Christmas Livestreams

The Yogscast Christmas Livestreams, also known as of 2015 as the Yogscast Jingle Jam or the YogJam are a series of livestreams that are shown over the course of December and January each year with the intention to raise money for charity.

2015 (Jingle Jam 2015)
The 2015 Christmas Livestreams were announced by Lewis during a vlog on the main channel. The first 13 days of the schedule were released on November 27, 2015. Warmup streams will be starting around 2pm GMT. Main streams will start at 5pm daily, with a change of host occurring at 8pm GMT, throughout December.

The games in the 2015 giveaway bundle included Guns of Icarus Online Collector’s Edition, Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, DEFCON, Medieval II: Total War, Garry’s Mod, Block N Load - Platinum Pack DLC, Ace of Spades: Battle Builder, Chronicle: RuneScape Legends - Closed Beta Key, Gunpoint, Torchlight II, Tango Fiesta, Disc Storm, The Weaponographist, Armored Warfare T-62 Main Battle Tank (and Premium Time), Elite Dangerous Yogscast Cobra Mk III Paint Job skin, Total War Arena, Wildstar, Rust and Guild Wars 2.

All proceeds for the 2015 charity drive, including the Hat Films album Population: You were being donated to Cancer Research UK, Fauna & Flora International, MSF/Doctors Without Borders, SpecialEffect, Oxfam, Games Aid and the Mental Health Foundation.

'''Over the course of the 2015 Christmas Livestreams, a grand total of $982,454.05 was donated from 40,184 donators. The top donators were Tom Bailey & Sinescape, both donating $10,000.00. Altogether, a sum of over  $ 1,052,881.48  was raised by donators and the Yogscast revenue.'''

2014 (Jingle Jam)
On Lewis's Vlog Updates! video, he stated that the livestreams would be returning in 2014. It has also been mentioned it would be returning this year various other times on other channels.

The games that were given away included Call of Juarez, Bridge Constructor, Magicka: Dungeons and Daemons DLC, Cities in Motion 2, Ace of Spades: Battle Builder, Firefly Runner, Thomas Was Alone, Mark of the Ninja, Sorcery!,Montas (Early Access), NiGHTS Into Dreams, Stronghold Crusader HD, Miner Wars Arena, Swords and Soldiers HD, Awesomenauts Honeydew and Demon Skolldir Skins, Strike Suit Infinity, a Magicka: Wizard Wars Yogscast Tippin' Unique Item, plus a 1 Month Subscription to OnLive PlayPack.

All proceeds went toward benefiting Fauna & Flora International, MSF/Doctors Without Borders, End Polio Now, SpecialEffect, and Oxfam. All have been chosen by Yogscast and represent a broad range of causes. Oxfam congratulated the Yogscast on their successful Christmas Livestreams during a Q&A session at EGX 2015 with a band performance of Diggy Diggy Hole.

'''Over the course of the 2014 Christmas Livestreams, a grand total of $930,985.29 was donated from 40,277 donators. The top donator was Facepunch Studios, donating $15,517.81. Altogether, a sum of over $1,104,882.09 was raised by donators and the Yogscast revenue.'''

2013 (Dwarven Dairy Drive)


In Hannah's Christmas Announcement Vlog, she confirmed the Yogscast Christmas Livestreams would be returning in 2013 and an official announcement was posted on the main channel on December 1. Also, in YogNews - Wizard Wars and Summer Expos!, cows could be seen holding the total amount raised from 2012 livestreams, and they said that "The livestreams are all about the cows now." This was confirmed when the Twitch offline screen was changed to Honeydew in a cow outfit. 2013's donations were handled through the Humble Bundle who initially offered a TF2 item, the Heart of Gold, for a $5 donation and a group of 6 games and a War of the Vikings exclusive hat DLC for a $25 donation. As the livestreams progressed, five more games were added to the Humble Bundle.

Despite the cow theme (which caused many cow puns on the first night of streaming), all donations were split between five non-cow-related charities - Oxfam, Special Effect, Little People UK, Games Aid and War Child. Donators could choose how they wanted to split their money between the five charities. Sparkles*, Strippin, Martyn, Kaeyi & Sam demonstrated the hardware used by Special Effect during the "Dream Stream" on the 7th December, where they playedSonic All-Stars Racing Transformed, using only eye movements.

'''Over the course of the 2013 Christmas Livestreams, a grand total of  $1,159,746.33 was donated by 47,885 generous contributors. The top contributor was www.g2a.com who donated $14,100.'''

2012 (Honeydew Honey Drive)
Rumours that the livestreams would be returning in Christmas 2012 had been circulating amongst the Yogscast community for months. In late November, it was revealed via Facebook and Twitter that the streams would be returning. On 1 December, Simon and Lewis put out an official announcement video on the BlueXephos channel confirming the 2012 livestream.

The aim of this year's livestream is to support Oxfam with two projects: 'Plan Bee' and the '365 Emergency Fund'. The charity drive was nicknamed "Honeydew's Honey Drive". The money is split between each project. (The first £10,000 is going to 'Plan Bee', and the remaining to #365 Emergency Fund') Plan Bee aims to provide training and a workshop for the manufacture of modern beekeeping equipment for Ethiopian families. 365 Emergency Fund is a project dedicated to a relief effort aiding emergency situations worldwide.

Oxfam responds to around 25 situations worldwide at any one time. Near the ending of the livestreams, after Christmas, Simon & Lewis uploaded a video to the main BlueXephos channel in which Santa introduced Lewis, who was wearing a sexy bee costume as promised. The number of people who needed to receive eye laser treatment during the days following the upload is currently unspecified.

Over the course of the 2012 livestreams, a total of £211,235.86 ( $328,680.73 ) was donated by 13,407 charitable people.

2011
The Christmas livestreams first began in 2011, when Lewis, Simon, Duncan and Sips streamed a number of games, such as Anno 2070, OpenTTD and X-Com: UFO Defence. During this time, Sips became more popular and eventually began making his own videos on his channel YogscastSips. Within a month, Sips had amassed a total of 28,000 subscribers, much to Simon and Lewis' surprise. On the BlueXephos channel there was also a series of daily "calendar videos" to accompany the streams, all for the Christmas holidays. The aim of the 2011 Christmas Livestreams were to buy goats, which were then sent to third-world nations in Africa to support families and villages.

Over the course of the 2011 livestreams, a total of £63,780 ( $99,139.63 ) was raised by 3,616 generous donators to Oxfam.