I may be revelling in a tenuous pun, but Twitmas is happily upon us. It’s that most wonderful time of the year when absent-minded and crazy things happen on social media giving the rest of us a little festive cheer. It’s a bit like the day after the internet’s office party.
Last year, Twitmas was curated mainly by Starbucks, which after a year of accusations of tax avoidance made the mistake of trying some PR (public redemption) when it perhaps should have just stayed quiet. A Starbucks-sponsored ice rink in central London featured a projection of tweets from the public, tagged with Starbucks’ hashtag #spreadthecheer. The feed was unmonitored, which – as you might imagine – resulted in some rather uncheery comments on Starbucks’ corporate tax policy.
Christmas Day, lunched
This year, Twitmas got into full swing with the chef Jim Knight, who was let go by his former employers The Plough pub in Oxfordshire over a disagreement about his Christmas hours. Unfortunately, The Plough forgot that Jim was in charge of the pub’s Twitter account. And so it was that a Twitter storm ensued.
Heavily retweeted messages from The Plough’s account included:
“We’d like to inform you that we’ve just fired our head chef. Unfortunately he wanted to have a weekend off this month and Christmas Day this year for family commitments so we thought we’d sack him.”
“Yeah a week before Christmas! We don’t care that he has a 7 1/2 month old baby daughter.”
“So anyway come on down and continue to pay a premium for Australian sirloins, New Zealand lamb and everything else that is bought from Asda.”
The pub, which perhaps should have heeded warnings like those of disgruntled staff at HMV, has since dismissed claims of passing off cheap meat as premium as “outrageous and untrue”.
Chef Jim, meanwhile, has been offered a new job off the back of his tweeting at a pub that has given him Christmas Day off.
Miley Cyrus’ happy holidays
In the world of Twitter-based shocks, Miley Cyrus has done it again for Christmas. Miley tweeted her Christmas card this year, and full of cheer it was too. A little too much cheer, perhaps, with the star passed out on the floor on top of a comatose Santa, surrounded by festive iconography like a full moon throwing up and a bear beating up a bunny. John Lewis would be so proud.
(Picture: Twitter)
Christmas Jammies goes viral
Quite possibly the most divisive viral video this year is choc full of Christmas cheer. Or cringe, depending on your state of mind. Now inexplicably trending with the hashtag #XmasJammies, a YouTube video called Christmas Jammies, a Christmas rap delivered by the Holderness family of North Carolina dressed in pyjamas and to the tune of Will Smith’s Miami, went fully viral in a matter of days. Now clocking over 7 million YouTube hits, the video is a PR stunt by a husband and wife team trying to promote their new media company. It’s safe to say this is one family Christmas message that is certainly testing the internet’s levels of comfort and joy. Have a watch and decide for yourself.
Family Guy ‘brings back’ Brian
After animated TV show Family Guy left Twitter in tatters over a decision to kill off its beloved talking dog Brian Griffin – trends of #RIPBrian and #BringBackBrian going utterly bonkers over the course of the last few weeks – the show then ‘resurrected’ him for a Christmas episode. Creator and voice of Brian Seth MacFarlane took once again to Twitter to ceremoniously say to fans: “You didn’t really think we’d kill off Brian, did you?”
And: “Oh and hey… thanks for caring so much about the canine Griffin. He is overcome with gratitude.”
Of course, no one really believed that one of the show’s most popular characters could ever be killed off. Except this guy:
(Picture: SevenEightZero/Twitter)
The trending tattoo is now permanently etched into 2013’s most unfortunate social media memories.
A Merry Twitmas from Southerly! We’d be hugely indebted to you if you could vote for us in the UK Blog Awards.
