Christmas Lights - Gangnam Style

The Chrismologist's Advent Calendar - Day 5



If you liked that, you'll probably like this one from last year too...

The Twelve Sites of London

London has a lot going for it, especially during the festive season. Check out this website to discover twelve of them.

Less than two months to go!

Two months today is Boxing Day - which means that Christmas Day will be a dim and distant (and possibly hangover-fogged) memory. Two months doesn't sound long at all, and yet we haven't even had Halloween yet!

Talking of Halloween, in the past I've blogged about the lengths some people will go to with their Christmas lights. Well, now someone has gone the extra mile with their Halloween lights - which has to be seen to be believed...

The Chrismologist's Advent Calendar - Day 19

Just like Christmas cards and manufactured decorations, Christmas wrapping paper rose to prominence during the 19th century, at a time of growing industrialisation and the development of a consumer culture.

Before the mid-1800s Christmas presents had usually only been given to children and were small things that might be placed inside stockings on Christmas Eve. However, by the 1880s, the purchase of manufactured goods had increased, as had the production of boxes in which to store them. From there it was only a small step to create special paper to wrap it all up in.

In the late 19th century presents were wrapped in white tissue or brown paper, with a gift tag or token sprig of holly attached. From there people started using coloured tissue paper. Joyce Hall (who would later found Hallmark Cards) started producing wrapping paper in 1918, with the designs becoming more elaborate as the years went on.

And then, of course, there's this sort of Christmas Wrapping (with more of those wonderful lights!).

King Kong Santa

Makes a change from the usual Christmas decorations...

Now you wouldn't want to be on his naughty list, would you?