute discounting will keep the tills

It's the biggest shopping centre in the city here, and like many across

Scotland, busy today with shoppers looking for that last-minute

present. What kind of season have they had? Malcolm is the centre

manager. A good few weeks? Definitely, the last four with --

weeks have been very busy. Yesterday we had 62,000 people through the

doors. The retainers so far have had a successful Christmas, and said --

fingers crossed. -- retailers. I guess post will be people trying

to get that last-minute present. -- there will be.

Yes, shall we say the male population running about?

But you are determined to get the doors shut at five o'clock?

Yes, there is one retailer open until 6pm, which is Debenhams, most

others will be closing at 5pm. Thank you, Merry Christmas to you

and your staff. But worry, you can start shopping

all over again on Boxing Day. -- don't worry.

The Church of Scotland and the Church of England are making

It recognises the two churches' constitutional responsibilities

in the UK and will be debated by the Kirk's ruling body next year,

They may have their differences, but the Church of Scotland and Church of

England also have much in common. So now they have decided on a joint

approach, setting out for the first time an historic agreement to work

together. The declaration commits the churches

to grow together, while addressing more immediate issues like falling

congregations. And in the post-independence

referendum world, both churches are also aware of the impact brought by

constitutional change. It is important that the churches in

Scotland and in England are sharing with each other, are communicating

across the border, and affirming what we hold in common, which is our

common faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which especially at this

Christmas time is where our focus is.

Although this historic agreement has now been published, it is still only

at the start of its journey. It still needs to be discussed by the

ruling bodies of both churches, and that will not happen again -- until

next year. But the most in group -- important agreement to work together

as already been reached. -- has already been reached.

Police are investigating a report of gunfire in an Aberdeen street

Officers were called to the city's Northfield area around half

The road was closed off for six hours, and an area remains cordoned

Police say no-one was injured and enquiries are at an early stage.

A homeless charity in Aberdeen has seen the number of people it's

supporting more than double in the last year.

Up to 50 people per day are seeking help from The Cyrenians

after finding themselves sleeping rough, having trouble paying bills

Oil workers who've lost their jobs are among those

We are seeing now people who perhaps had redundancies, exhausted those,

unable to find any comparable work, and are now really, really

struggling. Justin Bieber and the NHS Choir

are battling for the Christmas But back in 1985 it was Shakin'

Stevens with Merry Christmas It was composed by Bob

Heatlie from Edinburgh - and he's been speaking

to our reporter, Catriona Renton. Title-macro hit the top spot in

1985. 30 years later it is still making money.

# Merry Christmas Everyone. 30 years later, it is still making money for

Bob Heatlie. It is a nice little pension. Not an

awful lot of money now, because it must have been sold many times on

many compilation albums, so gradually it will go downhill, and

people like bootlegging these days! Last year Bob made around ?6,000

from the hip, but it is not just about the money. From the -- from

the single. I have always thought it would be

nice to have a big Christmas hit that becomes an evergreen, but I

never thought it would happen. So how do you write the perfect

Christmas some? The lyrics, you have no choice with

a Christmas song. It was basically meant to be a Christmas party song.

Whenever I have seen it played in clubs and things, people get up and

start dancing. Just a good time Christmas song.

Now let's get the Christmas weather outlook from Anne Lundon.

Good afternoon. The worst of the winds now have passed, as Storm Eva

made her presence known particularly for the far north and North West,

but still some blustery conditions to contend with. Here is the early

hour radar picture, some blame to contend with this morning, some of

it heavily, pulling away into the North Sea during the course of the

morning. The hide it, some dry spells and blustery showers. That is

set to continue for the rest of this afternoon. -- hide it. Some wintry

showers on higher ground for parts of this -- Highlands and the South

East. The butchers reaching six or seven Celsius.

For the rest of the afternoon and evening we are hanging onto these

blustery showers, falling as snow on high-level routes in parts of the

Highlands, and on Christmas Day itself we are seeing this weather

front making inroads, which will be affecting us later on Christmas Day

into the South West. But for a large part of the day plenty of dry

weather to be had, some showers around for parts of the North before

the rain eventually begins to make written -- inroads into the South

West. We have a Met Office "Be aware" warning to accommodate that

rain. Maybe not a white Christmas then.

The next programme is at 6:30pm.