Christmas and the fireside: why change is not on the cards

Have you ever questioned why Christmas and images of the fireside seem to go hand in hand? And why this coupling endures in a era when around three quarters of UK homes are heated with gas central heating, distributed by radiators and controlled by discrete panels on the wall. As part of the JUSTHEAT project which examines the social and cultural consequences of changes to home heating, we have been exploring why Christmas and the fireside seem inseparable and what that means for the transition to low carbon heating systems. In this blog, we set out what a trawl of Christmas card and storybook imagery reveals about the cultural synonymity between Christmas and a solid fuel fire and proceed to contrast this idealised image of the cosy Christmas with the more dystopian accounts captured through our oral histories of heating. We conclude with some reflections on the challenges of progressing low carbon heating transitions when these entanglements with the fireside persist. <a href="https://medium.com/@justheatproject/christmas-and-the-fireside-why-change-is-not-on-the-cards-52091b439746">Click Here</a>