It's Christmas Day, 1936. Almost two months ago, the world's first high definition television service from its studios at Alexandra Palace in North London.

What better way to kick-start the Christmas Day programming for the few and lucky television viewers than... at 3:15pm, pictured above, followed by a newsreel and a talk by Edward Shackleton about his

And with that depiction of life in 1936 we leave you, not without first wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Don't forget to unwrap our Christmas present and download a PDF version of the 1941 Christmas Radio Times by

We're almost there! And what better way to get ready than by transporting yourself to 1984. The late Sir Terry Wogan's included Freddie Starr, Kiri Te Kanawa and Elton John, with a special satellite interview with Victoria Principal, best known for her role as Pamela Barnes in American soap opera Dallas.

You can watch the  or, if you're in the middle of Christmas preparations, enjoy this short clip of Terry Wogan being offered an unusual role in Dallas...

Don't forget you can find more Ö÷²¥´óÐã archive content by running a search on Genome and filtering the results by Programme Available. If you're feeling adventurous, just run an empty search and click on Programme Available, There are more than 11,000 programmes you can watch or listen to on those dark December nights...

"To provide a party of children with a spread that will satisfy their keen sense of what is due at Christmas-time, without making them ill, is no mean feat."

And it is with that we begin our collection of safety advice gathered from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã listings - and found thanks to Genome's clever Food poisoning, as this 1997 festive episode of reminds us, is a clear and present danger over Christmas. Even the halls of have been seen "inundated with policemen who have fallen prey to a dodgy batch of turkey sandwiches" one Christmas Eve.

Fear not: while the 1980's team will tell you all about how to avoid food poisoning during the festivities ("an important aspect of Christmas", they say), 1960's DIY guru is ready  to help you with some advice on how to "keep accidents, draughts, and burglars well away from the family circle." 

Failing that, you could always find solace on this episode of Radio 4's :

"Did your turkey explode last year? Did the children have the mumps? Were you burgled, breathalysed, or stranded at an airport? That was a misery Christmas. A seasonal anthology for all those who sympathise with Scrooge, and have wished to see anyone who said " Merry Christmas " boiled alive with his own pudding and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.'"

It's Christmas Day evening, 1969, presents unwrapped, turkey devoured, and family around the television. offers the staple festive offerings of hosted by Val Doonican, and .

Ö÷²¥´óÐã Two, as usual, offered some alternative viewing. At  you could take an aerial tour above the British seaside while listening to the rhyming narration of John Betjeman. Even better, you can still do so from your 2016 armchair by  You might still enjoy his depiction of that unavoidable element of the British seaside holiday...

"...All put your Macs on
Run for shelter fast
Crouch where you like until it's fine again
Holiday cheerfulness is unsurpassed
Why be put out by healthy English rain
Are we down-hearted? No, we’re happy still.
We came here to enjoy ourselves
And we will..."

Don't forget you can find more Ö÷²¥´óÐã archive content by running a search on Genome and filtering the results by Programme Available. If you're feeling adventurous, just run an empty search and click on Programme Available, There are more than 11,000 programmes you can watch or listen to on those dark December nights...

Before the advent of the Christmas and New Year double issue in 1969, it was only on the odd occasion that listings for December 25 and January 1 would be in the same issue of Radio Times.  One such occasion came in 1954, where the cover artwork shows Father Christmas greeting Father Time to celebrate the event.  At that time Radio Times normally covered the week from Sunday to Saturday, so including the preceding Saturday meant that that day appeared in two consecutive issues.

Christmas Day highlights in 1954 included with Arthur Askey, Tommy Cooper, Petula Clark, Harry Secombe and Sooty, among others.  's Christmas message was at 3pm but was only carried on radio at this time, and broadcast simultaneously on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Service and the Light Programme.  The big variety show on Christmas night was , which was split into two parts, one on the Ö÷²¥´óÐã Service with the second part on the Light - it was a programme commemorating the 50th anniversary of London's Coliseum theatre, pre-recorded at the venue.  Its stars included actress Fay Compton, and comedians Bud Flanagan, Jewell and Warriss and Ted Ray.

