Whatever your traditions, the holidays are a time to drink egg nog lattes, reconnect with friends and family, struggle gracefully to keep calm, and look back on all you achieved in 2011. Here at Big Think, we’ve been working hard to create and develop the Floating University, an e-learning platform featuring our Great Big Ideas course, which was the first class ever to be offered simultaneously by Harvard, Bard, And Yale. 

So we’re doing something else we’ve never been done before: we’re starting the party twelve days early. In celebration of the people who matter most to us – you – we’ll feature one clip from each of our Floating University lectures on the homepage every day.Afterall, knowledge is the gift that keeps on giving. And what would you do with a partridge in a pear tree, anyway?

During this period, we are also offering discounted subscriptions to Big Think readers. You can now subscribe and gift this course for $99. Please sign up and then subscribe using the coupon code THINK to get the discount.