Chinese Santa

Move over, Santa! 

Here's the Chinese version and he's merrily sprinkling joy with an extra, extra dose of “nián nián yǒu yú” (年年有余), a popular Chinese New Year blessing meaning "May you have abundance year after year"! 😆😆😆

The "Chinese Santa" is a character based on the Qing dynasty military figure Oboi (鳌拜) and portrayed by actor Xu Jinjiang, who appeared at a tourist resort in Zhanjiang, China this month. The exact date was around mid-December, as the story went viral on social media around December 10-20, 2025. 

The character's appearance was part of a festive Christmas event at the Chikan Guangdong Overseas Chinese International Tourism Resort. 

Oboi, known for his thick white beard and imposing presence, was featured sitting in a sleigh and waving to visitors, creating a unique, local version of Santa Claus that became a pop culture phenomenon online.

My Sunday's post "1MDB Verdict: Najib Razak Is Guilty" pertains. In his verdict on December 26, judge Collin Lawrence Sequerah delivered a damning rejection of the former prime minister's narrative that billions in his account were from an Arab donor. 

At the height of the 1MDB scandal a decade ago, however, this story had many other proponents – some of whom are still holding office in senior government positions. 

Among them is Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. In 2015, Zahid told delegates at an UMNO divisional meeting that he had personally met the chief investment officer and wealth trustee of the Arab royal family allegedly behind the RM2.6 billion donation in Najib’s personal account. 

“When I asked them why they donated $700 million to Malaysia, they said, ‘Malaysia is not the only country we are channelling our money to. There are many more friendly Muslim countries to which we are donating’. They want UMNO and BN to continue ruling the country”. He even claimed to have seen the original documents of the transfer. 

The MACC similarly described the funds as a donation, not from 1MDB. Moreover, Azam Baki told reporters on December 07 that year that their investigators had met with the supposed donor. The MACC chief commissioner at the time was Abu Kassim Mohamed, while Azam was the investigation director at the time and has since taken over the top position. 

The stance was echoed by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Azalina Othman Said, who told Parliament in 2016 that the MACC confirmed that the money came from a donation. 

“In the RM2.6 billion case investigation, MACC had confirmed that the funds given to the prime minister personally indeed came from the Saudi royal family, based on testimonies by witnesses and supporting documents. Based on the overall facts and testimonies, the attorney-general was happy that there was no element of crime in these cases”, she said in a written reply. 

Another proponent was former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin. As the UMNO Youth chief at the time, he had argued that the “political donation” into Najib’s account is not a crime and rallied party members to come to Najib’s defence. 

Shouldn't these people be hauled up?!?! 

FYI, the court had dismissed the Arab donation letters presented by Najib’s defence team in his 1MDB trial as “forgeries”. 

“(The) Arab donation narrative is not meritorious. The Arab donation letters were forgeries, and the evidence pointed unmistakably to the fact that the money was, in fact, derived from 1MDB funds. This court has found the Arab donation defence to be incapable of belief and has not succeeded in rebutting the presumption of gratification under Section 23 of the MACC Act”, the judge said in delivering his guilty verdict.

Christmas 2025

Merry Christmas, everyone! 'Tis the season to be jolly!

Facebook burned $73 billion and changed its name to "Meta" trying to make virtual reality take off, and its fortunes only recovered after pivoting into the AI boom. 

But as reported by Upload on December 14, 2025, the dream is not dead! Even as talk was rife that the company are considering deep cuts to Meta Reality Labs' VR and metaverse teams.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth (left): "Every now and then there's just a narrative that people cannot help writing, and I'll give you the way to know. First of all, the answer is no: VR is not dead. We're also investing a lot in glasses and AI, and that's the trick. The way to know if there's a convenient narrative is if it appears zero-sum. Meta is a big company. We can invest in many things. We can invest in VR, glasses, and AI – and by the way, we have been for years. Every year we go through a budget process, and in that budget process, we ask every team, "Hey, can you do the same work more effectively?" We've got better tools, we've got AI, we've got things. You're trying to right-size it. How big is the market? How fast is it growing? Is that what we expected? If it's slower than we expected, let's make sure our burn rate is lower. If it's faster than expected, let's double down and make sure we take advantage and don't cede it to other people. You're being smart about it, but it's normal stuff". 

