In celebration of the next week’s big event, we thought we’d bring you a sample of some of the festive bits and pieces in our archive collections.

As always, the ECA Christmas Revel provides some wonderful outfit inspiration for all your office parties – above we have a scene from the 1934 skit Picard Goes West, with Miss Nessie Sutherland playing Mae West. Below is a group of dancers in miscellaneous costumes, obviously all blinded by the camera’s flash!

Now, this is what I’ve always needed for Christmas – rules to help me look good on the dancefloor. The Moray House magazine for 1937 offers precisely that, although I think a room full of people all practising their Maurice Chevalier smiles would be quite terrifying…

The 1930’s edition of the magazine describes the dangers of dancing with the ‘sweet maiden’ you’ve had your eye on all night.

And we end on an even darker note – a horrifying poem entitled Nativity from 1938.

Merry Christmas!