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A Christmas Carol is an 1843 novella by Charles Dickens, illustrated by John Leech. It recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man. Dickens wrote the story during a period when the British were exploring and re-evaluating past Christmas traditions, including carols, and newer customs such as Christmas trees. His Christmas stories (including three before and four after this one) were influenced by those of other authors, including Washington Irving and Douglas William Jerrold. Parts of the novella point out the misery that poor children often endured; Dickens had recently witnessed appalling conditions for children working in the Cornish tin mines. He gave 128 public readings of A Christmas Carol, including his farewell performance in 1870, the year of his death. (Full article...)

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The Dream of Saint Joseph

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... that the 2025 UK Christmas number-one single, "XMAS", made Kylie Minogue the oldest woman to top the UK singles chart with a new recording?
... that a book about a Finnish Santa figure sold particularly well in Germany and Japan?
... that an Iowa nun's drawing of Eve and a pregnant Mary was described as "simple yet theologically dazzling"?
... that all four known fossils of the dwarf mistletoe Arceuthobium johnianum have been lost?
... that a website has ranked a giant Santa statue as the world's most "unintentionally creepy Christmas ornament"?
... that the author of How to Survive Christmas described the season as a "rat race"?
... that a cave shrimp from Christmas Island was christened xmas and heralded on Christmas Day?
... that a Japanese ministry promotes eating salmon on Christmas?

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On this day

December 25: Christmas (Western Christianity; Gregorian calendar); Quaid-e-Azam Day in Pakistan

Coronation of Baldwin I of Jerusalem

1100 – Baldwin I was crowned the first king of Jerusalem (depicted) in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
1725 – J. S. Bach led the first performance of the Christmas cantata Unser Mund sei voll Lachens, BWV 110, making laughter audible in singing.
1990 – British computer programmer Tim Berners-Lee introduced WorldWideWeb, the world's first web browser and WYSIWYG HTML editor.
2000 – Russian president Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill officially adopting a new national anthem, with music by Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov originally composed for the anthem of the Soviet Union.
2024 – After the loss of aircraft systems, Azerbaijan Airlines Flight 8243 crashed near Aktau International Airport while attempting to perform an emergency landing after being hit by a Russian defense missile.

Makan ibn Kaki (d. 940)
Lady Grizel Baillie (b. 1665)
Sadiq al-Mahdi (b. 1935)
Sissy Spacek (b. 1949)

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Today's featured picture

Qurabiya is a shortbread-type biscuit, usually made with ground almonds, eaten in much of the Arab world, the Balkans, Iran and Turkey. It is often eaten by Christians in those areas on Christmas Day, including in Serbia, Greece and Albania.

Photograph credit: Petar Milošević

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