The Laboratory

Made it! Hope you enjoyed all of our pictures, stories and videos this year. There's lots we didn't manage to fit in, like (Dave Walker  https://cartoonchurch.com/ ) (V&A Christmas Tree by Anna Lomax https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/wkwjeoDARmw/christmas-tree-installation-2024 ) What if Bach wrote Last Christmas? If you are on the socials over the next few days, check out the hashtags #DuvetKnowItsChristmas #XmasWithTheInlaws #AdamsCooking on Twitter and Bluesky. And we'll see you again next year. Lots of love!

It's become a tradition on the penultimate day of the Advent Calendar to share with you how the Swedish Royal Family is getting on. Since 2012, when Crown Princess Estelle was born, there has been an annual video showing Estelle, her parents Victoria (who will be Queen one day soon) and Daniel, and lately her little brother Oscar, doing some Swedish Christmas crafts. Here's this year's candlemaking, at an old house in the Skansen in Stockholm, with a flashback to 1980 when Victoria did the same thing with her parents.   Hard to believe it's 11 years since you first saw Estelle on the Advent Calender. Here once again is her first ever Christmas video! And for four more years of classic Estelle and Oscar action, revisit our 2017 page: https://adamcreen.blogspot.com/2017/12/19th-december-2017.html

Last Sunday in Advent, last candle on the Advent Ring, and churches will have their nativity scenes set up, ready to be filled by children dressed as shepherds, princesses, and Groot, bringing up antique china figurines of the wise men. At home, you might have a small nativity, possibly Lego or Playmobil, or maybe like this woman, made by your child 40 years earlier and still produced every Christmas: Alternatively you might live in a completely different sort of house where you collect things that are green and scaly, and put together this sort of nativity: Or you might be the minimalist type: Or you just love knitting: Or you have an exceedingly well-balanced mobile nativity:

In the battle of the corporate Christmas cards, there's been a bit of a theme this year. Both Adam's school and the local Maths Hub have gone for a stylish holly wreath, this one drawn by the talented Mr Kern: You can also watch the (blink and you'll miss Adam) Salesian School Christmas Video at: But the big battle is between the two best colleges in the land, Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (LMH). You may have your own opinion on this but Adam and Sarah will never agree. How did their Christmas email greetings compare? LMH: the evidence - a snowy picture, and a choral video introduced by the Chaplain RHUL: the evidence - an animated drawing of the college, a link to the Annual Report, and a request for money This goes all the way back to 2013 when we held a poll for Best College Christmas on the Advent Calendar and got our alumni friends to try and fix it. The results are lost in the mists of time...

And look! We're up to date. Just in time for the end of term. Which used to mean a "brown lunch" for Adam with his friends from the Drama department, Tony and Jason. But that was 15 years ago, they've moved on, and so has the brown stodge. We have a healthy end of term spread with lots of variety and colour. Not in any way like this: Wishing all of our teaching friends a happy holiday! Enjoy your 17 days off!

We're into the final stretch, and there's so much more we want to share with you. Especially some fun Christmas food - so much food! In Aldi we puzzled over this name. Who's Tommy K? But then we remembered a few years ago and the whole Platty Jubes thing meaning Platinum Jubilee. So ... Tommy K! And though it isn't as good as the usual Festive Pie, Adam did try the McDonalds x Terry's "Chocolate Orange Pie" And Adam's first visit EVER to a Toby Carvery, with his Maths department chums. It was amazing - as many as 5 meats, and as much vegetables and trimmings as you liked! And if you have the app, you can get 25% off, so it's a full roast dinner for £8. EIGHT! One of Adam's colleagues admitted that they had been to Toby once a week for a whole year. It is really a thing. You should try it out! Finally, we found another terrible cracker joke. Is it a joke? We can't tell.

