The Folklore Society Advent Calendar 2024, Part 4

— Posted on 23rd December 2024

19th-century German Advent Calendar with 24 small images of children's toys & other Xmas themes, and the Kristkind (Christ Child) in the centre

25 December

Peace and good will to all

Of every faith and none

It’s midnight, and the cat still hasn’t said anything intelligible.

Here’s a robin on a Victorian Christmas card in The Folklore Society Archives–hear a robin singing on Christmas Eve 2024 near The Folklore Society’s office in London, complete with traffic noise and a blackbird interrupting: https://youtu.be/IvX7eEaz__c

Victorian Christmas card in The Folklore Society Archives, showing a singing robin on a branch surrounded by greenery, in a white oval with a lace effect, and bordered with pink flowers and greenery — Robin on a Victorian Xmas card (FLS Archives)

24 December

Pantomime

‘It’s behind you!!’

‘Oh no it isn’t!’

Go to your nearest pantomime, and if you don’t like it, you can say ‘Booooo’ when the rest of the audience do.

Enjoy this historical talk about the peculiarly British tradition of Christmas pantomimes performed in theatres, community centres, church halls etc: ‘300 Years of pantomimes in Norwich’: https://youtu.be/hoKplEC0Ywk?

And see the wonderful costumes in this Victoria & Albert Museum article ‘The Story of Pantomime’: https://bit.ly/4gteDXM

Photo of 2 people rehearsing for a performance of Rapunzel--Lockdown, by Cyclops Productions, London 2024. Left, Andrew Hodgson, dressed as a woman, playing the part of Dame Gothel. On the right, Dave Powell, in the role of Kraken, playing a tuba and wearing green tatters, a very large sea monster head with tentacles and great big goggly eyes. Photo S. Kingshill — Andrew Hodgson as Dame Gothel and Dave Powell as Kraken rehearsing for ‘Rapunzel-Lockdown’, Cyclops Productions, at The Tin Tabernacle, London, 2024; photo S. Kingshill

23 December

Elves

‘You’ve heard of Elf on a Shelf, now get ready for…’: check out the memes here https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/546061523560594646/ and invent some of your own.

with reference to internet memes with the phrase 'you've heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for...' and the phrase is followed by a composite image of 2 things that also rhyme; here, the picture shows a Gnome on a Dome, with a garden gnome in a red pointed cap superimposed on a photo of the dome of the Albert Hall in London — ‘You’ve heard of Elf on the Shelf, now get ready for…’

Image of a school blazer with the image of Sir James Frazer superimposed over the school badge — For the specialists

But beware of getting blótto with elves, it could be bloody: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Álfablót and treat them with respect or you might get elf-shot or worse.

Read about elves and elf-shot in Jacqueline Simpson’s article ‘On the Ambiguity of Elves,’ in Folklore vol.122, 2011: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015587X.2011.537133? and Alaric Hall’s ‘Getting shot of Elves’ in Folklore vol. 116, 2005 (preprint here: https://www.alarichall.org.uk/gettingshotpreprint.pdf)

Magic lantern slide hand-painted by Henry Underhill of Oxford in 1892, from the set titled The Legend of Knockgrafton in The Folklore Society Archives. The image shows a man with a hunchback being attacked by a multitude of little fairies or elves clothed in green and with red pointed caps — Magic lantern slide painted by Henry Underhill, from the Knockgrafton story set (Folklore Society Archives)

22 December

Woolly Christmas

Make your own knitivity scene with one of these free patterns: https://www.igoodideas.com/8-christmas-nativity-set-crochet-patterns-free/?

Or knit a seasonal postbox topper à la Townswomen’s Guild: https://www.the-tg.com/thingstodo/postbox-toppers/50.aspx

Composite of 5 photos: top left, knitted nativity scene postbox topper with 3 kings & 3 shepherds around Mary, Joseph & baby Jesus in crib, plus 3 sheep (Morpeth 2023; photo S. Hathaway); bottom left: knitted postbox topper of Xmas vegetables: a large sprout in a Xmas hat & with googly eyes, plus smaller parsnip, potato, & carrot (Morpeth 2024; photo S.Hathaway); centre: knitted Xmas tree with decorations (photo J. Harte); top right: knitted postbox topper of Santa's legs & feet sticking out of a chimney (Thondon Park, undated; photo J.Harte); bottom right: legs & feet of an elf upside down as if diving into the top of the postbox (Dulwich, 2024; photo F. Halliwell) — Seasonal knitted postbox toppers and knitted Xmas tree

The Folklore Society’s Advent Calendar 2024:

[Part 1], December 1st to 8th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024/

Part 2, December 9th to 14th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-2/

Part 3, December 15th to 21st: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-3/

Part 4, December 22nd to 25th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-society-advent-calendar-2024-part-4/