In what could be the most tenuous festive connection so far, we’ve found this lovely paper on folding polyominoes from other polyominoes. Maybe something to keep you occupied over those few days when all the festivities are over and everyone’s just sitting around eating chocolates… and playing with the foil wrappers? This post is part of…

If you’re familiar with Pascal’s triangle, you’ll know it has a lot of brilliant hidden patterns and features. One of my favourites is the Christmas Stocking Identity, also more prosaically called the Hockey Stick Identity. The identity states: $$ \sum_{i=r}^n \binom{i}{r} = \binom{n+1}{r+1} \qquad \textrm{ for } n, r \in \mathbb{N}, n > r $$…

Remember this time last year, when we had a chat with Samuel Hansen for their amazing Relatively Prime podcast? We discussed our collective hobby of getting angry at stupid formulae in the news, and how it sometimes crosses over with the festive season. Listen again below. This post is part of the Aperiodical’s 2018 Aperiodvent Calendar.

In the viral YouTube hit of Christmas 2015, Katie Steckles demonstrates some of the most mathematically satisfying ways you can wrap your Christmas presents.