(upbeat holiday music)
- Hi, we're Joel and Lia.
- And welcome back to VLOGMAS.
This video is things that America
does better than the UK at Christmas time.
- No, it's not (chuckles).
It's things the UK
does better than America at Christmas time.
(laughter)
- Keep, keep, keep, keep.
- Oh, that's the best intro ever.
Yeah, we'll keep that.
One job, Lia. - Is to...
- You were given your line. - Give me a line,
learn the words. - Learn the script.
- We spent a long time scripting these videos
and you just learn your words. - Yeah.
But maybe that is a video we should do,
things America does better than the UK at Christmas time,
but we don't really know much
about American Christmases yet
so we need you guys to let us know.
- The classic portion size.
Anyway. - Anyway.
Right, so we've got four things
that we wanted to discuss
that we think are very exclusively British things,
or that British people do really well at Christmas.
- Okay.
- That I don't think America does,
or they don't do it as well.
- Okay, alright.
- So, the first one, - Yeah.
- Is British Christmas adverts.
- (gasp) Okay, - Mhm.
- A hundred percent, we go all out
with emotionally led Christmas adverts,
- Mhm.
- Everyone in the UK, so say like all the
big, John Lewis, all the big department stores,
- Yeah.
- Mark's and Spencer's - Mark's and Spencer's
- Sainsbury's - Even Sainsbury's are
doing big one's.
- Yeah.
- Their aim is to make you cry,
- Yeah.
- With their Christmas adverts,
so that's what they want.
That, that must be the brief!
- Yeah, I think it is, and they go,
like Lia said, they go to town!
It's well known that their adverts are
gonna be around the two minute mark,
like, two full minutes, they'll have
shortened versions, but there'll be like
full two minutes, - Yeah.
- And it'll be something that's completely
non related to the supermarket - Yeah.
- So like, one year John Lewis did one
about a penguin, like, or they did one about
- The man on the moon.
- A man on a moon, like it's got nothing
to do with Christmas, other than the message
that it sends, like a warmth, or like family.
- Yeah, that Christmas is all about
the people you love, - Yeah.
- Or Christmas is all about the gift of de de da.
- Mhm.
- This year, it's amazing, I love it.
- Oh, really - Yeah, I loved it,
- This year, - I loved it so much!
- That's the thing, - I cried, Joel,
watching it yesterday, in preparation
for these videos. - Ridiculous.
- I was sobbing, there was people watching
the rugby match, there was loads of lads like,
ah! Watching the tele, I'm in the corner
at White city - Just crying, yeah.
- Sobbing, literally sobbing.
- But do you know what?
This is the thing, it divides opinion,
everyone waits to judge these TV adverts
and say which one is best,
I personally hated the John Lewis advert,
which is let's just say, John Lewis are like,
they do the best Christmas adverts out of everyone.
- Joel! They spent seven million on it.
- I heard they spent ten million on it,
and they spent five million on Elton John.
- Their budgets, their budgets are crazy!
- Yeah, but this year it fell short, I think.
- Really!? - But they clearly,
Lia loved it, and - Oh my gosh,
Everyone I know hates it, - Yeah.
- But I love it!
- Yeah.
- I think it's really good.
- Oh, I don't.
- Oh, the bit where he's a kid and he
gets the piano, and I'm like ah!
- But, this is what Brits love to do!
- I died.
- And so this year I think Sainsbury's have won,
or Waitrose! Oh my gosh, Waitrose,
their shade on John Lewis - is there shade?
- Even though they own John Lewis as well,
so, that's kinda why - I haven't seen it,
but you've told me about the premise, okay.
- Yeah, it's very good.
But anyway, there's a war about Christmas adverts
in the UK, does America put that much
effort into your Christmas adverts?
I genuinely want to know.
- Yeah, I've watched a few, - Yeah.
- And, I asked on the Facebook group,
the Joel and Lia - Okay.
- Facebook group to send in your Christmas adverts,
your token US Christmas adverts,
- Yeah.
- And they tend to be more like comedy.
- Oh, okay, interesting.
- More funny, and like I'm not getting it,
I haven't seen any like tear jerkers.
- No.
- But we're gonna react - Yeah.
- To some in another video, - Yeah.
- So stay tuned for that. - Yep.
Definitely, but I just think it's one
of the best times of the year,
when the Christmas advert drops,
everyone goes crazy,
when it drops. - When it drops,
like when Beyonce dropped her album,
- Drop it like it's hot! - And tell anyone!
