The Laboratory

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.

 Proving once and for all that Die Hard is a Christmas film Remember you can make a great John McClane Christmas tree ornament with a small amount of Bacofoil And this is a poll I did on Twitter. I still think I was right, but now there are 5 films it feels a little out of date.

Here's a round-up of all the stuff we didn't manage to fit in on any other days. Thanks for all your contributions, including Karen who sent this photo of a watermelon decoration. Next up, a Christmas Reith. And some other stuff:

We're always on the lookout for new tree decorations, and with the perennial debate over "Is Die Hard a Christmas film?" you couldn't do better than to make your own "John McClane crawling through a vent": Instructions at:  https://unlikelywords.com/2016/12/23/how-to-make-your-own-die-hard-christmas-tree-ornament/ In other film memorabilia, you could get a HAL 9000 ornament from Stanley Kubrick's 2001, but you might feel it's a bit risky to let a psychotic AI into your home. Still, even that is safer than a chestburster... If you are a fan of the papercraft, though, the best tree dec to make this Christmas is a miniature Commodore 64! Instructions for this one are at  http://rockybergen.com/

Wishing all of you a very Happy Christmas, from Adam & Sarah. We hope your travels over the next few days go safely, and you have a lovely time with your nearest and dearest. Thanks to all who have encouraged us to do the Advent Calendar again this year, you know who you are. For the final window, here are some brilliant Nativity scenes you may have missed: The baby cheeses Santa at the nativity Toilet nativity And finally the best Christmas tree decoration we have seen. As our friend Sophie said, "When tensions run high at Christmas, John McClane is still saving a whole bunch of people from something far more dramatic."

Top Five Christmas Movie Baddies 5. Those blokes out of Home Alone I haven't seen this but I assume they are Very Bad Indeed, as they want to get into Kevin's house and steal some gingerbread feeling, or something. They are also quite stupid. And unlucky. So they can go at number 5. 4. Harry in Love, Actually Again, I haven't seen this, but Sarah assures me that Harry (played by Alan Rickman) is a naughty man who cheats on Emma Thompson. What A Monster. However I think everyone in the film is a baddie for starring in such a schmaltzy piece of tinsel. 3. Victor Landberg in Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version) The incomparable Joss Ackland (seen here in a Pet Shop Boys video) as the evil store owner trying to put Cole's out of business by getting Kris Kringle arrested. He's been great in everything he does, especially baddies, like his Evil South African in Lethal Weapon 2 (poor Patsy Kensit). 2. Scrooge in A Muppet Christmas Carol (and others)...