...for putting up a Dr. Frank link on his excellent blog, The Edge of England's Sword.
Regarding my description of the English Christmas, he observes that he "never really felt that Christmas in the US was a holiday at all." I know what he means. The English Christmas experience is so much more extreme, which is why it's a much better "ride" for the holiday thrill-seeker. Part of it may be that the English keep their festive powder dry for the entire year, blowing it all on Christmas rather than depleting the reserves for minor holidays along the way. Even Guy Fawkes Day (a sort of Fifth of November to our Fourth of July) doesn't seem to waste very much of the British stockpile of festive energy. (Though they did burn a giant papier mache Osama bin Laden in Suffolk this year-- which is pretty festive in my book.) The British are puzzled by Thanksgiving ("why do you have to have two Christmas dinners?" is the unanswerable question you often get); they hardly notice Hallowe'en. In England, it's all about the Yuletide. (We call it the Toys R Us Time of Year.) An American experiences this sudden explosion of festive ordnance as a kind of unrelenting Dickens-a-thon, which is to say: it rules. Jolly hockey sticks.
Posted by Dr. Frank at December 29, 2001 03:35 PM | TrackBack