Christmas greetings
May I wish all readers of this blog a happy, relaxed, social and satisfying Christmas. For many people 2009 will be remembered as a less than perfect year, but perhaps we will be able to say that it ended well. And so I hope that this holiday season will be everything you wanted it to be. And many thanks for stopping by here, today and on other days.
Maybe it may also be of interest that, if you are celebrating Christmas, you are doing something that was illegal for a number of years in these islands. Christmas was banned by Cromwell’s government in 1647, and observing it (even privately) was prohibited until 1650. The American Puritans took a dim view of it also. As a holiday it only became popular after Prince Albert (after whom the building where I am writing this is named) introduced his inherited German customs to England in the mid-19th century, and when US popular culture (from Coca Cola to Disney) introduced the ‘modern’ Santa Claus to the world (‘Santa’ being of course a re-branded Saint Nicholas of Myra).
So if the whiff of something heretical attracts you, Christmas can be that! Enjoy it to the full – you deserve it!
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University Blog 
December 25, 2009 at 3:21 am
And merry Christmas to you, Heather and the boys as well! May 2010 bring you interesting new challenges š
December 25, 2009 at 9:57 am
All the best, Ferdinand. And to all those eccentric commenters that appear here regularly, it is the season of goodwill after all! š
December 25, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Thanks,man! š
December 25, 2009 at 10:25 am
Many Happy Returns, and the same to all virtual (virtuous??) acquaintances from the blog!!
December 26, 2009 at 12:49 am
Many thanks again to all of you!