As I light my candles to commemmorate the first great oil war, Robin's been schooling me on English Christmas customs. It started when he mentioned something about a fairy atop a Christmas tree. "Um, I think you mean an angel," said I, my knowledge of such customs admittedly being limited by, you know, not growing up with any of them. No, he insisted, in England (that would be the Christian country) you don't have an angel on top of the tree, you have a fairy. And tree lights are called fairy lights. Only here in our ostensibly secular country which more or less admits now that most of these things are coopted from pagan celebrations anyway do we have angels, 'cause I guess Christmas fairies would be like, I dunno, as evil to contemplate around this time of year as Harry Potter. Goodness knows how we've kept the elves; perhaps to ensure little people get their fair share of acting jobs during the season? (Speaking of which, this year's Christmas ad theme appears to be carolers...) Anyway, I don't think I'll be making any mince pies from stratch, although I hope to procure at least one to wish on. Right now I'm just struggling to get through creating a year-end roundup insert to go into the cards, which need to be mailed to England this week in order to have a prayer of arriving by Christmas...
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