holiday cheer

Separated from each other by distance, distancing, natural disaster, and new alarming variants of the virus that kept us apart last year, people are still finding ways to celebrate and enjoy the holidays.

Christmas Eve 2021

Finally we're spending our first Christmas together in several years, but missing the many other bubbles of our family elsewhere. Holing up at home with honey, turkey, takeout and holiday videos - we want to spread the cheer of our favourites around as much as possible.

One wonder | wander | world favourite is Shibasaki-sensei, a watercolourist from Japan with a "Bob Ross as a grandpa" vibe. He has a lot of videos that are great for people studying watercolour and covers lighting, water, landscapes, textures and many painting techniques. 

He also has an adorable cat and a couple of adorable grandchildren. This Christmas he did a crayon mural of Santa on his window. His gentle, playful narration is perfect for a lazy Christmas day.

Clicker is a Korean animator who specialises in stop-motion cooking videos like "Lego Shrimp Pasta and Dessert". We love the smoothness of her animation, her realistic sound effects and her ability to make plastic look delicious. 

To celebrate the holidays she made this fun video featuring a fleece turkey with some knitted butter and Christmas ornament vegetables.

Baumgartner Restoration is a channel by Julian Baumgartner, a specialist who works in art restoration and has a following in the millions for his soothing voice, ASMR sounds, and knowledge of preservation techniques. 

Also for his sense of humour, as demonstrated by the special Christmas videos he makes every year.

Navajo historian Wally Brown runs the Navajo Traditional Teachings channel and speaks on Native tradition and beliefs. In this video he explains how Christmas is one of the Western traditions that modern Native people have assimilated. 

Calling Christmas "Keshmesh" - associating the Child Jesus, the Prince of Peace with the Navajo deity, The Speaker of Peace.

Happy holidays to everyone and we wish you all a future of joyful gatherings for next year's holiday!