Our Culture Editors give their suggestions for the month of December.
December is a month of both festivities and stress for university students. Our culture editors recommend some cultural engagement to complement your studies or provide a much-needed break from them.
Books
The University of Glasgow is running several Creative Conversations events from late November through to December, with writers from across the globe presenting via zoom.
Award-winning Indigenous Canadian writer Eden Robinson speaks on 10 December 2020 from 5-6pm.
Theatre
The National Theatre of Scotland is presenting a selection of Christmas-themed online theatrical productions titled FESTIVE 2020. Performances include original content from comedy legend Janey Godley; an updated pantomime of Rapunzel; and Scottish poetry live streams. Audience members also have the chance to win their own live fairytale experience, with a visit from the cast of Rapunzel, if they donate £10 to the National Theatre of Scotland’s Future Fund.
FESTIVE 2020 runs from 13 December to 1 January.
Film & TV
Glasgow Film at Home is a new streaming service created by Glasgow Film Festival. Its programme comprises four popular titles from the 2020 festival, with a 3-day rental of Aracht costing £7.50. Our Film Editor particularly recommends Twentieth Century, a stylised faux-biopic on Canada’s tenth prime minister.
Glasgow Film at Home launches 23 November 2020.
Art
Embrace your inner Buddy the Elf with a paper-snowflake crafting session with your flatmates. The easiest of all DIY decorations, paper-snowflake-making provides a calming reminder of simpler times, and is a great way to bring festivity to a flat! All that is required to make a paper snowflake is white paper and a pair of scissors:
- Fold A4 paper into a right-angled triangle and trim off the excess.
- Fold this square in half to make a triangle.
- Fold this triangle in half.
- Overlap the right-hand pointed corner over the triangle, and trim off the resultant pointing ends.
- Now you can vary your cutouts and unfold to see a snowflake!
Illustrations of these steps can be found at https://www.marthastewart.com/266694/decorating-with-paper-snowflakes.
Music
If you’re ready to fully embrace Christmas tunes, you could do a lot worse than Dolly Parton’s new album A Holly Dolly Christmas. While the production can tend towards schmaltz, Dolly and Michael Buble’s ode-to-consent duet Cuddle Up, Cozy Down Christmas gets the tone exactly right. Alternatively, a less-intense Christmas song is Holiday by Lil Nas X – he of Old Town Road fame. One for more low-key Christmas fans perhaps.
A Holly Dolly Christmas and Holiday are available on Spotify, Apple Music and at HMV.
Food & Drink
One advantage our Culture Editor, Genevieve, has found of online university, is the extra time it gives her to cook baked potatoes for the 90 minutes that they deserve. The smell of a potato cooking is a better Scent to De-Stress than the essential oil of the same name that she just bought. For the vegetarians, she recommends a topping of cheese and Marmite, but classic beans are also always a safe bet.
Potatoes are available at all good supermarkets.
