the personalities and stereotypes of Oxford colleges, as demonstrated by their christmas decorations: a thread.

Balliol: timeless, classic, perhaps a bit old fashioned but who can blame them really when it's worked so well for so long, right?

Brasenose: they take nothing, especially themselves, seriously, but they still manage to do kitsch extremely well.

Christ Church: Go Big or Go Home

Corpus Christi: stunning and wonderful in its own right, but unfortunately, directly behind Christ Church and therefore, a bit underwhelming

Exeter: small in size and often overlooked, but extremely big in personality and their students seem to be everywhere

Green Templeton: extremely warm and welcoming but unfortunately most famous for the Radcliffe observatory which they can't but do take credit for (and where this tree is).

Harris Manchester: they are extremely poor as a college, but absolutely doing the best they can with what they have

Hertford: they have a bridge! Like, there's two sides to the college, on either side of the bridge. Did I mention the bridge? don't forget the bridge

Jesus: they have heard all of your jokes and have decided to retaliate by coming up with their own, better jokes about themselves

Keble: is.... untraditional. you love it or hate it. no middle ground.

Kellogg: I mean, I guess? It's technically a college? Like, on paper?

LMH: it's nice enough but they really sort of box themselves off from everyone else.

Linacre: they welcome EVERYONE with the greatest start-of-the-year matriculash party, and then you never see them again after 1st week

Lincoln: Lovely, but notoriously has the worst food of all the colleges. Purportedly because they spend more money on looking fancy than making their food nice, and ironically, they left the tag on their tree.

Magdalen: You can see them from miles away (not really, but you get my point) but they're hoping you just see the majestic tradition and history and don't expect them to do too much THIS century

Mansfield: beautiful, extremely central, still prefers to hide from everyone; please stay out of their corner they need some introvert time.

Merton: extremely academically minded, extremely *zero fun sir*. The year I took the photo on the left, they were coasting at the top of the Norrington. I took the photo on the right the same year they got knocked off.

New: extremely competitive, in e v e r y t h i n g. they don't win much but it's because they're trying to do it all at once.

Nuffield: extremely wealthy and generous to their students, all 90 of them, and they'll smile friendly-like at the rest of you out in the cold.

Oriel- extremely tight-knit and cohesive, unfortunate side effect that they don't really think about their external rep. The joke here is I was at Oriel for two years and forgot for seven years to take a proper photo of the tree, so here have my sis and I

Pembroke: extremely central, still manages to feel very isolated. Very famous and well known but literally nobody can explain why.

Queens': they've got a great reputation but they're not going to make you work too hard. You got in; surely that's enough effort, yeah?

Reuben: le bebé college! Taking over some old buildings but no indication what they're going to do with them yet.

Somerville: one of the first colleges to admit women, but often disregarded by people who care about these things, because they also admitted Thatcher. Good idea, poor execution.

St Anne's: Basically if the 60's was a college.

St Antony's: very close knit college. Perhaps a bit... TOO.. close knit. everyone seeing everything, everyone all up in everyone's business, all the time. but it's very pretty! you can just see it from every direction, you know

St Catz: Named after a martyr, and designed in a fashion to make sure that nobody ever forgets that fact

St Cross: look, they'll 'engage' with 'tradition' if they MUST, but it's just not really their thing, you know? but if everyone *else* is doing it, well, they GUESS they could stick a tree up in the lodge or something?

Teddy Hall: the college might be small but its personality and standing is relatively outsized.

St Hilda's: It's a bit off the track, the only college on that side of the river, you might have to ask for directions to find it, you'll never really accidentally met a Hilda's student, but once you do find them, they're great

St Hugh's: notoriously the furthest out and hardest to find college, but very warm and welcoming once you make it out that far.

St John's: wealthiest college, they just eat everything in their path.

St Peter's: Huh, I wonder why that tree is being held up by ropes- almost as if something happened to it once- wonder wha- PETER'S, NOOOOOOOOO *crash*

All Souls: Lmao okay so I went and asked to see their Christmas tree. The porter stared at me blankly. "....Christmas decorations?" I asked. He responded: "Christmas isn't for two more weeks?" Anyways.

Trinity: really could stand on their own reputation but instead has been trying to capitalise on their proximity to Balliol for several centuries.

Univ: they set the standard for colleges nearly a millennium ago, and they haven't changed much since.

Wadham: the tree is in a foyer so small it might as well be a closet, which is funny because Wadham is the queerest college to ever queer and it is zero percent in the closet

wolfson: they hate the rest of Oxford. it's not personal, you understand.

Worcester: lmao okay SO the first time I did this, in 2012, *this* is what worcester had to offer. I wrote it up as 'Worcester doesn't really care what anyone thinks about them", which, I stand by. But. BUT. Then my essay took off. I went back in 2015...

The porter RAN out to greet me. "You're the Christmas Tree girl, right?" I said yes, a bit bemused. "Look! LOOK!"
Worcester Does Not Care.... until it's a competition. And then they CARE.

"But what about the PPH's?" I hear you ask. don't worry bbs I GOT U

Regent's: basically run by the students, honestly. I made it to the door, did not make it inside. Meant to try again this year but, plague.

Wycliffe: extremely religious and as such, take christmas EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY

St Benet's: extremely hard to find, you will never meet a Benet's student in the wild, but if you do chance across them they've got an incredible personality and really, really good food.

Fin! All photos mine, taken 2012-19 inclusive. Biases also mine. I will do Cambridge sometime in the next week; it'll take me that long to organise my photos. If you enjoyed this and have a few £ spare, please help students here: https://www.development.ox.ac.uk/hardship 

*fine print* all colleges are great and I came up with these ‘stereotypes’ by surveying drunk students at assorted pubs, please take everything with a gallon of salt