Christmas Links #14.

Doctor Who Christmas Countdown:
"With Christmas just a few shopping days' away, and Doctor Who: 'The Return of Doctor Mysterio' lined up for a post-prandial eyeball-feast, James Cooray Smith sizes up the previous Yuletide offerings in his festive episode countdown."

New Yorker Christmas Covers, Then and Now:
"If you need a break from shopping for just the right gift to arrive at just the right time, take a look at these vintage New Yorker covers celebrating the rituals of holidays past: you’ll see that it has never been easy."

Today programme announces all-female Christmas guest editor line-up:
"Radio 4’s Today programme will have an all-female cast of guest editors for the first time over Christmas, when it will also break with tradition by broadcasting a guest-edited programme live from Hull on New Year’s Eve."

Radio.Garden:
"Live, History, Jingles, Stories."

Can You Guess The Christmas Movie From Its Opening Shot?
"‘Tis the season!"



The Real Reason Charles Dickens Wrote A Christmas Carol:
"After a particularly bleak year, millions in the English-speaking world and beyond will seek some comfort by watching a converted miser in a nightshirt, skipping about as light as a feather. “Whoop! Hallo! …What's to-day my fine fellow?”"

‘I cried all the way home': Terminally ill 5-year-old dies in Santa’s arms:
"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist and you know they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy."

AC/DC, sledging and booze: dirty deeds to help you cheat at Christmas board games:
"A study reports that playing Highway to Hell could be just the thing to break your opponent’s concentration - but what other tricks will help you win?"

World War On Christmas:
"The planet doesn’t care if you say Happy Holidays."

More Sleigh Bell: A Guide to 2016’s Most Notable Christmas Albums:
"Christmas music can provoke as much strong emotion, or sea-sick ambivalence, as the holidays themselves. Say it’s early December; you’re in a supermarket or bookstore, and Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”—or Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” or the Temptations’ “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”—starts playing. Are you filled with joy, or plunged into a month-long depression? Does the song strike you as pleasantly nostalgic or suffocatingly familiar? Do you love it? Hate it? Love to hate it or hate to love it? Fight or flight? Maybe all of the above?"