Boxer‘s Christmas video ‘Guess who’s coming to dinner‘ is definitely worthy of a mention. As well as being highly entertaining, it also comes with the challenge of a movie quiz.

Fullrange have made this amusing video for FleetMilne Residential.

Made Media have made brought the nativity to Twitter. Warning, highly distracting, if like me, you’re going to want to switch all the people around to make sure it features your favorite followers.

Supercool‘s Christmas card was a compelling read when it arrived on the CiB desk. They’ve redesigned the classic 12 days of Christmas.

Birmingham Royal Ballet have put together this bunch of Christmas wishes.

Are there anymore Christmas creations out there that we’ve missed and deserve a mention?

First is BIAD’s Christmas p-Arty on 9 December, which is £5 in with live music from Black Heart Generator and the Juneau Brothers, plus sets from dj Cassie- Philomena and a portion of poetry from Jodi Ann Bickley and the Mongrel S.Mutt.

They have only one request…

Dress code is no biggy but please leave your pikey mates at home. I’m sure no-one wants to be Santa skanking it out next to a Lacoste cladded pisstramp.

Too true.

On 11 December, Chicks Dig Jerks are hosting their Xmas bash with a few local bands including The Velvet Texas Cannonball, Ignoramuss & Tim Lowe, Filthy Habits and Stinky Wizzleteat. Tickets are £5/£3 before 11pm and all night if you make the effort with your Christmas themed attire.

Festive thanks to everyone who reads, comments, supports or sends me bits and bobs to write about. Most importantly, biggest thanks to everyone in Birmingham who does creative stuff, whether we get to write about you or not. There are loads of you and you’re ace.

In the meantime, there’s something odd happening in Berlin today. Check out this chap:

I’m going to just post the email that I received, there’s really no point me trying to re-write it.

Berlin Hoodening: Nagual for Bjørn Nørgaard

On 25 December 2009, a.a.s will perform the nagual performance Berlin Hoodening.

Hooded figures, wearing Fleischmasken, will process in a spiral up the hill at the centre of Volkspark Friedrichshain in Berlin, disembowel the treehorse, and make its organs circulate on its surface.

We will celebrate the depraved, deviant, tramp-spirit with the silver skull, calling forth disarticulation, experimentation and nomadism for the new decade.

This performance is part of the joint Parfyme, Reactor, a.a.s, Berlin residency 2009, and incorporates elements drawn from discussions with members of the other groups, and the guided walk developed by Reactor during their time in the city.

Hoodening is a British folk theatre tradition featuring a Hooden Horse – a wooden horse’s head mounted on a pole, with sackcloth attached to hide the bearer. The head would normally have a hinged jaw, which could snap shut with a mighty crack. Groups would tour around before Christmas, engaging in tomfoolery (horseplay) at local landowners’ houses and requesting funds to tide them over. There are also links to traditional Robin Hood Games and the Pantomime horse. Among the pagan Scandinavians the horse was often the sacrifice made at the winter solstice to Odin for success in battle.

A Nagual in Mesoamerican folk tradition is a  “transforming trickster” or “shape shifter” ? someone who has the power to magically turn into an animal form. This relates to the belief of tonalism, that all humans have an animal counterpart, to which their life-force is linked.

The Berlin Hoodening re-performs aspects of The Nagual (2007), which was originally featured at Crowd6 in Birmingham. The pulling out of tinsel, representing intestines, and spiraling it around the tree refers to the mythological origins of tinsel as a shamanistic, solstice ritual involving the draping of animal guts on trees in the forest in order to bring about the return of spring.

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