( Read more... )

I did something tonight that I haven't done before; I walked two kilometers through the woods to the ancient chapel of Our Lady of Steenbergen for Midnight Mass. (I'd been there for Midnight Mass once before, but that time I drove ( Read more... )

Not the Christmas Poem You Were Looking For
Jo Walton reflects.
(tags: christmas poetry )

A Trump Christmas Carol
by @rozkaveney, @PennyRed, @scalzi and @bluejowalton.
(tags: Sf Uspolitics )

ܗܘܐ ܕܝܢ ܒܝܘܡܬܐ ܗܢܘܢ ܘܢܦܩ ܦܘܩܕܢܐ ܡܢ ܐܓܘܣܛܘܣ ܩܣܪ ܕܢܬܟܬܒ ܟܠܗ ܥܡܐ ܕܐܘܚܕܢܗ ( Read more... )

(The Moomins, who normally hibernate, have been woken by a well-meaning neighbour and are trying to get to grips with Christmas. They have worked out that everyone is very anxious about it and that a fir tree is involved.) ‘Now keep quiet a moment, please, and let me think,’ Moominpappa said. ‘If the fir tree is to be dressed as beautifully as ( Read more... )

My President Was Black
Ta-Nehisi Coates on Obama's presidency.
(tags: Uspolitics race )

The 10 laws of Brexit
@jonworth cocks a snook.
(tags: ukpolitics brexit eu )

UK's first major Moomin exhibition set to open in London
Hooray!
(tags: finland sf )

the elf advises
Estonia makes you adapt.
(tags: Christmas estonia )

Why I Will Not Cast My Electoral Vote for Donald Trump - NYTimes.com
A Republican elector writes.
(tags: uspolitics )

Russia's Top 5 Myths about NATO (PDF)
Just in case you weren't aware.
(tags: Russia nato politics )

Share of households owning at least one cat in the EU in 2014, by country
Romania top, Slovakia bottom.
(tags: cats statistics eu )
( Read more... )

[this is specifically UK oriented, but most of it will apply in any country where end-of-year greeting cards and gifts are a big deal ( Read more... )

• "Nicholas was..."
  Neil Gaiman's short story, illustrated by Chris Riddell
  (tags: sf christmas )
• Fixion
  A Christmas gift for physicists: the particle that fixes everything.
  (tags: science funny )
• Where To Say ‘Merry Christmas’ vs. ‘Happy Holidays’
  @fivethirtyeight maps it out.
  (tags: uspolitics christmas )

• The long, incredibly tortuous, and fascinating process of creating a Chinese font
  Amazing!
  (tags: alphabets China )
• US bars British Muslim family from holiday trip of a lifetime
  How to win hearts and minds.
  (tags: uspolitics )
• The best and worst of European political Christmas cards
  @PoliticoRyan reports.
  (tags: eu christmas )