The discussion follows last year's ominous leaked memo titled "2025: The Year of Greatness" from the same source back in November! 

Bosworth had told Reality Labs staff that 2025 will determine whether their projects are "the work of visionaries or a legendary misadventure". 

In the memo, Bosworth described 2025 as "the most critical year in my 8 years at Reality Labs", and told staff they "need to drive sales, retention, and engagement across the board but especially in MR". 

Note that at the time, Meta were using MR to refer to VR too, a nomenclature that they ended earlier this year. 

"And Horizon Worlds on mobile absolutely has to break out for our long term plans to have a chance", Bosworth added. 

As far as I am aware, in no way did that happen!

Happy Orthodox Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More than 200 million Christians around the world are associated with Orthodox Churches and most celebrate Christmas on January 07 as they follow the Julian calendar, unlike those Christian denominations which follow the Gregorian calendar.

 

Donald Trump on Monday marked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's "intend to resign" announcement by doubling down on his unlikely proposal that the country should merge with the United States. 

 

"Many people in Canada LOVE being the 51st state... If Canada merged with the US, there would be no Tariffs, taxes would go way down, and they would be TOTALLY SECURE from the threat of the Russian and Chinese Ships that are constantly surrounding them", incoming president Trump posted on social media.

 

"Together, what a great Nation it would be!!!" he added.

The Gifts of Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gift of love. The gift of peace. The gift of happiness. May all these be yours at Christmas! 

 

Merry Christmas, everybody!

 

China’s first home-grown passenger jet, the C919 already operates on 15 routes and serves 10 major cities across the country as domestic airlines move swiftly to deploy the new aircraft. 

 

The aircraft, seen as a symbol of China’s achievements in tech and advanced manufacturing, also hit a new milestone on Thursday, carrying a total of 1 million passengers since its maiden commercial flight in May 2023. 

 

The rapid roll-out will be a key test for the C919 as it strives to prove itself a reliable alternative to Boeing and Airbus’ single-aisle models, with more frequent flights posing challenges from deployment to maintenance. 

 

“More flights between more cities mean real tests for the jet, but it can also raise its profile”, said Li Hanming, an aviation consultant. 

 

COMAC hope the C919’s rapidly increasing network coverage and visibility will help their bid to be certified by Western regulators. 

 

“The more carriers buy it and the more people fly on it, the more foreign regulators will be convinced of its reliability”, said a manager at COMAC, who declined to be named citing company policy. 

 

The C919 is currently being evaluated by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for a critical certification that COMAC will need to obtain if they are to start pitching the jet to overseas buyers.

Santa Claus Dazzles Social Media

A US-based drone company captivated social media users after they posted a video of a drone show by flying 5,000 UAVs in Mansfield, Texas, ahead of Christmas. 

Sky Elements teamed up with UVify to bring the amazing drone light show to life which featured Santa Claus clad in his red uniform and long beard waving at the audience with a reindeer-pulled sleigh filled with gifts for boys and girls on his nice list. 

As of the last update, the video had gained over 98 million views and 5.5 million likes on Instagram alone.

Malaysia’s badminton doubles pair Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan's semi-final hopes ended after their shock loss to India's Treesa Jolly-Gayathri Gopichand at the World Tour Finals in Hangzhou, China, today. 

World No 6. Pearly-Thinaah, who needed a win in Group A to stay alive, fell to a 21-19, 21-19 defeat against world No. 13 Treesa-Gayathri in 46 minutes. The Malaysians went into the match with a good 6-1 head-to-head record before the India pair delivered the shock knockout.

Yesterday, they put up a spirited fight but fell short against Japan’s Nami Matsuyama and Chiharu Shida in their opener. Despite a strong start, Pearly-Thinaah succumbed to the world No. 4 pair in a nail-biting 21-13, 17-21, 18-21 defeat.

