1993-97 1998-2001 2002-04 2005-07 1998  
A very poor year all round. BBC1 produced probably the most boring set of Christmas idents ever, featuring a giant red bauble. There were three variations; bauble with penguins (above), bauble with deer (below), bauble on its own. BBC2's ident was not up to the usual standard either in 1998 - is that a 2 at the top of a tree again? 
Oh deer, is that really the best they could do?
1999  
At last we get a festive version of the BBC1 balloon! Just one ident this year, complete with a 'ho-ho-ho' from a giant holographic Santa Claus, and a Christmassy rearrangement of the balloon music. Watch a clip  Over on BBC2, our hero has seemingly grown some wings and is seen booting off the angel at the top of the tree! This was the very first time extra junk was loaded onto BBCtv idents, in the form of the BBC Online URL. 
Above: a festive BBC1 slide from 1999.
2000  
 
Father Christmas gave his reindeer a year off in 2000, and hired out the BBC1 balloon to deliver his presents, as depicted on this very impressive, cinematic-style ident. But hold on a minute! Look closely at the city; is that not the same city visited by the angel '2' one year previously? Hmmm... Watch a clip This year BBC2 brought us a giant snow '2', complete with little snow '2's skating around and falling off it. This would bizarrely return to our screens over five years later, posing as 2006's Winter Olympic ident. For the first time in 2000, the Christmas idents were revealed over a day early. Rather than debuting on Christmas Eve morning, our first glimpse was on the evening of the 22nd December. 
The menu from a joint Christmas trailer for BBC1 and BBC2, but using the BBC1 theme for the background.
2001  
 
For 2001, BBC1 employed the services of Aardman Animations (best known for Wallace and Gromit) for three excellent Christmas idents - and the last ever version of the balloon. Watch a clip BBC2, meanwhile, had the first festive variant of the new-style '2' which, it has to be said, was far better than the regular versions! In stark contrast to earlier years, rather than just being shown for three days, both channels' idents appeared on the evening of Friday 21st December - and then hung around for an incredible eleven days! The normal idents finally reappeared on 2nd January 2002.    
More festive presentation from 2001. 1993-97 1998-2001 2002-04 2005-07 | 
