• Open for Christmas period as High Court says no judgements on OccupyLSX occupation at St Paul’s until at least 11 January and the Bank of Ideas until 11 January
• Welcomes all for a community Christmas across Occupy London’s sites with events including Christmas Day community gathering, New Year’s Eve concert and celebrations, plus a special performance of an adaption of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol by playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker, directed by Josh Appignanesi, on Friday 30 December. Expect surprise guests across the season too!
• Call for artists – from singers to physical theatre to visual artists – to get involved and make this a very special Christmas for all
• Launch of Tent City University’s new online Diploma in Occupied Economics as well as its Free University initiative.

As the High Court says there will be no judgement delivered for the Occupy London Stock Exchange (OccupyLSX) occupation by St Paul’s until at least 3 January 2012, Occupy London is set to welcome thousands of visitors across Christmas and New Year with a host of events planned, plus some special surprises, across the sites at OccupyLSX, Finsbury Square, the Bank of Ideas at 29 Sun Street and its newest site, Occupy Justice.

Londoners and visitors are invited to come and get involved in events, talks, debates, workshops and more over the Festive period. Festive activities will combine irreverent fun with spiritual contemplation and a continuation of the fight against social and economic injustice.

Arun Mistry, supporter of Occupy London commented: “Occupy London hopes to make Christmas mean something this year. Something more than a consumerist spending frenzy, something a whole lot better than an opportunity to get into debt and waste a lot of food. This Christmas, Occupiers will be asking Santa for peace, joy, justice, equality and real democracy. Please join us.”

“All at St Paul’s Cathedral, Finsbury Square, the Bank of Ideas and Occupy Justice welcome you to come visit us over this Festive period. So if you are coming toLondonor visiting St Paul’s, do come and visit and find out more about what we are doing.”

Donations – financial and in kind – for those staying in the occupations are also welcome over the Christmas period.

Artists from across the arts – from musicians to performance and visual artists – are also invited to get involved by contacting occupylsx@gmail.com.

Upcoming events below with more being added daily:

Ongoing over the Festive period and beyond:

• Occupy Santa - Please send cards (and pictures, notes and tweets) containing your wishes for a better world for 2012. We’ll do what we can to make them come true.  Write to: Occupy London, Info Tent, St Paul’s Churchyard, London, EC4M 8AD; or tweet @occupylondon or email outreach@occupylsx.org
• Nationally & Internationally - Occupiers will be outreaching to communities around the globe; taking the Occupy Toolkit on our Christmas journeys and geeing up some General Assemblies along the way.
• Launch of Economics Faculty of Tent City University, new online leaning programme. Over the past months Occupy London’s Tent City University has widened the boundaries of economic discourse, hosting a huge number of talks, lectures, debates, teach outs and discussions. In the words of Giles Fraser “Occupy really has made whole new conversations possible.” It is now launching an exciting new online leaning programme. The first course to be released is our Diploma in Occupied Economics. Over the course of around 70 questions the history and causes of the current economic predicament is explored. For details see http://tentcityuniversity.occupylsx.org/?page_id=172

Friday 23 December

• 11am – Midday Social Dreaming at Finsbury Square. Exploring the social issues behind the protest through dreams
• 3-4pm ‘Hold onto Your Kids’ with Gabor Máte, PhD at Tent City University (TCU) at St Paul’s. With our basic needs unmet due to stresses of our social system and culture, how can we better understand each other and fill in those gaps so that we can have the emotional stability and cohesion to build a better world, without excluding and walking away from those most in need
• 4-5pm – Narco Trafficking at TCU at St Paul’s - “The only way to stop the laundering of narco-trafficking monies would be to legalise the whole trade” Interpol boss 2002
• 6-7pm – Political discussion on why we are occupying and what needs to happen to better the future. At TCU atSt Paul’s
• 6-9pm – Learn Thai Yoga Massage at Bank of Ideas - Thai yoga massage uses palm and thumb presses, whole body stretches and foot massage to bring a shift in awareness and give encouragement to the natural healing response within our bodies
• 8-10.45pm - The Complete Bankers Minifest by the steps of St Paul’s - Music and poetry night in support of Occupy. Acts confirmed so far include: Nigel Noize, Jo the Firedancer, Chris Byrne,  Phil Zimmerman, Al & Tom, Niall McDevitt, Wasim Bsomebody Dapoet, Nick Hayles, Lisa Lore, The Orchestra of love & redemption, Moses Scott., Down with the West, Cosimoe Ercole
• 7pm – General Assembly at St Paul’s looking at political issues of the day. All welcome to get involved and find out more about Occupy’s discussion and decision making process where people vote on policies rather than people.

