The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 letter word XMAS
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
X
M
A
S
More clues leading to the result XMAS
- Exam pass oddly ignored when autumn term's over?
- Period celebrated by mother and son
- Times writing about a festival
- Set up instrument to capture mass annual festival
- Kiss on Mother’s Day — in December?
- Kiss while under piece of mistletoe now?
- Reduction for the present time
- Festival for ten graduates
- Cross when receiving money in increasingly commercialised event?
- Regularly appearing, exam days when school’s out
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "annual festival" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case annual festival = xmas.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.