St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and all twenty-four of the ‘doors’ are open.

Deer graze in a snowy field, by Magdalen College's New Buildings.

We’re rounding off our #Magdvent calendar with another snowy scene #FromTheArchives. So, while we don’t have reindeer, we can give you snowdeer! This photo of the deer park covered in snow was taken in 1966.

Four people stand in front of a large Christmas tree in St John's Quad, Magdalen College, Oxford

For today’s #Magdvent, we have: the Library team! Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!🎄🎁🎇

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and twenty-two of the ‘doors’ are open.

drawing of Holly, from a botanical book in the Old Library

Holly, growing in the Fellows' Garden at Magdalen college

Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly. This illustration of a Holly tree, drawn by Alexander Hunter, comes from Silva: or, a discourse of forest-trees by John Evelyn published in 1776 housed in our Old Library (ref. R.12.9). At Magdalen, we have some holly growing in the Fellows’ Garden. #Magdvent

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and twenty-one of the ‘doors’ are open.

Cover of a printed booklet (words and music) for singing carols in Hall, Christmas Eve, n.d. [1879]

Printed booklet (words and music) for singing carols in Hall, Christmas Eve, n.d. [1879]

Here we have a printed booklet, likely used by a chorister in the 1870s, for a performance in hall on Christmas Eve. A section of ‘Messiah’ or another Christmas oratorio would be sung, followed by carols. #Magdvent

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and nineteen of the ‘doors’ are open.

Soft toy badger (Basil, the Library's mascot), wearing a knitted santa hat and perched atop the library's Christmas tree. A speech bubble has been added next him, with the words: "What was the Librarian's favourite Christmas song?"

Soft toy badger (Basil, the Library's mascot), wearing a knitted santa hat and perched atop the library's Christmas tree. A speech bubble has been added next him, with the words: "Dewey Know It's Christmas?"

Basil has a Christmas-cracker-worthy joke for you (i.e. a terrible one)! #Magdvent

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and fifteen of the ‘doors’ are open.

A list of fictional movies, which the library mascot, Basil (a soft toy badger) would like to watch. The films are: 1. Miracle on 34th Sett 2. Burrow Alone 3. Burrow Alone 2: Lost in the Woods 4. Love Badger-ly 5. The Santa Claws 6. It’s a Wonderful Burrow 7. Bad…ger Santa 8. Frosty the Snow-Badger 9. The Badger Who Stole Christmas 10. The Fast and the Furriest: Snow Drift

Basil (Library mascot, a soft toy badger) wearing a knitted santa hat, posed next to a selection of Christmas films on DVD. The films are: White Christmas, Nutcracker!, A Christmas Carol, Wallace and Gromit: the complete collection, Little Women, It's a Wonderful Life, Love Actually, The Snowman and Father Christmas, Vacanze di Natale

Here’s a list of what Basil will be watching over the Christmas vacation. While we don’t have any of these classic badger tails on DVD, we do have plenty of festive favourites available for you to borrow in our film collection. #Magdvent

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and twelve of the ‘doors’ are open.

Concert programme for a Christmas Eve concert at Magdalen College, 1952. The concert started at 9:15am with a rendition of Handel's The Messiah, followed by an intermission for refreshments, and continued with carols.

For today’s #Magdvent, we have a Christmas Eve concert programme from 1952. This copy is from the papers of Harold Boult, who was a Lay Clerk at Magdalen between 1932-1958. During his time at the College, he sang bass decani in the College Choir – and would have performed in this very concert.

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and eleven of the ‘doors’ are open.

Three people standing in front of a small Christmas tree full of handmade decorations

For today’s #Magdvent we have our Archives Team: Richard, Emily, and Claudia. Together, they manage one of the largest and richest archives of any Oxbridge college, with records stretching over more than a kilometre of shelving and dating from the 1120s to the present day.

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and nine of the ‘doors’ are open.

Books lined up next to each other. The books are: The ballad of Reading Gaol (Magd.Wilde-O. (BAL) 1907); Impressions of America (Magd.Wilde-O. (IMPR) 1906); The portrait of Mr. W.H. (Magd.Wilde-O. (POR) 1901); De profundis (Magd.Wilde-O. (DEP) 1905); Vera; or, the Nihilists. : A drama in a prologue and four acts. (Magd.Wilde-O. (VER)) ; La ballade de la geôle de reading (Magd.Wilde-O. (BAL) 1952); and Poems in prose (Magd.Wilde-O. (POE) 1905) Behind them, bays of bookshelves with a rope blocking off their entrance and a stool at their side - in Magdalen's Old Library

It's not just at Christmas that the library gets gifts. Here we have some lovely editions of Oscar Wilde books which were gifted to us earlier in the year by an Old Member. They were previously owned by our late President, Tony Smith. #Magdvent #WeeklyWildeWitticism

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and four of the ‘doors’ are open.

Front cover of a theatre programme, by Magdalen College Dramatic society dated December 3rd-7th 1928

Cast and crew list for a production of Two Gentleman of Soho, by A. P. Herbert. It lists the producer as J. Betjeman.

The last page of a theatre programme for a Magdalen College Dramatic Society performance of Two Gentleman of Soho, by A. P. Herbert. It lists administrative positions of the society and gives a list of acknowledgments

For today's #Magdvent, we have: a theatre programme from a production by Magdalen College Dramatic Society. Two Gentleman of Soho ran from December 3rd-7th, 97 years ago. It was produced by the poet John Betjeman, who was a student at Magdalen in the 1920s. [ref. Acc2025/158]

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and three of the ‘doors’ are open.

Photograph of Prince Edward (later King Edward VIII), from a scrapbook. Above, a cutting says "The Prince of Wales's match at Windsor: royal household vs Magdalen College staff. Exciting match ends in victory for the Royalists' Acc2014/175

For today's #Magdvent, we have: Gunner's scrapbook, featuring royalty. Compiled by JCR Steward Richard Gunstone, this scrapbook is packed with items about the ‘great and the good’ who passed through our doors- including the future Edward VIII. See this, and more, in the Old Library: TODAY 2-4:30pm

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, and one of the ‘doors’ is open.

A black fence encloses a the water meadow at Magdalen College, which is completely covered in a blanket of snow. In the distance, the Great Tower can be seen. [ref. FA/1/9/2P/1/82(2)]

Happy #Magdvent! This snowy view of Magdalen’s Great Tower #FromTheArchives, was photographed in the 1950s. Some parts of College have changed very little over the decades and it’s only from the clothing and cars featured in other photographs, filed alongside this one, that we can estimate the date.

St John's quad, Magdalen College in the evening. At the centre, a Christmas tree is lit up with fairy lights. In the blue sky, a silhouette of Santa's sleigh with his reindeer fly in the sky. There are 6 rows of 4 dotted rectangles with numbers in them - totalling 24. It is an advent calendar, but none of the 'doors' are yet open

With the beginning of Advent tomorrow, we will be sharing our annual #Magdvent Calendar. Stay tuned as we share something special from our library and archives collections every day for the next 24 days. Happy #Magdvent! 🎄🎅🏻🎁