Here at we've decided to give you an early Christmas present: the chance to the 1941 Christmas issue of Radio Times. This slimmer magazine is a poignant reminder of life under World War II, as the Both Sides of the Microphone column on page 2 attests:

"No need to stress the obvious fact that Christmas 1941 will be, in a material sense, only a shadow of the Christmases most of us have known. The family table will not groan as of old under a weight of good fare. There will be vacant chairs at the table, more poignantly vacant on the great day of family festival than on any other day. Nevertheless, it is Christmas, and none can escape it, even if there were any Scrooges still around so foolish as to wish to. Christmas 1941 may be all too different from other Christmases: it will still be different from every other day in 1941."

But we'll let you discover this fascinating historical document by yourself.  Download a PDF version of the 1941 Christmas Radio Times by  It's our way of saying thank you for your loyal following, for sharing your discoveries with us, for helping make Ö÷²¥´óÐã Genome a better data source by editing it, and for being so patient with the latest technical problems. We hope you enjoy it!

 (And yes, this would be Advent Calendar Day 19)

Today's window is a real treat for those fans of the wireless.

Listeners on Christmas Day evening, 1931, were first treated to the traditional staple of a from studio, and an on behalf of the British Wireless for the Blind.

At 9:35pm, though, an was announced and Half the World Away, a "one of those fascinating, highly technical programmes which someone devises every now and then to remind us that broadcasting and wireless telephony really are modern miracles' began.

The listeners would have started their journey "comfortably seated in one part or another of the British Isles having celebrated Christmas in as near the good old-fashioned way as finances have allowed." They would then be transported to Tower Hill, London, for a chat with Mr Smoker, the Yeoman Porter. From there they would "fly on telephonic wings to the wild coasts of the North" to listen to a light-keeper, next to Gibraltar, and on to Cape Town. The radiophonic waves would finally take them to Sydney (where there is now Boxing Day, the listing warned), Vancouver, Edmonton and the Niagara Falls:

"If luck is with us and the Falls are not frozen solid (fantastic thought), we shall hear, for the first time in this country, the voice of those titanic waters."

Finally, "In Montreal we shall find them finishing tea, and when, on our homeward flight across the Atlantic, we stop to talk to the liner Majestic, we shall interrupt someone at dinner. From the Majestic we pass to Dublin and, as Big Ben's hands are creeping towards 10.30, back to London."

Today's window opens up this archive gem: a clip from the first operatic version of broadcast on Christmas Eve, 1962.

The opera was specially commissioned for Ö÷²¥´óÐã Television and starred Stephen Manton as Scrooge. The website released if for your enjoyment - along with clips of the

Don't forget you can find more Ö÷²¥´óÐã archive content by running a search on Genome and filtering the results by Programme Available. If you're feeling adventurous, just run an empty search and click on Programme Available, or  There are more than 11,000 programmes you can watch on those dark December nights...

The of Radio Times magazine included the usual Food Facts ad by the  about how to make the best out of what was available at the time to make "Christmas Fancies."

More advice was available on radio thanks to The Kitchen Front, a daily programme devised by the Ö÷²¥´óÐã and the Ministry of Food to "talk about what to eat and where to get it" - the idea was to give wartime housewives hints and tips on the best and most resourceful ways of using their rations.

provides a good glimpse into wartime daily life - suggestions on how to make talks from , guest appearances by  and, of course, to take the mind away from it all.

was celebrated by Radio Times with this iconic festive cover designed by cartoonist John Gilroy, well known for his posters advertising a popular brand of Irish beer.

Seasonal delights ranged from the cultural heights of to the comedy of (later famous as Dixon of Dock Green, but at this time a comedian in Garrison Theatre) and his sisters Elsie and Doris Waters.