Saturday 24 December

• 12 Midday – 2pm - A Transformative Hermeneutics of the Quantum Revolution at Bank of Ideas. Talk exploring the parallel emergence of recent scientific breakthroughs in Quantum Mechanics, on the one hand and transformative revolutionary thinking, on the other, which has served to undermine Western scientific and philosophical hegemony and arguably led to the birthing of the ‘Occupy’ movement
• 12 midday – 2pm Ukelele jamming! at TCU atSt Paul’s
• 1pm - 3pm – Family-friendly Christmas Eve cabaret with Murray Lachlan Young (poet, playwright, satirist) and other special guests. InTentCityUniversity atSt Paul’s
• 3-4pm – Making “Occupy” the mayor of London at Bank of Ideas. Talks about the importance of challenging the establishment by using it’s own corrupt system
• 7pm – General Assembly at St Paul’s looking at political issues of the day. All welcome to get involved and find out more about Occupy’s discussion and decision making process where people vote on policies rather than people.

Sunday 25 December

• 10am onwards – Clowning and Physical Theatre. Followed by feasting and fun at Finsbury Square
• 12 midday onwards – Potluck Christmas Banquet, Secret Santa gifts, festive frisbee and other frolics at St Paul’s. All are invited to bring food, games, decorations and instruments. Help us to create the kind of Christmas you’ve always dreamed of – a celebration based around community, not consumerism
• From 12 Midday - Christmas at the Bank of Ideas - The publicly repossessed Bank invites people to create the true spirit of the ‘Big Society’ and to exorcise the ghost of Coalition Past. There will be carol singing and traditional parlour games, that don’t cost a bean. Bank of Ideas will be cooking up a storm, showing Christmas films and running workshops
• 12 Midday – 1pm – Megaphone Diplomacy: Youtube as the frontline in the coming insurrection at Bank of Ideas. Hear how in this digital age, the frontline is no longer just out on the street but out there in cyber space. As public space becomes an oppressed space, cyber space becomes the frontline in the war against the elites
• 7pm – General Assembly at St Paul’s looking at political issues of the day. All welcome to get involved and find out more about Occupy’s discussion and decision making process where people vote on policies rather than people.

Monday 26 December

• Events TBC

Tuesday 27 December

• 6-8pm – Tent City University’s Free University courses initiative – Economic Literacy: Introducing Fundamentals of Economics with Bill Kherbeck at Bank of Ideas. This course signifies the beginning of Tent City University’s new initiative to providing free university courses. More details at http://forum.freeuniversity.org.uk/

Wednesday 28 December

• 2-4pm – Chanukah celebration at Occupy - Using the opportunity of the Jewish festival of Chanukah to support Occupy London, a group of Jewish people will visit OccupyLSX. There will be doughnuts – a traditional festival food – to share with the residents and other visitors. Chanukah lasts eight days and takes place in winter. It usually falls before Christmas but this year it began on the evening of Dec 20 and finishes on the evening of Dec 28. The message of Chanukah is resistance, freedom from occupation, liberation and independence. Most of the Jewish people visiting OccupyLSX campaign against the Israeli occupation and human rights abuses, and for justice for Palestinians and a Palestinian State. They say: “Occupy London is one occupation we do support and we are very grateful to all those who have taken it upon themselves to highlight the injustices of our financial and tax systems. We are meeting in the tent university and will discuss what Occupy London means for us. We also look forward to hearing from the movement’s residents / organisers and other supporters about their hopes for the future.”
• 5-6pm - Celtic music outside the kitchen
• 6-7pm – Emotional well being support group at Finsbury Square
• 6-8pm – Tent City University’s Free University courses initiative – Contemporary Issues in International Relations: Unmanned Warfare with Bill Kherbeck at Bank of Ideas. First session of a weekly course offering background (history, context, key figures/considerations) in contemporary international issues and conflicts. The focus will be on under reported conflicts and issues. These include:

• Week 1: Unmanned Warfare: Examining the use of drones in international conflict
• Week 2: Somalia: Examining the recent history of Somalia
• Week 3: Western Sahara: Examining the conflict in Western Sahara
• Week 4: West Papua: Examining the various conflicting claims and interests in West Papua conflict
• Week 5: Democratic Republic of Congo: Examining critical economic and political features of life in the DRC
• Week 6: Yemen: Examining the recent history of Yemen
• Week 7: Honduras: Examining events in the recent history of Honduras, particularly post Micheletti coup
• Week 8: Iraq/Afghanistan: Considering under reported features of recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan

Thursday 29 December

• 2-4pm Yogo Flow at Bank of Ideas - A fun and flowing yoga class designed for the beginner in mind to get the body moving with a powerful meditation called yoga nidra
• 4-6pm Meditation at Bank of Ideas - Introduction to the basics of the Sahaja Yoga meditation technique; followed by a collective guided meditation.

Friday 30 December

• 9-10am – The sequela of a lucent political aphelion with Paul Goldstein at Bank of Ideas. It can be argued that the global insurrection known as Occupy is a reification of Belltanto’s idea of the “glass lalique” (the ‘social window’). In this talk, Paul Goldstein will spell out the this connection as well as highlighting the important role Occupy London now plays in our political theatre, ordinary people doing the extraordinary, what once was merely ‘protest’ has now become a force majeure, a daily reminder of the few who have given up so much to spell out the “numbers on the glass” even at the risk of profligating the sequela of this new political aphelion
• 6pm – Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol on the steps of St Paul’s, especially adapted for Occupy London by the esteemed playwright Timberlake Wertenbaker and directed by Josh Appignanesi. This very special free event will bring together acclaimed actors for a rehearsed reading of the story of the sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge with visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. More details at http://occupylsx.org/?p=2674.

Saturday 31 December

• 10pm – 3am – Inner Change Outer Change Meditation at the Bank of Ideas. This event invites every Occupy Movement across the world to welcome the new year in meditation. Across the world Occupy Movements will start a metta based meditation (sending love from the heart) for 1 minute for each month of the new year and  12 representing 2012. Others across the country and in other countries are also invited to host their own ICOC sit at home if they are unable to make it to a city where there is an occupy sit
• 11am – Midday – The sequela of a lucent political aphelion with Paul Goldstein at Bank of Ideas
• Timing TBC – New Year’s Eve Occupy London Concert at St Paul’s with special guests to be announced. Come join us!

For further event listings:

• At Finsbury Squareand at OccupyLSX at St Paul’s Churchyard see http://occupylsx.org/?page_id=176

• At the Bank of Ideas http://www.bankofideas.org.uk/events/

• At Occupy Justice – news coming soon! Currently cleaning the space in preparation of putting the one per cent on trial.

Notes

[1] Occupy Everywhere toolkit

[2]  Timberlake Wetenbaker

[3] Facebook page for Occupy London’s Stock Exchange site just by St Paul’s (OccupyLSX) is https://www.facebook.com/occupylondon. Overall Occupy London twitter Occupy London hastag is #occupylondon. OccupyLSX Twitter is https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyLSX ; hashtag#occupylsx. Twitter for the new Finsbury Square site is https://twitter.com/#!/OccupyFS; hastag #occupyfs. Twitter for Bank of Ideas is http://twitter.com/bankofideas and facebook is http://facebook.com/bankofideaslondon

[4] Nearest tubes for the Occupy London Stock Exchange (OccupyLSX) site are St. Pauls, Mansion House and Canon Street; buses 4, 11, 15, 23, 25, 26, 100, 242; do check Transport For London website for delays and closures at journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRI…. The new Bank of Ideas (is at 19-29 Sun Street, just down the road from theOccupy London Finsbury Square (OccupyLFS) space, which is near Moorgate; buses 141, 153, 205, 21, 214, 43

[5] Bringing together a diverse range of people, Occupy London’s Stock Exchange,Finsbury Square(OccupyLFS), the Bank of Ideas and Occupy Justice are part of more than 40 occupations happening in towns and cities across theUKand over 1,000 actions worldwide coming together under the banner of “United For Global Change” calling for true democracy. Occupy London is supported by groups including UK Uncut, the London-based Assembly of the Spanish 15M movement and many others. It has already received phenomenal interest, from the public and media in theUKand around the world, with the OccupyLSX facebook group now more than 31,000 members.