THE CHRISTMAS BLOG
Geo Blogs is all about the way in which the ordinary person: 'Jo' or 'Joe Bloggs' experiences geography in their everyday lives. One special day is Christmas Day (although this is obviously not the case for all religions and faiths....) This is just a way in to the sort of thinking that could go on with pupils relating to specific events or subjects. Please get involved and have a go at putting a blog out there and letting us know about it... The items are arranged roughly in chronological order, and all occurred to me as I went through Christmas Day 2003. Your experiences would obviously have been different... Tell us about them.
Christmas evening can start with a look at the NORAD Santa tracker. This has been online for some years now, and offers a tracking device to show where Santa currently is on his present delivering round: http://www.noradsanta.org
Christmas morning. Is it a White Christmas ?
They're becoming a rare occurrence and if we are to believe the predictions regarding global warming they may (or may not) soon be a thing of the past.
Of course too much snow can also be a bad thing. Just before Christmas I was reminded of the worst snow disaster in English history (avalanches are still common in the Scottish Highlands...) It happened near Lewes in Sussex in late 1836. A blizzard had been raging over the Christmas period, and large snow drifts built up. In the South Downs, drifts reached up to 15m high. Residents were apparently warned that they were in danger, but thought it was a joke. The snow-shelf collapsed on December the 27th, and fell about 100m onto houses, trapping 15 people and killing 8 of them. The place where the incident occurred is now the site of the aptly named Snowdrop Inn.
Bookmakers and insurance companies also employ meteorologists. There are insurance policies that can be taken out against inclement weather affecting public events, even things such as school fetes.
Some children will perhaps have never had enough snow fall to make a Snowman a la Raymond Briggs: that staple of Christmas Eve for over 20 years...
Christmas Tree.
Artificial or real - which one to choose ? If you choose an artificial one, there is an environmental cost in the manufacture of the artificial materials, but if a real one is chosen, it's basically a tree that you're killing. Trees, like people, were not meant to live in a stuffy, centrally heated house. At least there is the option to recycle the tree in a small way: Christmas trees can be taken to domestic recycling centres and placed in the 'green waste' bins (although you'll be finding pine needles down the back of your car seats for the rest of the year...)
Presents.
A high percentage of the toys that will have been waiting for children on Christmas Day morning will have been manufactured in China. China has a huge number of factories and print works.
This year I did a little survey of some of the items that I or my wife and children received. The results are below:
JVC Electrical equipment: Germany
Aulos Recorder: Japan
Nemo Books and Card Game: Italy (looks like all the Nemo printing is done in Italy..)
The following items were from China:
Nemo Fishing Game
JCB Toy
Disney Princess Scooter
Crayons
Betty Spaghetti doll
Clock
Puzzle
Clothes
Calendar
Thomas the Tank Engine track and vehicles
Thomas the Tank Engine cracker
Early Learning Centre Figures
Raymond Briggs' 'The Bear' book and snowdome
Mermaids for bath
Boohbah Video
Bob the Builder toy
Wax Crayons
Thomas ABC Book
Nemo Fun Fax
Items from the UK:
Topsy and Tim Book and Tape
Nemo Sweets (Gwent)
Soft Stuff
Toiletries
Clothes
My Christmas Ale came from Kent.
Christmas Meal - food miles - distance that the food has travelled. Did you have a turkey reared in the UK ? Were your vegetables grown here ? One consequence of our demand for foods all year round is a dependency on imported foods. Obviously there are turkeys reared in the UK, rather than flying one from elsewhere, similarly with seasonal vegetables. Perhaps we should Buy British to reduce the use of oil to fly our food ridiculous distances. There is also a risk (in January we saw the spread of 'bird flu' from Thailand...)
Christmas lights
An increasing trend is for people to spend hundreds of pounds decorating the outside of their house. Light pollution is a serious issue in many areas. It isn't only astronomers who are complaining about the loss of the 'night sky' - increased lighting of public buildings, and security lighting in domestic and industrial premises are also removing the chance to see the stars...
Port and Stilton.
Both of these foods are specific to certain areas. In recent years, the EU has tried to restrict the use of names being applied to foods which have been produced outside of these geographical areas. Can you think of other local foods, which should only perhaps be called by their name if they are produced within a distinct area. For example, how can you have Australian Cheddar Cheese ?
Crack some Brazil nuts. Well it's Christmas. Also put some chestnuts in to roast (have you ever tried roasting them on an open fire ?)
Brazil nuts are close to becoming an endangered species. They are being threatened by farming practices.
Toblerone
Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a big Toblerone in the fridge.
The shape is reminiscent of the Matterhorn: a pyramidal peak - produced by upland glaciation - an image appears on the edge of the triangular tube. What other foods are Geographically based ?
The Kraft Foods website has some interesting Toblerone related facts. If all the bars sold each year were placed end to end they would measure the same as the earth's circumference. The bar accounts for 48% of all Swiss confectionery exports.
Open the sparkling wine. A lot of wines are now being produced with screw caps or artificial corks rather than natural cork. Cork producers are naturally worried by this trend...
And when Christmas is finally over ?
Recycle your Christmas cards. The Woodland Trust has a collection campaign. Cards can be taken to W H Smiths or Tescos stores. Last year over 400 million cards were recycled. For more on this go to http://www.woodland-trust.org.uk/recycling
Glass bottles see a dramatic increase of around 25% over the usual load. I took a rather big box to my bottle bank...
How about the Christmas tree too ? Recycling plants are very busy at this time of year: you can put them in the green garden rubbish bin.
Also logged on to the Internet, and found that I had visitors to GeographyPages, and e-mails even on Christmas Day.
Christmas TV - lots of repeats as usual..
Watch the James Bond film: a spot of tower karst scenery at one point.
Wizard of Oz on as well: Dorothy's surname is Gale. Quite relevant to the story of the tornado depositing her in the magical land...
And there were some earthquakes too. More on this in the news section, but the contrast between the California earthquake and the Iranian earthquake in BAM. Why were the casualty figures so different - is there always this discrepancy between MEDC and LEDC events ?
I hope these have perhaps triggered some discussion points...