The Laboratory

Nearly there! Here are some Christmassy songs for you. First up, it's tiny Irish popstrels B*Witched with "To You I Belong" The b-side was a novelty Christmas track called "B*Witched's Letter To Santa" The other band who did a fun Christmas b-side for their fans was the Spice Girls, who recorded "Sleigh Ride" with lots of extra "in character" chat

We hope that wherever you are for Christmas, and whoever you might be spending it with, that you have a wonderful time full of surprises and good food. If you are on Twitter/X, don't forget to check out the hashtags #DuvetKnowItsChristmas to see photos of guest rooms that only ever surface in the holiday season, and #XmasAtTheInlaws for fun photos of our Christmas in Horsham. Here are some photos of what we wish Horsham looked like - maybe one day we'll have a snowy Christmas in the south! Happy Christmas and a blessed New Year! Adam & Sarah

For the last 11 years of the Advent Calendar, we have celebrated with the Swedish Royal Family, watching Princess Estelle (and more recently her brother Prince Oscar) growing up. The children of Crown Princess Victoria and her husband Prince Daniel, they are always photogenic and make marvellous Christmas videos.    They also dressed up for Lucia, a Swedish festival of lights. Estelle is now 11 and Oscar is 7. God Jul!

Back up to date at last! Today we are looking at celebrations around the world. Lots of places have midwinter carnivals, and since today is the shortest day, when better to celebrate! It's going to get (gradually) sunnier from now on! Jason Gardner travelled across Europe, photographing dancing animals, pagan figures, and folkloric monsters. In the Austrial Tyrol, Winter is represented by a white bear. When he lies down and rolls over in the town square, it means that Spring is on its way.

More tree decorations today, and the range of furry figures that you can get is unprecedented. Here are our favourite three: the Hippy Dog the Suffragette the Arnolfini Marriage The last of those based of course on the well-known Renaissance portrait of Santa and Mrs Claus:

All this week and next week are the Christmas specials of University Challenge. Even though Jeremy Paxman has retired from the job, we are still faitfully watching Amol Rajan and his giant TV screen every week. For Christmas though, they have celebrities (or at least grown-up academics) and Amol's TV screen is much smaller. Sadly some of the Christmas traditions have gone - one year there was a little toy train going round a snowglobe in the middle of the studio. And the photos of the adults when they were tiny students have also been scrapped. We're missing Paxo, as he was the ultimate quizmaster, and yet wasn't averse to a bit of seasonal tomfoolery. Who can forget his untrendy Christmas jumper? Or the time he asked a question about Widow Twankey in full panto dame regalia?

You'll be able to tell that Adam's school is one of the ones that are still going this week, as all the posts will be up late. Sorry! After yesterday's heartwarming trees, here are some more stories about Christmas windows. Of course you know all about the Fenwick window in Newcastle, a long tradition of entertaining Geordies, and this year they unveiled a series of Narnia windows: The other great thing about the window is that Greggs, who are on the other side of Northumberland Street, reverse their name above the shop, so it looks the right way round when you are looking in the Fenwick window. In Toronto, where we have holidaying plans, they also have a long tradition of Christmas windows. Simpsons and Eatons, two of the largest stores, have had windows dating back to the 1920s. Below, Simpsons 1920, and Eatons 1958. You can read more at:  https://spacing.ca/toronto/2023/12/13/the-tradition-of-christmas-window-displays/ Finally, one village has had the enterprising idea o...