It's December the 25th, the Pope has come out condemning the superficial glitter of Christmas while wearing a sparkly gold hat as big as our tree, and we have had our own more understated display:


To anticipate a question, the prettified oranges at the sides are christingles - in the church of Scotland, you make those by wrapping a red ribbon around an orange, carving a space for a candle, and sticking cocktail stick spikes with sweets into them and then hurling them at each other in ritual combat. They were lit using candles borrowed from the menorah... which felt, in a small way, like what interaction between religions should always be like.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, or have a good time no matter what you choose to celebrate or how you say it.