As well as going to the Scandi fairs with Adam's sister Gail, we also visited Maison Diptyque on New Bond Street, a very exclusive candle and fragrance shop. Why? Because it had an installation by Lucy Sparrow. She's an English artist who creates decorations and objects out of felt. And it really was a display of wonder! Imagine stepping into a delicatessen brimming with festive treats, wine, chocolates and cakes, all made out of felt. There were also iconic Diptyque designs to be discovered – fragrances and candles reimagined in felt, right down to the flame.​ Even the cash register is made of felt! Completely hand-crafted by Lucy Sparrow over the span of more than a year, these artworks took over 2,500 hours to make. Not cheap to buy, but amazing to look at. And it's open until 7th January 2025. Do pay a visit upstairs, at the front of the store. Who knows what you will find! https://www.diptyqueparis.com/en_uk/c/maison-diptyque-london-lucy-sparrow.html

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.

Time for some silly presents that you could buy (as if yesterday's toilet roll wasn't silly enough). 1) for the EXCEL fan in your life, from the silly folks at the Financial Times, a vaguely seasonal mousemat. They have a whole range of merch, mainly mocking people who buy crypto. https://www.redbubble.com/i/mouse-pad/Merry-XMATCH-by-FTAlphaville/166878203.G1FH6 2) ornaments seem to be getting sillier and tackier every year. The Covent Garden shop Choosing Keeping has a representative range including these three kitschy classics. https://choosingkeeping.com/collections/christmas2021-breakfastanddeli 3) another nerdy gift, this time from Mathsgear, who have loads of silly toys that actually show some really important maths. Alongside non-transitive dice and , they have these square coasters, each of which is split into different sized squares. If you put all four together, it makes a super-square! https://mathsgear.co.uk/collections/all/products/squared-square-coasters 4) saving...

Well, the tree is up and dressed (by Sarah) and I'm doing the annual "shove everything in the conservatory until the spring" routine. We're also making sure we have everything we need to sustain us over the holiday season, so here are some top Christmas foodie treats you might want to try. From Partridges, the best deli in Mayfair, we saw these: Just the orange and strawberry cremes - the best! Hex means Witches, not Hexagon! All aboard the Lebkuchen Zug! For the person who has everything And further afield, in Waitrose and Zizzi a giant profiterole, which was not giant, did not look as good as the picture, and had a tiny jug of lukewarm sauce Gravy in a can! Milton, thou should'st be living at this hour.

Warning: clicking on the video link will play "Last Christmas" by Wham! Do not do so if you want to avoid losing Whamageddon and being sent to Whamhalla. It's an unbelievable 40 years since Wham! released their Christmas Number 1, and the snowy mountain village where it was filmed is cashing in. Saas-Fee in the Valais in Switzerland is keen to get tourists along and this article in the Financial Times tells all. "Visitors who come to schuss down its 150km of pistes will also discover guided Wham! walks, Wham! cocktails, Wham! parties and, in the town’s museum, alongside 19th-century weaving looms, beds, dresses and ice axes, a new exhibition on the pop group’s stay in the Swiss Alps four decades ago." The video was shot in late November for a December release, even though the song was recorded in August. The ride in the cable car, only lasted for 50 metres, before they came down again. But normally it goes up to the start of the world’s highest funicular rail...

In the run up to Christmas, it's good to have books that you always read this time of year. Susan Cooper's sequence of children's books The Dark Is Rising is a firm favourite, especially the second one in the set, also titled The Dark Is Rising. From the 1970s, it's all about a choirboy from a large family who discovers magical powers and a responsibility to gather six Signs and save Christmas. Published by Puffin (naturally) it's an easy read for 8 year olds and up, and certainly this 54 year old still enjoys it. But even better, the BBC have produced a new audio version from Theatre de Complicite headed up by Simon McBurney (Archdeacon Robert in Rev).  You can find it at  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w13xtvp7 and with 12 episodes, you can start it this week and finish it by Christmas. But do read the book too. Susan Cooper is an excellent author for both adults and children. There are even readathon groups on the socials where people synchronise their reading...

Even if you haven't started putting up your decorations (maybe a job for this weekend) we're sure some of your neighbours have made an early start. Our street already has rainfall-style hanging lights, wreaths aplenty, and neon penguins seem popular this year. But of course there's also a trend for dressing your home, and our friends Emma and Louise both produce beautiful displays that accessorise their lounges, larders and studys with seasonal garb. Lou first: And Emma's: