God Bless Us, Every One!  Merry Christmas, everybody! Also Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Solstice, Ave Mithrasmas, etc, etc. When this is posted, you will either already be tearing into presents, or be tucking into a hearty holiday meal (we hope and trust). When you've managed to extricate the kitties from the wrapping paper and got the baby to stop hitting the dog with its new toy, grab a cup of something warm and dig into this week's issue of the h2g2 Post. Our contributors have spared no labour to make this a truly festive holiday issue.
We have lots of greetings cards. (And we thank all the artists.) We even have a celebrity appearance by h2g2's favourite authoress. No, we're not being politically incorrect, just polite. Miss Yonge would have wanted to be an authoress. There's another card in the pile that comes from a snap Your Editor made at church when the kids were practicing the Manger Scene. The angel was almost still enough. The sheep, who is two, was way too mobile for the cameraman. In fact, the audience decided he was a wild sheep. (We think his dad agreed. He managed to corral the woolly lamb without borrowing the shepherd's staff, a manoeuvre we admired.)
What else have we got for you? The solution to the crossword. We know you'll appreciate, but don't peek if you're still working on it. That Bluebottle's diabolical. Our house quiz this week asks you to pause and remember some of those who passed on this year. We'll miss them (well, most of them), and we owe them a thought. Test your knowledge. Awix has done us a huge favour and rated the 2016 cinema, and Willem, who never ceases to astound us, has astounded us again with a Maned Rat.
We have some beautiful pictures. A lot of them have snow in. We figure you can guess why.
A personal word from the Editor here: It's going on a dozen years that I've been working with you folk, and in that time – I state this with profound gratitude – I have learned things about British people I might otherwise never have known. For instance, that at Christmas/Winter Solstice, you really appreciate two forms of entertainment: two men in a suit pretending to be a horse, and really scary ghost stories. Now, on this side of the Atlantic, we save the ghost tales for Halloween, and we have enough horses' rear ends in politics, but we're beginning to appreciate this tradition because of television. We have nothing against some Doctor Who and Sherlock with our candy canes.
The Post, however, will not be outdone in this department. Our own Prof Animal Chaos is here with a Boxing Day yarn that may give you a frisson or two. See below.
As the year winds to a close – and, for many of us who are ready to say 'Good Riddance to 2016', not before time – I'd just like to say a word of thanks to each and every one of you for your contributions this year, as writers, artists, and readers. This may have been a rough patch for the planet in general, but you've helped make this corner of the interwebs one of the brighter spots. You are appreciated.
So let the eggnog flow and the merriment continue! Have a joyous week, friends!
Dmitri Gheorgheni
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