Bankrupt Britain, Christmas Cancelled

Andrew Lawrence (left), English comedian who works in stand-up comedy, radio and television, is said to be a master of dark humor and a political provocateur in recent years.

 

His "Bankrupt Britain, Christmas Cancelled" tells us in no uncertain terms that the UK is finished!

Or as somebody said on X: "The UK is an utter shit hole".

 

Brilliant. 😂😂😂 

 

Refer my post "UK Petition Calls for A New General Election" published November 27, 2024. 

 

The said petition "Call a General Election" has already collected 2,976,228 signatures today. As at 08:00 AM, UK time.

 

According to the UK Parliament website, Parliament will debate this petition on January 06, 2025. 

 

Yesterday, Celtic stretched their unbeaten Champions League run to four matches after securing another valuable away point against Dinamo Zargreb – they could only manage a scoreless draw – to leave progression to the latter stages in their grasp.

 

And in another game, Liverpool delivered an under-par performance against Girona but still won 1-0. The narrow victory was courtesy of Mohamed Salah's second-half penalty, which was controversially won by Luis Diaz.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Reds have won six out of six Champions League matches this season and have already secured a place in the knockout-phase play-offs – the round before the last 16.

Christmas Trees on Berlin Zoo's Menu

There’s a bit of post-Christmas cheer on the menu for elephants and other tenants at the Berlin Zoo in Germany: they can chomp on Christmas trees that didn’t find a home. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tree treats were unwrapped Thursday in what has become an annual event. Elephants tore off branches with their trunks and either gobbled them or tossed them around their enclosure. The zoo’s European bison nestled into the trees before starting to munch on them, while reindeer sniffed and played with theirs.

 

The zoo are taking only fresh, unsold conifers from select vendors. They don't accept trees from the public, which could contain chemicals or leftover decorations.

Alaska Airlines Ground All Boeing 737 Max 9 Planes

You'd better believe it because it is happening again! 

 

I'm referring to my post "Loose Bolt and Missing Nut in Boeing 737 Max" published exactly a week ago – and that aside, it appears that problems continue to dog Boeing!

 

Now, Alaska Airlines have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a window and a chunk of fuselage blew out on one of the aircraft in mid-air. 

 

An Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 had to make an emergency landing shortly after taking off from Portland, Oregon in the US on Friday. Thankfully, the plane, carrying 174 passengers and six crew members, landed safely.

 

The following day, the company said they had taken the “precautionary step of temporarily grounding our fleet of 65 Boeing Max-9 aircraft”.

 

A passenger sent a photo to the KATU-TV news outlet showing a gaping hole in the side of the plane next to passenger seats. Another outlet, KPTV-TV, reported photos sent in by another passenger showing a large section of the plane’s fuselage missing. 

 

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the plane landed safely after the crew reported a pressurisation issue. The agency was investigating. 

 

That particular Boeing 737 Max 9 rolled off the assembly line and received its certification two months ago, according to online FAA records. Boeing said they are working to gather more information and are ready to support investigations by both FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board.

 

A warning to all airlines that still believe Boeing 737 Max planes are safe!

 

Today is Orthodox Christmas Day! 

"Счастливого Рождества" (Merry Christmas in Russian)

Nasi Lemak Durian

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Nasi Lemak Durian" has drawn mixed reactions from netizens, divided as to whether the national dish should be paired with the king of fruits. 

 

A Facebook video from KL Foodie showed the nasi lemak being paired with the usual condiments – half of a boiled egg, some cucumber, fried anchovies, sambal, together with a single durian pulp. 

 

Among the durian varieties being served with the nasi lemak include Musang King, XO, Blackthorn, and Tekka, and can be found at a restaurant called In Between X Briyani Mak in KL's Titiwangsa. 

 

 

Some have defended the pairing, and said it was just like eating rice with tempoyak, or fermented durian pulp.

 

Another netizen, Shamsul Rizal, said it would also be delicious to pair durian with rice along with chicken or beef curry, and a chilli sambal. 