Drops it, yeah!
- It's amazing, so yeah, everyone goes to war on it,
they spend so much money on it,
- Yeah.
- They even know, so like, these big department stores
will probably know what Christmas advert
they're doing next year already.
- So yeah, the talks will be like from now,
- Yeah.
- They'll be already making next year's, it's insane.
- Yeah, it's crazy.
- A little fun fact I was once in
a Christmas advert for Sainsbury's.
- Oh yeah!
- Well, it was an ident actually,
but I'll see if I can find the footage somewhere.
- Maybe insert that.
- Yeah.
- Joel, playing a dad - Yeah.
- Were you a dad or a brother?
- I was initially, and then I became an uncle
cause I looked too young, and I was sat at
Christmas day, wearing a Christmas jumper,
having Christmas dinner, going,
It was great, the best day of my life.
(both laugh)
It was like mid October though,
they like, frosted the windows, they like put
stuff over it - Yeah.
- To make it look like the time of year,
it was amazing.
- That's incredible.
The next thing that we do - Yeah.
- Better, is Christmas crackers!
- I still don't believe that we're
the only ones that do this,
but apparently it's true,
American's don't have Christmas crackers.
- They're missing out on big margins,
it's literally a piece of paper, guys.
- Are you sure they don't do it?
- A hundred percent.
They are like, what's a cracker?
- Like, - What's a cracker?
- The fact that you get a joke,
a hat, and a toy, - Yeah, a toy.
- Or a gift - Yeah.
- Or, if you get the posh ones,
- Yeah
- You get something decent.
- Like a nail file. (laughs)
- Yeah. (laughs) - Or, what do you get?
- I was just thinking the same thing!
I was gonna say like, the posh ones you might get
something like, just something a little bit useful.
- Yeah.
- Tiny bit useful.
- Like, the sorts of thing you'll get in a cracker,
so basically, a cracker looks like this,
and it's something that you pull
with a friend or family member,
and it goes bang!
It's got some like, some gun powder in it,
and it snaps!
- Is that what it is?
- Yeah!
- Oh, wow! - Yeah!
And you pull it, and it snaps.
And whoever wins the bigger half of the cracker,
wins the cracker, and inside you get a
paper crown, that you all have to wear
over Christmas dinner - On Christmas day, yep.
- And then you get a joke, which is always not funny.
- No, the Christmas cracker jokes are like
really, really bad - Yeah.
- In fact, we did a video having afternoon tea
in London - Yeah.
- I'll leave it in the cards above my head,
and you can go look at how bad the Christmas cracker
jokes are in that video. - They're not good.
- They're not good.
- Sometimes on the other side
it'll have a trivia question as well won't they?
- Oh, yeah, you get a bit of trivia.
- Which is interesting, so while you're eating
dinner, you might tell the jokes,
or you'll do a bit of trivia which is nice,
it sparks conversation.
- Yeah, it's good cause we - And then, yeah.
- Need conversation starters, cause we're British.
- Yes, exactly, we can't just go "Yo!"
- "How was your year?" - "What's up?"
like you guys would do.
(both laugh)
- We need something like, - We need the starters.
- We need a bad joke so we - Yeah
- can all bond over how bad the joke is.
- Yeah, and go, "Aw, dad, that sounds
like one of yours!"
- Yeah.
- And stuff like that. - Stuff like that.
(both laugh)
But yeah, Christmas cracker, - Yeah.
- That's kind of what it is.
- And then the toys, so,
- And the toys!
- Tend to be key rings.
- I wanna, yeah, I wanna say like,
you know those little fish that go in
your hand and tell you about your mood?
You know those like - What?
- You know those like little, - I've never had one of those
what are they? - You're kidding!
It's like a little piece of paper,
and it's shaped like a fish, - Wow!
- And you put it, and it bends and stuff
and then there's a little - Oh wow!
- Menu in it, it tells you like,
if it's bending that way, you're a jealous person,
or if it doesn't-- - I've never seen that!
- Joel, you would have a hundred percent had one
at school or something - No, never.
Never, ever. I've seen the mood rings.
- You always get them in crackers!
- No, I've never had that in a cracker.
- I really want you to get one this year.
- We've had like nail files, or whistles,
or a pack of cards, like a mini pack of cards,
or things like that, you don't,
I've never seen a mood fish.
- You're kidding, they put them in
Christmas crackers all the time!
