Apropos of nothing.

[thenorthernline]

Word has reached me that Cerys Matthews from Catatonia and Gianni from Eastenders have been canoodling in the Australian jungle on the latest series of I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here. This is quite possibly one of the most surreal occurrences I've ever come across - it's like someone made a Dada poem out of my teenage years. They took a list

Comments

[ems]

I love you. You make me smile. I love your brain. I love that you love the things I love, or pretend at least to tolerate them even if you don't love them (apart from Heroes). I love that you love London. And Christmas. I love that you would consider doing an MA in Christmas Studies. I would make one for you if I could.

I just love you a lot, really. You're ace.

♥

[schiaparelli]

Do come to London at Christmas! Wander round Covent Garden and Camden Market and smell the chestnuts and shiver. I'll have to take the pair of you out to tea, if you get a free moment.

We had a Christmas lecture in one of my first-year Anthropology courses, and the lecturer linked it up to studies by Marcel Mauss, and the Russian concept of gift-giving ('blaht'). We also had to read this brilliant paper about the anthropology of wrapping paper and Christmas presents, the gist of which was -- 'people are more likely to take a photo of a pile of presents under the tree before they're opened, than they are to take a picture of unwrapped gifts. This is because the paper adds a layer of meaning, without which it's just a pile of bought commodities. Presents that are made (eg. jam) require little wrapping because their 'giftness' is already inherently there.' Obviously I can't remember any of the names involved.

I was reluctant to comment at first because how could one follow Emma's comment above?

[thenorthernline]

That's amazing! I found a couple of articles about it if you fancy having a look: here. Maybe one of 'em is the one you read. I've also found a load more, including one on how Christmas decorations were displayed in every county in England during the seventeenth century. Brilliant.

Yeah, London at Christmas would be lovely.

[schiaparelli]

I think that's not the same one, because I don't remember it being that technical with graphs and stuff, but it's pretty similar. But all jolly interesting, thanks for sending them!

Historical Christmas studies, now that's fascinating.