MAGICAL Mandy has been practising magic in Bath for more than 10 years. She is a member of the Magic Circle and President of the Bath Circle of Magicians.

Her motto is 'Keep the magic alive' and every week in the run-up to Christmas she'll be showing you how to perform simple but ingenious magic tricks around the Christmas dinner table.

This week's trick relies not so much on sleight of hand but how you present this magical treat to your guests.

In short, it's not what you do but what you SAY which matters.

1. Take an old-fashioned pint glass with a handle and a traditional glass of wine. Don't worry about using empty glasses as half-full glasses will actually help make this challenge seem all the more impossible.

2. First lift up the pint glass, then the wine glass, and allow your audience to hold both glasses to verify their authenticity before rather grandly challenging them to 'PUSH THE WHOLE OF THE WINE GLASS THROUGH THE HANDLE OF THE BEER GLASS, WITHOUT BREAKING EITHER.'

3. Encourage your guests, who by now will have started scoffing all over again (though this time not with food in their mouths, but scorn) to examine the glasses and play with them.

Keep repeating that all they have to do is 'PUSH THE WINE GLASS THROUGH THE HANDLE OF THE BEER GLASS.' And when they finally admit your challenge is impossible, simply place both glasses on the table, ensuring the handle of the beer glass is resting gently against the stem of the wine glass.

Finally, with a certain smug flourish, PUSH your forefinger through the handle of the beer glass so that it touches and PUSHES the wine glass away.

4. Accept their resentful applause and swiftly volunteer to walk the dog.

DISCLAIMER: Neither the Bath Star nor any of its subsidiary companies can accept responsibility for those Christmas revellers subsequently 'sent to Coventry' by fellow relatives as a direct result of performing this trick.