- But maybe it's because they're
not actually in lots of Christmas crackers,
it's in the Christmas crackers that your
family tend to buy, and maybe it's not in
the Christmas crackers my family,
cause we always get the same things.
Like, a shoe horn or something.
- (laughs) Oh, really?
- I want one though!
- Nine times that fortune telling
fish ruined Christmas for everyone,
it's so funny! - Oh my gosh, why have
I never seen this!
- They like bend and turn, and tell you like
you're jealous or that you're passionate,
it's so funny! - I want one!
- Oh my god, Joel, they're amazing,
they go off like the heat of your hand.
- Wow, well mine would be very jealous then,
because my hands are always hot.
- It's always hot!
(both laugh)
Each cracker contains a paper hat, joke, and a gift.
So that is what you always get.
- That's the short way of saying
what we've said for the last five minutes.
(both laugh)
My mum and dad tend to get ones that are,
you're in with a chance of winning
twenty five grand every year, so in your cracker,
- You guys get a lottery? - Yeah!
- That's amazing! - With a lottery as well.
We've never won. - (laughs)
- But, you're always like, "Oh! What if we win
twenty five grand! No. No." - No. No.
- And you just keep going until,
- You're like forget the gift,
I just want the twenty five grand!
- Yeah, I just want the twenty five grand,
but someones gotta win, so.
- That's amazing, I didn't even know
those ones existed. - Yeah.
- And you didn't know the paper fish thing existed.
- No!
The next thing we do better, is panto.
- Oh, wow, yes!
So you guys don't have panto,
I don't think like any other country has pantomime.
- No, I think it is a British thing,
so of course we would do it better
cause no one else does it. (laughs)
- It's really hard to explain, it's like,
- It's theater basically, it's a theater show.
But it's not like, stuffy, and like done well,
it's like tacky theater. - It's like,
talking to the audience. - Yeah.
- I feel really bad calling it tacky because, am-dram.
- Yeah.
- So like, amateur dramatic, but it can be big scale!
They're really good fun.
- So there'll be, - They put lots of
money behind it, but they're still tacky.
- It tends to be Aladdin, or Jack and the Beanstalk,
or, - Or,
- Fairy tales, and like Lia said,
the classic thing is there'll be men
dressed up as women, so there'll always be like a dame,
or like the mum, - Yeah.
- And that'll always be played by an old man in drag.
- Yeah, there'll be like, a villain.
- A villain who, yeah, and then the main role
will be a young boy, who will be played by a woman.
It's always a girl that plays Aladdin,
or a girl that plays Jack - Yeah, I was gonna say
Peter Pan. - Or Peter Pan,
I guess that's one as well. - Yeah.
- And there's always celebrities, Z list celebrities.
- Always Z listers. - Yeah.
- So, they'll be like sayings of like,
"he's behind you!' - Oh, and that's like a well
known joke in panto, isn't it?
- Yeah.
- The villain will be on stage,
and the hero will be like, where's the villain?
And everyone will be like,
He's behind you! - He's behind you!
- And they'll be like, where?
And he'll be that side, and be like,
he's behind you! - Yeah!
- Like, I can't see him!
- Yeah, so it's like really interactive,
cheesy, - Yeah.
Kids orientated. - Yeah, kids are, I'd say so.
But also, there's like adult - Yeah.
Panto's, that are like really fun.
- Yeah
- And like, grown ups love it, it's like,
- Also, I feel like even in the kid's panto's
they'll inject some adult humor that the
kid's won't get.
- But the parents will. - But the parents will.
- To keep them alive. - Like, innuendos, yeah.
- Yeah, keep them on the edge of their seat.
- And they invite kids up on stage,
I remember going on stage when I went to go see panto.
- Mortifying.
- And it's a tradition!
Everyone goes to panto, every year.
Like, not everyone, obviously.
But like, - Yeah.
- It's a well known thing that people
tend to go every year, it's their night out
for the family.
- Yeah, we do like going to a good panto.
- It's not prim and proper like theater,
where it's like, we don't talk to the audience,
and we're, the story's important, it's like,
it's having fun, - It's just a bit of good fun.
- The actors will get the giggles on stage,
and like, - Yeah.
- It doesn't matter.
- It is really, really good fun for the actors involved.
- We can try and put a clip in, cause I think some
panto's are broadcast online.
- I'm Bobby Davro, and this year
I'm gonna be playing Silly Billy!
It's behind you! No it's not!
- The final thing that we wanna talk about is
Christmas markets, - Mhm.
