FROM THE ARCHIVES Donald Duck Christmas Every country has its own festive holiday traditions. Austrian children fear Krampus, the half-goat, half-demon who beats naughty children with sticks. Catalonian nativity scenes feature a small defecating man. And in Sweden, about 40 percent of the country gathers round the squawk box on Christmas Eve—to watch Donald Duck. Every year since 1959, at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the 1958 special Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul (Donald Duck and His Friends Wish You a Merry Christmas, in English) is screened on Sweden’s main public television channel, TV1. READ MORE → GASTRO OBSCURA Commemorating Honey Gathering Within the foothills of the Iberian System Mountain Range in northeastern Spain, archaeologists have discovered a 7,500-year-old cave painting depicting prehistoric humans gathering honey. The exceptionally detailed image shows a figure climbing a rope ladder to reach a colony of bees. It is considered the best preserved image of its kind and, alongside other rock art found at the site, provides a picture of humans transitioning from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural and shepherding economy. READ MORE → NORWICH, ENGLAND Norwich Keyboard On the corner between Princes Street and Elm Hill, visitors will walk past a beautiful old church and a strange imprint on the ground that resembles a keyboard. The imprint has been at this location for several decades. Some believe it’s a computer keyboard, others swear it’s an 18th-century print plate from a monastery. READ MORE → GIVE THE GIFT OF WONDER 20% Off Gift Cards For Online Courses Use code JOY20 to receive 20% off our gift cards for online courses. Our online courses offer live, interactive learning in underexplored disciplines from taxidermy to honey tasting. And, when you give someone our gift card, they'll be able to choose from our entire lineup to select which course best fits their interests and schedule. Offer expires 12/23/2021 at 11:59 PM ET. BUY NOW → Attending Every British Festival Across Great Britain, there are hundreds of festivals and other events, often honoring nearly-lost pagan traditions. There’s the Baal Fire tradition, for example, which is intended to bless the season’s crops and has continued uninterrupted for centuries. South Wales’s Mari Lwyd tradition, where individuals bring mounted, decorated horse skulls door to door as they sing to be invited inside, is so old that no one knows how or when it began. Festivals like these celebrate every aspect of the human experience, both mundane and marvelous. One woman has made it her mission to experience all of Great Britain's wondrous festivals. READ MORE → AUSTIN, TEXAS Air Conditioned Village If you’ve ever turned on your air-conditioning unit in the peak of summer heat, you might want to thank the Air Conditioned Village in Austin, Texas. This unassuming North Austin neighborhood was built to test the novel idea of home air conditioning, where 20 homes and the families living in them were subject to a year-long series of construction method tests, air conditioning installation tests, and social experiments. READ MORE → Paleontology and Oysters For the past few years, paleontologist Greg Dietl has collaborated with Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to collect tens of thousands of oyster fossils. The work is about more than paleontology: These ancient shells are crucial to understanding the decline of modern oyster reefs throughout the once-thriving Florida Panhandle oyster paradise, and to restoring this vital habitat. READ MORE → QUINCY, MASSACHUSETTS First Dunkin' Donuts Quincy, Massachusetts, is known as the “City of Presidents,” as it is the birthplace of two U.S. presidents: John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams. But besides being the city where notable persons in U.S. history were born, Quincy is also home to the first ever Dunkin’ Donuts in the country. READ MORE → ATLAS OBSCURA EXPERIENCES Monster of the Month: Elves They're up there, in the North Pole, helping Santa. How did they get there? What do they want from us? Are they really just gonna make toys for us and then leave us alone? For a holiday-themed Monster of the Month, join author Colin Dickey as he goes deep with Santa's little helpers to find out the monstrous truth beneath their heartwarming exterior... GET TICKETS →