Christmas Traditions

If I see another mince pie I'll be sick and its not even Christmas eve yet! Where do all of these mince pies come from? Home made, shop bought, cafe shelves --------there's no end to them. And if we're honest, they don't really taste very nice do they?, all that heartburn-inducing pastry and claggy mushed up scenty-soap tasting fruit - yuk! And I'm not easily fooled by the thick top crust being left off, sticking a little star sprinkled with "organic" icing sugar on the top then charging double the normal price for the pleasure of consuming it! And as 'Christmas fare' is the topic for the moment, what about those good old favourites - sprouts?. I've never seen so many sprouts in the whole of my life as I have in the past seven days. Sacksful or should it be sack fulls? delivered here, there and everywhere in preparation for the 25th meal of all meals. An old great aunt of mine, God rest her soul, used to start cooking them at around eight in the morning for a 3.00pm dinner. By 11 a.m my appetite often began to wane. Isn't there a disproportionate amount of glitter on the cards this year? Our favourite was the card with the ginger guinea pig, dressed up as Rudolph, complete with red nose, antlers and lots of glitter. I think we've received enough shiney metal to fill at least 3 scrapyards!