- So, this is something that the UK has kind of
stolen from like, Germany.
- Mhm. (laughs)
- We've kind of stolen it. - Yeah.
- Like the German markets, - Yeah.
- Where you've got like, bratwurst,
you've got raclette, you've got,
what's that thing we had with gravy?
- Poutine!
- Oh, poutine!
- Which is obviously Canadian - Yeah!
- Yeah, all these things. - Oh we stopped, yeah.
It's basically all laid out on a Christmas market,
and you've got loads of like, cute gifts,
we did a-- - Homemade jumpers, and like,
- Just amazing things, cool-- - Christmas tree decorations.
- Yeah, and we really go all out on our
Christmas markets - Mhm.
- Like, they'll be dotted all around London,
- Yeah.
- And all around the UK, and people love it.
Like, it's a proper day out. - Yeah.
- Oh, it's really nice.
Especially if you go from one market
to the other, cause you can't spend all day
at one Christmas market, - Yeah.
- So, you just go to all of them,
you freeze your tits off, - Yeah,
- Have a hot chocolate, - Mulled wine,
Mulled cider, - Yeah.
- There's everything, and if you get lucky
you might even go to one where there's like
an ice rink as well, - Yeah.
- So then, that's double fun.
- It's really cool.
If you haven't seen our winter wonderland video,
that is probably the biggest Christmas market,
fair ground, food, everything, all in one place.
So go check that out. - Yeah.
- That'll be in the cards above Lia's head.
- Also, last year we were apart of our
friend's, Christie's video, which was like
the best Christmas lights, and markets in London?
- Yeah I think so.
- So, check that out, we'll also leave
that below, or in the cards. - Yeah.
- It's a really like, informative, fun video.
- Yeah.
And it's shot really well, cause Christie
is an amazing Youtuber, like,
- She just puts so much effort in,
- Yeah.
- It's beautiful, if you wanna see Joel and Lia
like running around the city, - Doing twirls. (laughs)
- Doing twirls, literally doing twirls
down Hockter street, nearly bumping into people.
- Yeah.
- Go and watch that! - Go have a look.
So those are the things we wanted to discuss,
let us know if you agree with them,
if they're things that we do better than America.
- Yeah.
- Do you have these in America?
What do you have in America?
We wanna learn more.
- I just thought about one more thing.
- Oh, go on then.
- It's the crepes that they have at
the Christmas markets - Yeah.
- Just like, amazing, so like massive crepes,
like pancakes. - Yeah.
- I like to get Nutella on mine,
- Yeah.
- What do you get in yours? - Lemon and sugar.
The classic! - Aw, the classic, Joel!
- So good. - Stunning.
- But do you know what?
I'm so glad that you say crepe,
because if anyone says crepe,
it really triggers me.
- Does it?
- Crepe. - Crepe.
- That never comes out of-- - It's like the scon scone,
Crepe. - Crepe doesn't trigger me.
- I know, I'm like,
- It's incorrect, isn't it?
- I think it is incorrect.
- Crepe, crepe.
- French people don't go, "crepe"
They go, "crepe" - Crepe.
(both laugh)
And they said it like this.
- Like this, crepe!
- They don't say, crepe
They say, crepe.
(both laugh)
- Okay, cool, as Joel said,
we used to post thrice weekly - Thrice weekly.
- But we're currently doing daily videos for Vlogmas.
- Yep!
- This is our little Vlogmas set up.
- Yeah, how Christ-massy is this?
- So cute!
- We are not, this is not where we live, guys.
- No.
- We are renting this place, so if you want some
Airbnb credit, go in the link below,
you can click it, sign up and you'll get
twenty five pounds, or dollars - twenty five pounds
off your first Airbnb! - first Airbnb!
(both laugh)
- Airbnb!
So! - So!
- We're gonna continue drinking Prosecco,
thanks for tuning in, come back tomorrow.
- See you tomorrow!
- And, merry Christmas. - Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas! - Merry Christmas.
- Everyone.
(both snicker)
- Not you.
- Not you?
- Not you.
- Everyone else, but not you.
- Everyone else.
- (laughs)
- Carrots.
- (laughs) Carrots.
- (laughs)
- Merch! Carrots.
- Carrots, just carrots.
- Merch.
- Yeah.
- Link down below for merch!
- Yeah.
(both laugh)
- Wow.
- All done.
- And cut there.
- Cut there, thumbnail, thumbnail, thumbnail!