Daily Info over Christmas
Bumper Christmas & New Year Daily Info printed sheet: on display from Friday 20th December - Monday 6th January. Deadline 10am, Thursday 19th Dec.
Daily Info Christmas bonus: adverts placed in this edition last for two and a half weeks in print and online at no extra charge! Book yours now online or by email.
First issue of 2020: Tuesday 7th January. Deadline 10am, Monday 6th January. Thereafter, back to normal - i.e. 2 issues per week for Tuesday & Friday. Deadlines 10am Monday & Thursday.
Over Christmas you can continue to place adverts and event listings online via the website as normal. Just click here to place an advert or click here to place an event listing and follow the instructions. You can also email us with requests for box and line adverts - though we may not be able to get back to you with our standard rocket-ship immediacy as we'll be operating a skeleton staff until 3rd Jan. Queries? Email us.
Daily Info's fantastic online Advent Calendar is now online! Our theme this year is supporting local retailers, so we've teamed up with Independent Oxford to present a festive rundown of our favourite independent businesses around the county. Flummoxed by a family member who's tricky to buy for? Need a winning idea for a big present for a loved one? Look no further than our Advent Calendar for places to purchase original, well-made gifts and support local businesses in the process.
Christmas events in Oxfordshire
Pantos and Christmas shows
Jack and The Beanstalk - Fri 18th Dec - Wed 30th Dec
Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road
Didcot
The pantomime you've all BEAN waiting for!
Jack and The Beanstalk - Fri 18th Dec - Wed 30th Dec
Cornerstone Arts Centre, 25 Station Road
Didcot
The pantomime you've all BEAN waiting for!
Festive Cinema
Check out our handy blog post about the best films to see this festive season!Travel over the festive period
Buses
Limited services will be available over the Christmas period, as usual. The Oxford Bus Company have route specific timetables (available from their Christmas information page) detailing changes to their usual timetables and last bus times for all city routes from Christmas Eve to the 2nd January 2020.
On Christmas Day, buses to and from Heathrow will run hourly, and the service to and from Gatwick will run every two hours.
Stagecoach offer a festive timetable on their Christmas and New Year bus times page.
Taxis
If your festive bus isn't available, you may require alternative transport. The highest rate, rate 3, applies to all taxi fares from Christmas Eve at 8pm to 6am on 27th December. This rate is also in use from 8pm on New Year's Eve to 6am on the 2nd January 2020. See our Oxford Taxi Services page for a list of local numbers.
Trains
On Christmas Eve there will be reduced services, while there are no train services running on Christmas Day and only a very limited number of services on some routes on Boxing Day. For journey planning we recommend visiting the National Rail website, which offers quick and simple timetable searching for your intended journey.
Opening hours
Libraries
Oxfordshire County Library
Christmas Eve: 9am-1pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: Closed
Friday 27th to New Year's Eve: 9am-5pm
New Year's Day: Closed
Shopping centres
The Westgate
Christmas Eve: 9am-5pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: 9am-6pm
New Year's Eve: 9am-6pm
New Year's Day: 9am-6pm
Clarendon Centre
Tues 24th December 9am-5pm
Wed 25th December Closed
Thurs 26th December 9am-7pm
Fri 27th December 9am-7pm
Sat 28th December 9am-7pm
Sun 29th December 11am-5pm
Mon 30th December 9am-7pm
Tues 31st December 9am-5pm
Weds 1st January Closed
Thurs 2nd January 9am-7pm
Bicester Village Outlet
Christmas Eve: 9am-7pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: 7am-9pm
Friday 27th to Saturday 28th December: 9am-9pm
Sunday 29th December: 9am-7pm
Monday 30th December: 9am-9pm
New Year's Eve: 9am-7pm
New Year's Day: 10am-8pm
Templars Square
Christmas Eve: 9am-5.30pm
Christmas Day: Closed
Boxing Day: 10am-4pm
New Year's Eve: 9am-5.30pm
New Year's Day: Closed
Volunteering and Supporting Charities at Christmas
Want to give something back this Christmas season? Have a look at the list of the charities below to find a volunteering opportunity, stock up on your charity Christmas cards, or find a place to donate those unwanted Christmas socks.
Crisis Oxford are looking for volunteers over the Christmas period. If you're a keen chef, handy hairdresser, or can assist with collections, get in touch and see how you can help. You can also sponsor a place at Crisis for Christmas, and help someone get out of homelessness.
Homeless Oxfordshire are also looking for support this Christmas - find out more about how you can volunteer, donate or buy Christmas cards and help those out on the streets this winter.
Aspire Oxfordshire have launched their Place at the Table Christmas Appeal, to help those who are facing homeless and poverty by giving them a place at the table to have a hot meal, some company and a gift on Wednesday 18th December. It doesn't stop there either, as funds raised will enable attendees to access long-term employment and housing support. Aspire are well on their way to reaching their total of £10,000, but they need your help to get there.