 

Others were more critical of the unlikely combo. Prakash Kaash said people would come up with even weirder combinations in the future. "Next will be banana leaf rice with durian varuval… and durian juice".

 

Facebook user Shamini GK, too, disagreed with the combination. "Some things you just should not mix… this is one of it", she said.

 

And to those who are not cancelling Christmas:

 

 

Christmas Is Cancelled

In the US, Christian Palestinians are muting their celebrations as they mourn the ongoing suffering in Gaza, taking cues from Palestine, where churches and Christian communities have nixed their Christmas festivities to honor the dead and protest the continuing Israeli violence – and limiting to masses and prayers.

As one Palestinian said, “How can the world really celebrate Christmas and celebrate the birth of the prince of peace, when in the very homeland and the very place that he was born, there’s such atrocious crimes against humanity taking place and nothing is being done to stop it?”

Even Bethlehem, considered the birthplace of Jesus in the occupied West Bank, has seen quiet streets and dimmed decorations where ordinarily there would be revelers and light. And the Lutheran Church has a nativity scene that shows Baby Jesus in a manger of ruins and destruction.

It is a poignant representation of the suffering of Gaza’s children who find themselves buried under what is left of their own homes, victims of relentless Israeli bombardment. 

“If Christ were to be born today”, Reverend Munther Isaac said, “he would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling. This is a powerful message we send to the world celebrating the holidays”.

 

Zara Pulls Ad Over Gaza Reference Claims

Fashion brand Zara on Tuesday said it was removing an advertising campaign from its website and social media channels after angry criticism online claimed that it resembled images of destruction in Gaza. 

 

The move follows days of boycott calls across Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok over the promotion called ‘The Jacket’, which featured a model holding a mannequin seemingly wrapped in white plastic, fragments of plasterboard, a roughly painted crooked wooden box, rubble and statues, as well as other mannequins with missing limbs. 

 

“Unfortunately, some customers felt offended by these images, which have now been removed, and saw in them something far from what was intended when they were created”, Zara said in a statement posted on its Instagram account. 

 

The Inditex-owned fashion brand added that the ad campaign, which was conceived in July and photographed in September, presents a series of images of “unfinished sculptures in a sculptor’s studio and was created with the sole purpose of showcasing craft-made garments in an artistic context”.

 

UK’s Advertising Standards Authority said they had received over 100 complaints that the imagery referenced the current conflict in Gaza and was therefore offensive. 

 

In early November, UK clothing chain M&S apologized for an Instagram video showing green, white, and red paper hats burning in a fire. The company explained that the video was part of a campaign recorded in August to “playfully show that some people don’t enjoy wearing paper Christmas hats”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

However, some social media users argued the hats reflected the colors of the Palestinian flag. And they accused M&S of "promoting the burning of the Palestinian flag". 

 

In the end, the firm deleted the picture and apologised for any "unintentional hurt".

 

It should be noted that the colors of the festive hats are also the same as the flags of Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Oman, Lebanon, Madagascar and Burundi and are ones traditionally associated every Christmas.

This Year's Christmas Wish

My Christmas wish this year! LOL!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Actually, two wishes. You can guess, right?

😂😂😂

 

Liverpool have reached the last 16 of the Europa League as Group E winners with an easy 4-0 victory over LASK at Anfield yesterday. Meaning the Reds go through to the knockouts and avoid February's play-off round. 

 

Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo both struck in the space of three first-half minutes (12, 15) before Mohamed Salah's penalty in the fifty-first minute and Gakpo's second late on (90+2) in a straightforward win.

 

Wisconsin's Satanic Christmas Tree

Christmas won't be the same in Ashwaubenon, a suburb of Green Bay in the US state of Wisconsin. 

 

An annual event that showcases uniquely decorated Christmas trees and hosted by a museum has come under the spotlight. It does not only feature the traditional Christmas trees, but there are those dedicated to music stores, the trucking industry, pet crematories, health insurance companies, gender diversity, radio stations and behavioral pediatrics. [Note: Each organization that participates sponsors a tree that costs anywhere from $75 to $150 and they can decorate it however they see fit, so long as they don't promote violence, sexual content, and alcohol and drugs].

