T-Rex is ready for Christmas - 23rd December 2022

Even the dinosaurs in London are getting into the Christmas spirit. At the city's prominent Natural History Museum, a giant animatronic T-Rex dinosaur has been outfitted and is more than ready for the festive season.

Made from recycled yarns, T-Rex's sweater has extra short sleeves to accommodate his stubby arms, and the body of the jumper has zips, making getting dressed slightly easier. His cosy apparel features green dinosaurs donning Santa hats just like the Jurassic giant himself.

Why the fuss over a dinosaur jumper for Christmas? Sam Barnes works as the museum's retail commercial manager.

Sam Barnes: "It is a big British thing. There is a national Christmas jumper day that happens in December, which is a charity day, so yeah I think it is a uniquely British thing. And for us, it's something we want to kind of take advantage of and we do think our stance is a bit different having a little Christmas dino on your jumper this year."

The festive jumper's all the more adorable in human sizes, luckily on sale in the museum's shop along with socks and hats, all featuring the prehistoric relics. Despite the fun, there's a genuine reason for the marketing of these pieces.

Sam Barnes: "For us, everything we do here in the shop, all of our profits go back to supporting all of the vital scientific research and looking after all the collections here in the museum. So for us, Christmas is a really peak time for that and we have lots of visitors coming in and we want to make sure we're giving them something fun and something interesting and also it's an upcycled and recycled yarn product as well."

Publishing more than 700 scientific papers annually the Natural History Museum is a revered research institution collaborating with experts internationally and the aim of selling T-Rex's dapper threads is to continue funding vital research into his prehistoric peers.

Featuring on the festive jumper is a one off, changing every Christmas, who gets to be on the jerseys next year is up for discussion. It could be any of the vast array of specimens at the museum.