[As I search for an audio feed of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge, I thought I would re-run this post as a follow on to the recipe.]

The British have some wonderful Christmas customs that have survived the incursion of Christianity, especially the Puritan party poopers. Stealing customs from the Celts, Germans, and Scandinavians, they have created a wonderful holiday that I fondly remember from time spent there.

The bird is a European robin that is featured on British Christmas cards, as it is a Winter bird in England, unlike the fair-weather laggard of the same name in America. It is bracketed by holly and mistletoe. All go back to the druids and solstice celebrations.

If you read the Harry Potter books you will get a taste, but not the full effect of a British Christmas. A full-on Christmas dinner is wretched excess to the n^th degree – Thanksgiving on steroids. Charles Dickens and Queen Victoria were major influences on the American celebration of Christmas.

The BBC has the background on Father Christmas.

Note: another recipe from Kryten in comments.

This very old fashioned recipe uses suet and has no sugar, so is diabetic friendly. 🙂
September to November is the perfect time to make this Christmas pudding.

Ingredients:

• 250 grams sultanas
• 250 grams raisins
• 250 grams currants (or substitute figs)
• 250 grams mixed peel (or substitute prunes)
• 3/4 cup of nice port (or substitute Irish stout)
• 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 250 grams chilled suet
• 125 grams plain flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 250 grams fresh breadcrumbs
• 1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) of each: mace, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger.

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Ho Ho Ho!

Happy NODWISH
С Рождеством Христовым
Sung Tan Chuk Ha
Vrolijk Kerstfeest
Nadolig Llawen
Fröhliche Weihnachten
Joyeux Noël
Buon Natale
Feliz Navidad
God Jul
Rauhallista Joulua
Happy Christmas

So it’s time to get everything in line so that there will be smooth sailing tomorrow.

Obviously you need the text of A Visit from St. Nicholas [AKA Twas the night before Christmas] or one of the variations.

But now that you’ve finished putting up enough lights to match the total electrical consumption of a third world nation, you can sit back and watch the North American Air Defense Command’s annual attempt to take out that red-suited commie’s attack on the capitalist system by giving stuff away. [Don’t worry kids, they are using the anti-missile defense system, so there’s no danger to anyone but taxpayers.]