The speech bubble about 'this is Father Christmas reading it' is a reference to the wartime innovation of newsreaders identifying themselves to prevent enemy propaganda broadcasts passing themselves off as the official Ö÷²¥´óÐã news.

Today's calendar window opens up to reveal a poem. It featured in the of the Radio Times magazine and then again in 1927 as part of a collection of poems about broadcasting. "It is not a strange thing", the introduction to the collection claimed, "that men have
made poems about broadcasting for this new magic, which pours the music of the concert room into the stillness of the cottage and brings the song of nightingales into the heart of Town, is of the very stuff of poetry."

BROADCASTING AT CHRISTMAS
by

What is it, fleeter than the bird,
That flies unfluttering far and near,
And is not seen, and is not heard,
Until it finds the listening ear?

It is the multitudinous voice,
That brings the good news far and wide,
And bids good people to rejoice
In town and in the countryside.

Of old, the angels bore the great
Tidings of joy from the high skies,
But here's a messenger of late
Bears Christmas tidings as he flies!

And through the speech and violin
There is a lovelier message swells,
And they have broadcast ChristmasE'en,
The voices of the Christmas bells.

Ever enamoured with the magic of the wireless, here at Ö÷²¥´óÐã Genome we feel it's still magical. Do you agree?

On today's Advent Calendar window,

Today John Hilton is going to talk about the little gadgets and fitments an unemployed man can make out of cheap materials with simple tools (in the craft room at the Club if he has no tools of his own) to make the house more cosy and to make things easier for the wife. If he starts at once he can have something ready and the paint nicely dry for Christmas; and what's nicer, Hilton asks, than to give your wife a Christmas present made with your own hands?

This was the Christmas edition of This and That, a programme by John Hilton, a professor of Industrial Relations, to be broadcast to listeners in Unemployed Clubs. Listeners said they looked forward to the 20-minutes-long talk  Minds are occupied and interested, and when life is difficult it is good to be able to forget for a moment one's own concerns."

"The children get tired and fractious, Grandpa goes to sleep, Auntie gets indigestion, Dad complains about the expense and " - things aren't always joyful, joyful in the holiday season and listings reflect this.

Apart from the usual tragic  - which should by now be considered traditional, the reports about over the holidays, and the for the lonely, there's also the desire for a somewhat alternative celebration, either by slightly  or rethinking the

Radio DJs are also known to rebel against the festive overload. John Peel felt the need to declare his Ö÷²¥´óÐã Truths programme a : "no mistletoe, no fairy lights, just good wholesome fair".  opted for an alternative collection of Christmas record that didn't include "Wizzard and Wham!, Slade and Spector", and Chris Moyles and his team offered seven hours of on Christmas Day.

Grumpy famous men have also been offered against "pantos, nativity plays, false bonhomie and novelty socks", while grumpy women bemoaned "supermarket shopping" and "multi-tasking". Our favourite, though, is this /song... no bitterness here...

Woman's Hour, Woman's Hour Women all the way. 
Have a merry Christmas, 
Don't work too hard today. Let him stuff the turkey, Let him fill your sack, 
Stay in bed all morning, Let him break his back 
With brussels sprouts and holly And artificial snow. 
Let him change the fairy lights And buy the mistletoe. 
So why not have a change of plan? 
We've got the best solution, 
Listen each day to Woman's Hour For your New Year's resolution.

Prunella and Peter's cupboard bore
No food or presents anywhere,

Make Peter Piper's dreams come true.

No Advent Calendar can be considered complete without a mention of Blue Peter's DIY craft projects in the run-up to Christmas.  a for grandparents using only "a soap-powder packet, wrapping paper and glue" (if anyone remembers what this was please let us know), and of course the dangerously made from wire coat hangers, tinsel and real candles.

You could even use  to build a reindeer... 

Do you remember any more of Blue Peter's Christmas DIY projects? Even better... do you have a picture?