The Laboratory

A late arrival, but not the fault of the sender! I just found my father's second contribution in an old Whatsapp message! The Biscuit Factory is an art gallery in Newcastle and this year they had an exhibition "Gingerbread Street" of gingerbread houses.

One of the highlights of the year was a trip to Tokyo to do some work with Casio on calculator design. I may have mentioned it, sorry if I went on about it too much! I only had one day of shopping so tried to visit all the best stores: Muji, Uniqlo, Atoya 12-floor stationery shop, Daiso, Don Quijote, BIC Camera and of course Family Mart. That last one is a "konbini" or convenience store, but offering so much more than a Costcutter in the UK. In particular the must-have item (which of course I bought) is the Family Mart-branded socks. These even got a whole article on the BBC . Over 30 million pairs have been sold, and people will fill up suitcases with them to take home as gifts. Japanese konbini make life a bit easier, with services such as Wi-Fi, bill payments, ticket reservations, ATMs, and scanners/printers, all in one place. The most famous are 7-Eleven, Lawson, and of course Family Mart. There are hundreds in each Tokyo neighbourhood, often 3 in a row. The top foods to ...

Then and now. Twelve years ago we watched our first Princess Estelle video, she's the granddaughter of the King of Sweden and 2nd in line to the throne. But back then she was just 18 months old, and starring with her parents Victoria and Daniel in a Christmas video from Kungahuset (the Swedish Royal Court). Now in 2025, she is 13, her brother Oscar is 9, and here is this year's video - but there's a new baby in town ... Princess Ines!

We don't really have a tradition of gingerbread houses, but some people can get very competitive. In the new Netflix Christmas movie "A Merry Little Ex-mas" we see Alicia Silverstone (Cher from Clueless) as best friends with Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Clarissa Explains It All) and separating from her husband (looks a bit like Gerard Butler, not famous). Standout acting from her two kids, and two gay dads. ANYWAY, she is the town handywoman, fixing pipes, electrical items, but really trying to make the whole place more sustainable. She also builds amazing gingerbread houses, including a model of her town, Winterlight (yes really): Here are some other great modern gingerbread designs, including London's Trellick Tower. And don't forget to watch the movie!

It's time for some nativity scenes we have spotted around the internet. Though we did see our first real-life one at half term in Vienna, they were just setting up and needed the wise men to take the bin bags out. Here are some stylish and self-explanatory cribs: (thanks to Alan and Gillian who spotted this one)

Today we have the big treat of going to the panto! It's only our second time in 25 years, and when some cheap tix became available at school we snapped them up. This year it's... Though I'm not sure many 11 year olds know who Lesley Joseph is (as the wicked Queen) and maybe they have seen Judge Rinder on telly. He plays the flamboyant Man In The Mirror (not actually in a mirror) and yes, they use the Michael Jackson song for his entrance each time (rather than the Human League's Mirror Man). It's a fantastic night out, with an over-reliance on fart jokes, one reference to 6-7, but lots of audience participation and fourth-wall breaking reference ("Don't call me Lesley!").

It's time for a round-up of all the best Christmas food we have seen. We recommend buying and eating as many of these as soon as possible. A staple of the in-laws Christmas snacks, the After Eight box has had a design upgrade this year. Don't pay £5 for it though! You can get it in Tesco for only £3. This is amazing. Adam bought one to take to the in-laws, and has had to since buy two more as he keeps eating all the cheese. The best flavour is the pepper and cranberry Boursin. Christmas donuts: the tree has a creme filling, and the Santa's belt and snowman are also delicious. McDonald's Festive Pie took a downturn last year with a chocolate caramel monstrosity, but this year it is back to the fruit and custard, albeit in a green-tinged Grinch-themed makeover. Still tasty. Sprout croquettes from Nandos. Delicious. Don't try to share a bowl, get your own. In memory of the beige buffet at school, here are the treats of beige on a tshirt.

That was a busy weekend! Hope you had a good time, we had 3 Carol Services, as well as a trip to Portsmouth, dropping off Christmas cards round the neighbourhood, and preparing for the last week of term (yay)! During all of our Christmas food shopping we keep noticing things that are a little bit strange. Like this: We have coped with Advent Calendars for cats in the past, and even Soup for cats, but I don't think dogs know what mince pies are, never mind recognise the pastry bone on top.  It's like these treats. I can believe a cat could take down a small garden bird. But a turkey? Or a lamb? I wouldn't want to see that battle. And how is a cat ever going to catch prawns? Anyway, send us the weirdest "my pet is really my baby and needs to have the full Christmas experience" pet foods you have found. We'll leave you with this:

Sorry for the delay! Also in London we saw not just massive Christmas trees, but also a massive tree pot. Here is Sarah for scale: Stranger Things mania has taken over London, not only the tree at Waterloo Station, but also the whole of the front of HMV on Oxford Street:

Sorry for the delay! On a stroll round London last month we saw some lovely Christmas windows. At Selfridges, they are paying tribute to two Disney designers, Mary Blair and Eyvind Earle, responsible for some of the most best loved Disney sets, including the castle that forms the backdrops at Disneyland parks the world over.  And we couldn't do Christmas windows without mentioning the best ones of all, Fenwick in Newcastle, who this year had a Dickens' A Christmas Carol theme. Here's a list of all the themes Fenwick has had over the past 50+ years: 1971 – Camberwick Green 1972 – Chigley 1973 – Rupert Meets Santa 1974 – Sooty’s Circus 1975 – Aladdin 1976 – Fairytale Christmas with Cinderella 1977 – Treasure Island 1978 – Storybook Christmas 1979 – Wonderful world of Pantomime 1980 – A Christmas Carol 1981 – Alice in Wonderland 1982 – Arabian Nights 1983 – Fly to Fenwick’s for Christmas 1984 – Gulliver 1985 – Fairytale Christmas with Pinocchio 1986 – Christmas Circus 1987 –...

more Advent Calendars we think you'll enjoy: Our colleague Matthew Scroggs designs an amazing Christmas card every year (download them from https://b.link/alevelchristmas ) and he also makes a puzzling Advent Calendar online. It's hard! https://www.mscroggs.co.uk/ We love to visit the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, though a lot of its exhibitions seem to be of stuff they found down the back of the curator's cupboard! They have an Advent Calendar of ancient and historic objects, and you can find it at https://www.ashmolean.org/advent In terms of physical advent calendars, here are two that caught our eye. The first is from Broughty Ferry near Dundee, it's the home of Bob Servant (a fictional character played by not-Professor Brian Cox), you can see his extension on the right. And the second needs no explanation. Ho Ho Ho.

Today we've got a poem for you, it's by Adam's father Kenn, and it is called Ampersand. &  I get lots of cards at Christmas from Relatives and Friends. They start around December First, the blizzard never ends. Some come from individuals, like those who live alone. But with those who send from more than one, I’d like to pick a bone. They’ll write “From John and Janet” or maybe “Jack and Jill”, It’s sometimes “Fred and Family” or even “Liz and Phil”. But instead of writing A. N. D. to spell the short word “AND” They do a little squiggle and pretend it’s “Ampersand”. I’ve already had a few this year, they’re hanging on the wall. Some of them look like an 8 and the rest, nothing-at-all, One or two look like a lower-case E or a C that’s been turned round, Or a Number 3 with a line through it, are among those that I’ve found. I don’t object so strongly, but don’t you think you should Get round to doing it properly? I’m certain that you could. Remember all you need to do is s...

Very positive response to yesterday's Radio Times post, so here's a couple more things in the same vein. People liked the recursion photos, and one Mark Gatiss fan sent this Radio Times cover from 2017. They are copying their own ideas! There were some fond memories of this maths textbook from the 1990s And this is mathematician and comedian Matt Parker with his friends ina very confusing recursion picture But if youwere hoping for something more Christmasssy from today's Advent Calendar, may I recommend "the book of the classic film, which was originally a book anyway". Maybe they will make it into a film.

It's here! Embargoed until 9th December, the Christmas Radio Times is now on sale. Quick, fetch the Sharpie! There's our favourite Aardman characters, Gromit and Shaun. But look! Shaun has taken a bite out of the Radio Times. Gromit will not be happy. How on earth did that happen? Find out in the video clip here: And there is an Easter egg (most unsuitable for Christmas): Because they couldn't have the real back cover in the picture, there is an in-universe set of adverts! Also, notice the recursion on the front cover. Gromit is reading a magazine with a picture of himself reading the same magazine! This reminds me of a famous Ladybird book.

Do you have any books you always read at Christmas? Last year we told you about The Dark Is Rising , by Susan Cooper. It's also a great time of year to wait for dark and read some spooky stories. Our favourites are by M.R.James, an academic who wrote stories each Christmas for his friends, now collected in Penguin Books. There are also some great adaptations of them by the BBC, who did a whole series of them in the 1970s , recently revitalised by Mark Gatiss. We also like a new series of books from Profile Books, edited by Cecily Gayford, where she collects together Golden Age detective stories (Allingham, Christie etc) with a wintry theme. There's definitely no shortage of them as she is up to about 12 books by now!

We hope your weekend is going well. We had an exciting day with friends opening advent calendars, singing Christmas songs, learning some new games, eating pizza, and after a 10 minute training session, playing FIFA on the XBox against Sarah. I'd like to report that we mastered the game's mechanics, but the only goal was an own goal and the shouts of "Switch! Switch! Press B, it's on the right!" did not help. Final score Adam 0 Sarah 1. Decorations are halfway up, and we have been sent some lovely pictures from our friends Lou and Joe in Cardiff, who always have an amazing display of foliage and vintage. Enjoy!