The Laboratory

Not having a terrestrial TV aerial means we've missed out on most of the Christmas adverts this year. Unless they pop up on ITV X, or we seek them out on Youtube. John Lewis didn't even seem to get talked about this year. There's a great long read from the FT all about how Sainsbury's (and others) have been planning their Christmas adverts since January. Use the gift link here:  https://on.ft.com/4gFilgm And here's the Sainsbury's ad in question. Judge for yourself if it hits the mark: We've got to share Adam's favourite Christmas ad which has featured on the Advent Calendar many times!

Delayed again but this time by a terrible cold - now getting better! We were sent an exciting email today about the location of the 2025 Eurovision Song Contest! Yes, Switzerland won in 2024, and they have chosen Basel to be the home of the show. We've been to Basel quite a few times, usually to visit the Vitra Design Museum just over the border in Weil am Rhein, Germany. Basel is very interesting, it is a tri-point which means it is where 3 countries meet. At the airport you can either leave into France or Switzerland, don't go through the wrong door! We were also excited by the Eurovision Christmas merch: If you are excited too, you can get your Christmas jumper from  https://shop.eurovision.tv/product-category/new-products

One of the problems with Christmas crackers is that the novelties inside are usually useless plastic, and don't make it much further than the kitchen bin. There are some lovely companies out there making environmentally friendly cracker contents, and we'd love to hear your recommendations in the comments below. If you have a big gang round (6 or 8 people or more), we've seen some crackers that are actually great for collaborative fun. Firstly, xylophone crackers! Each cracker features a vibrant rainbow xylophone design and inside, a miniature xylophone, sheet music, a raffia tie, a hat, a spirited snap, and a joke. Using the sheet music enables you to play tunes together. If you're not feeling music but want to learn a new skill, why not try these balloon modelling crackers? Same idea, comes with a balloon pump (because who wants to be out of breath on Christmas Day?) and instructions on making dogs, giraffes, or just make up your own for fun! It even comes with some go...

I'm sure we must be the only people still coding the Advent Calendar in HTML, but that's how it started in 2003 and it's too late to change it now. Sorry for the weekend delays, ironically the more time we have the harder it is to fit in the daily post. Some people fondly image we have it planned months in advance, but honestly it's whatever pops up on the day. And today it's all about The Box Of Delights, which we watch every year (and post about every year). There's a new Blu-Ray of it, though they thankfully haven't tried to do a Doctor Who and upgrade the special effects from the classic 1980s Quantel Paintbox and clunky phoenix animation. If you haven't seen it, it's on iPlayer again at  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p00tjpwk/the-box-of-delights Kay Harker is a little posh boy going back to his guardian's house for the holidays, but mysterious strangers on a train, and a Punch and Judy man with a dog called Toby, set him off on a qu...

Friday 13th, which some might think unlucky, but to us just means we are halfway through our seasonal cornucopia of tidbits. Let's have some terrible cracker jokes. First of all, this incomprehensible (but factual) motto: The annual Christmas Cracker Joke competition, as reported in the Guardian, had these Top Ten voted for by the British public. Topical yes, but funny? Ah well. What gifts will Sir Keir get this Christmas? None, he’s had enough! (yes, that was apparently Number One) Why are pensioners bulk buying-brussels sprouts this Christmas?  It’s the only way they’ll keep the gas flowing this year Why is Rachel Reeves in the Nativity this year?  She’s collecting inn-heritance tax. Why is Santa worried about being stalked?  He’s surrounded by baby reindeer Who’s Santa’s favourite member of Oasis?  Noel Why does Father Christmas find going down chimneys easier this year?  He’s on Ho Ho hozempic. Why aren’t there more jokes about receiving Oasis tickets for Ch...

The Advent Calendar we really wanted this year was the Bonne Maman Jam Calendar. Every day you get a little jar of jam or honey or chocolate spread or fruit compote, always unexpected and something you wouldn't have bought a whole jar of. And on 24th December you get a beautiful tree decoration. Last year we paid £30 and then saw it reduced to £12 in Fenwick and Selfridges, so this year we waited until ... everyone had sold out. So no jam.Next year we'll just have to pay full price again. It has really caught on and even the New York Times had a feature about its tasty jamness: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/dining/bonne-maman-advent-calendar.html

Friends of the Advent Calendar will know that one of the highlights of visiting the Norwegian Christmas Fair (see 3rd December) is buying the traditional marzipan pig. Strictly this is a German/Nordic tradition for New Year's Eve, but marzipan is for life, not just for new year! One of our highlights of our holidays this year was visiting Lübeck, the home of Niederegger brand marzipan, and a specialty of Northern Germany. As well as the shop, cafe, and museum, we also made it to the outlet store for marzipn bargains! In the museum there are lifesize models of famous Germans made entirely out of marzipan, and a marzipan nativity and elves.