Oxford Community & Voluntary Action (OCVA) are helpfully compiling a list of opportunities to volunteer this festive season - you can help with street collections, toy donations, or Christmas Day lunches for those in care homes. You can see the full list here. Likewise, if you need volunteers for a charitable event or fundraising effort that you're organising, OCVA want to hear from you.
You can also donate goods such as clothes, toiletries and sleeping bags to organisations such as The Gatehouse and St Mungo's.A more sustainable Christmas
Every year huge amounts of money gets spent in the name of Christmas. You can use your consumer power for good, by making sure that money goes, as much as possible, to local, small-scale, organic, Fairtrade and/or sustainable producers. Many of the businesses in our online Advent Calendar, such as Oxford Wood Recycling and Fairtrade at St Michaels, have a strong focus on sustainability and ethical production. Equally, Farmers' Markets are great for meat, veg, bread, conserves etc.
Buying second-hand is also a good eco choice, especially since Oxford is absolutely full of brilliant charity shops. Not sure where to start? Check out our beginner's guide to charity shopping. We also have a full list of Oxford's charity shops for the more seasoned bargain hunters.
Tree recycling
For information about recycling your Christmas Tree, see Oxford City Council's Christmas Recycling page.
Oxford City Council also asks us to remember that "wrapping paper, Christmas cards, champagne and sherry bottles, mincemeat and cranberry sauce jars and foil from the turkey can all be placed in the blue recycling bin". Also it's worth noting that waste collection from the week of 25th Dec will be two days later with normal collections resuming the week of 6th Jan. Garden waste services will be suspended from Tuesday 24 December 2019 and will resume on Tuesday 7 January 2020.
And for tasty recipes that might help avoid some food waste this festive season, visit england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/recipes.
Warming Winter drinks
Our developer's Really Fabulous Mulled Wine
A few hours after starting to code, you need something to take the edge off life.
Take 1 orange, 1 lemon and 1 lime (if you have it) or whatever citrus fruit you have lying about.
Peel large peels of citrus skin with a vegetable peeler (or a knife - a zester will produce thin strands which you may feel compelled to strain out later).
Place in pan, on medium heat. You can put the peel in the pan as it heats up, so long as you're careful not to let it get too hot while you add the next ingredients. A bit of pre-toasting has a nice effect, though.
Add 100 grams of the darkest sugar you can find. Likewise, can be on the heat, if you're careful.
Squeeze the orange into the pan.
Add enough red wine to cover the sugar and half the peel. Stir to dissolve the sugar as fully as possible (some left at the bottom is ok and will dissolve fine later).
Make it BOIL. You want to reduce this down to a sticky thick dark syrup.
Once it has reduced down to about half, reduce the heat to a simmer and add 1 cinamon stick, 3 cloves, 1 bay leaf, loads of grated nutmeg, at least 1 cardamom pod, at least 1 star anise, and half a vanilla pod, split down the middle, if you have one - it adds a nice flavour. Add the rest of the peel now.
Continue to simmer gently stirring carefully to ensure complete sugary dissolution and lack of sticking and burning.
Once it's thick and sticky (about 5-15 mins depending on the ferocity of your saucepan and heating), turn the heat down and add the rest of the bottle of wine.
Heat gently until it's warmed through. Balance the heat of the mull with the amount of alcohol you're willing to lose. Those in fear of having inhaled most of the booze while heating (it's rather nice, and no doubt good for the nostrils), do add brandy or dark rum at this point, though that does make the mull a little harsher - the finer balance is to be found in the unadulterated, carefully heated version. Experiment and find your perfect balance!
Serve in something heat-proof (or be daring) immediately.
Norfolk Punch
A non-alcoholic alternative to your usual seasonal mulled beverage, this bottle is based on a traditional recipe made by Benedictine monks no less and contains all sorts of wild and wonderful herbs and spices. The office tee-totaller gave this 9/10 for its sheer proximity to mulled booze, and others felt similarly until asked to consider its resemblance to warm cola. Available from Holland and Barrett (£3.19), Uhuru (Cowley Rd), etc.
Hot Toddy
Quick version
Ingredients: half a lemon, tablespoon of honey, shot of whisky per person.
- Squeeze lemon into a cup
- Add boiling water, melt the honey in it
- (Stop here if you don't want the whisky, or) add whisky and drink
Slow, loving version
- Grate some root ginger into a saucepan, about 1tbsp per person
- Add however many cups of water you want, dark brown sugar to taste, an orange (or an apple) stuck with cloves
- Bring to the boil once, then simmer for about 15 minutes
- Drain into cups and add whisky and the juice of half a lemon for each person
A useful tip if you have a disastrous toddy-making enterprise: you can salvage a cup of it for a very cold person by adding a slosh of Rochester's ginger wine (available from Holland and Barrett).