 

And among the 66 uniquely decorated exhibits displayed at the National Railroad Museum’s "Festival of Trees" (November 15-December 31, 2023), one tree stands out, really stands out. 

 

This tree is adorned with red ornamental pentagrams and upside-down crosses. And pays festive homage to Beelzebub. It is sponsored by Wisconsin's Satanic Temple – in fact, one of 60 trees with no explicit Christian overtones.

 

As expected, there were protests but museum CEO Jacqueline Frank brushed them off. "We have six Christian-related groups that have trees up this year, but it's mostly businesses and nonprofit organizations", she told the Green Bay Press-Gazette. "We have everything from a tree with hardware on it, a tea tree, we have a Lego tree. It's a lot of different organizations promoting their business".

 

She declared that the goal is to be inclusive and “provide dignity for everybody”. 

 

The Satanic Temple’s Wisconsin chapter too responded. Like many modern satanist groups, they say they don't actually believe in the devil, much less worship him. 

 

On Facebook, they claim that they consider Satan “more of a literary character we admire and a mascot”.

 

“Tree decorating is a fun and rewarding holiday tradition with roots in paganism”, a message from the group reads. “We decorated the tree to celebrate our own winter holiday, Sol Invictus, and in the spirit of religious plurality and togetherness with other world religions that have holidays around this time of year”.

 

As far as Frank is concerned, she will not reject an organization simply because they go against certain values or ways of life, traditional or not.

 

"There was no hesitation. We're not a religious organization. We focus on trains", Frank insisted. "And honestly, the Christmas tree is used by so many different secular and religious organizations. All we're doing is putting up decoration in that room".

 

And for good measure, she added that even Jewish and Muslim organizations are more than welcome to apply to be part of the Festival of Trees, even though these religions don't celebrate Christmas. 

Nicki Minaj Is Coming To Call Of Duty

It's a strange time for video game crossovers. 

 

Shaggy can beat up Superman. You can play as Goku wielding an assault rifle in Fortnite. Nicolas Cage can hide from Freddy Krueger in Dead by Daylight. 

 

And yesterday, Call of Duty, never one to be outdone, has revealed that music icon Nicki Minaj is going to be playable in multiplayer mode Warzone, complete with sparkly pink gun! Wow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ukraine's President [V]olodymyr [Z]elenskyy on Friday signed a law moving the official Christmas Day holiday from January 07 to December 25 – in a break with the Russian Orthodox church, which celebrates it on January 07. 

 

Interestingly, in December, the government launched a poll asking citizens whether the date for Christmas should be moved to December 25. Only 59% of the more than 1.5 million people who voted supported such a move.

Happy Orthodox Christmas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Счастливого Рождества! Schastlivogo Rozhdestva! 

 

Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates Orthodox Christmas today!

 

Note: Although Russia follows the Gregorian calendar, like most countries throughout the world – the country’s Orthodox Church still abide by the Julian calendar. And so, Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 07, which corresponds to December 25 on the Gregorian calendar.

This Christmas, Choose Joy

Merry Christmas, everybody and a Happy New Year! 

I'm sharing this video from OPPO Philippines and choose joy for this year's Christmas! See how the Christmas tree is lighted up by OPPO – and more importantly, learn that happiness is a choice:

 

Maligayang Pasko, sa lahat at Manigong Bagong Taon! 

Celtic produced a Christmas cracker of a performance yesterday afternoon to comfortably crush St Johnstone 4-1 in the Scottish Premiership. 

The Glaswegian side were close to their free-flowing best. Both Reo Hatate and Kyogo Furuhashi bagged a brace, before Celtic stepped off the pedal as the Perth side scored a consolation on a rare venture forward in the sixty-seventh minute. 

 

 

 

 

The first Celtic goal came from Hatate – playing as a makeshift right-back – when he arrowed a powerful strike from the edge of the box into the back of the net, via a slight deflection, on 14 minutes. 

And just four minutes later, Kyogo produced the second goal as he showed great movement to burst into the front area to flick Matt O'Riley's cross beyond the Saints goalie. 

On 40 minutes, Kyogo netted the Bhoys’ third when the Japanese star darted across the St Johnstone to tap home James Forrest's cross from close range. 

Hatate made it four when he latched on to a threaded through pass before sneaking the ball by the goalkeeper. The wait for confirmation, though, was lengthy before an incorrect offside flag was overturned. 

Everything is in the Bhoys’ hands this season and if they can keep the intensity up, it’s hard to see who can stop them.

Share The Magic This Christmas

A wonderful Christmas video that’s a class act from Celtic FC:

 

In the EFL Cup fourth round on Thursday, Manchester City stamped their dominance as they defeated Liverpool 3-2. 

The latter’s two goals came from Fabio Carvalho (20) and Mohamed Salah (48). 

Sure, the Reds came close but Darwin Nunez didn't deliver. He had three times shot across the face of goal and wide of the far post when he was positioned to do much better. Maybe I'm judging him too harshly but he is increasingly looking like a total dud. 

Anyway, I have no expectations from Liverpool – I foresee they will continue to struggle in the months ahead.

Scotland's Awesome Christmas Trees

Christmas trees are one of the biggest symbols of the season and it has been claimed that Scotland does not disappoint when it comes to Christmas trees. 

 

From beautifully decorated royal Christmas trees to lavish restaurant trees and trees that are not trees at all. BBC Scotland have put together some of Scotland's finest trees of 2022 – and here are my 5 top picks:

 

Isle of Raasay Whisky Barrel Tree 

 

A wee dram would set visitors rocking around this Christmas "tree" on the Isle of Raasay. 

 

Built from whisky casks, it was the idea of the team at the Isle of Raasay Distillery. 

 

The Isle of Raasay lies off the west coast of Scotland in the Inner Hebrides, and is rooted in centuries of illicit distilling. Fortunately this one was constructed at the island's first legal distillery. 

 

Strathaven 'Ninja' Tree 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A small town that is 7.5 kilometres south of Hamilton in South Lanarkshire is no stranger to the talents of its local crafters. (Note: South Lanarkshire borders the south-east of the City of Glasgow and contains some of Greater Glasgow's suburban towns as well as many rural towns and villages). 

 

The Strathaven Combat Crochet and Knitting Ninjas have been yarn-bombing events in the area since 2017. It has taken 20 people, 75 balls of wool and four years to get the knitted Christmas tree together and this year the dream became reality. 

 

Describing themselves as the "Banksies of the yarn craft world", they put their projects out under the cover of darkness and keep their identities a secret. 

 

The Dome, Edinburgh

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For the wow factor, look no further than The Dome in Edinburgh. The old Physicians' Hall built in 1775, and latterly housing the Royal Bank of Scotland, became a hospitality venue in 1996. 

 

It is renowned for its lavish Christmas decorations inside and out and its spectacular tree which sits over the bar in the Grill Room. 

 

Ullapool Creel Tree 

 

The Ullapool creel tree must be one of the most unique and distinctive of Scotland's best-loved trees.

 

The 9m (29.5ft) "tree" is made from about 400 fishing creels and lets the west Highland village celebrate the town's close links with the sea. 

 

First constructed in 2016, it is now a well-established tradition and has spawned other light celebrations around the town. Ullapool is located around 45 miles northwest of Inverness in Ross and Cromarty, Scottish Highlands. 

 

Sir Walter Scott's Book Tree 

 

Another fascinating tree that's not a tree can be found in the Scottish Borders. 

 

As the home of one of Scotland's greatest storytellers, Abbotsford is a house built on books. The Christmas tree, constructed in the bow window of Sir Walter Scott's beloved library, is lovingly constructed from hundreds of research books relating to the life, literature, and legacy of the author in the world today. It is even topped off with an angel with a literary twist. 

 

Whether they are traditional, modern, quirky or not even grown in the ground, they are sure to evoke swells of festive cheer.