What the Dickens? It can only be the annual

Across

• 1) He gives bloomin' presents to good girls and boys (6,9)
  
• 12) Proper television corporation famed for Doctor Who (3)
  
• 15) Rudolph has to do this twice when Santa's gotta make it to town. (3)
  
• 18) When one of these rings an angel gets his wings. (4)
  
• 19) ? The First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me.
  
• 20) ? the Great, Client King of Judea at the time of Jesus' birth. Also the name of at least four of his sons, including ones he didn't murder. (5)
  
• 22) 1978 Christmas #1: Boney M 'Mary's Boy Child / ? My Lord' (2)
  
• 23) The most financially successful Christmas film is Home ? (5)
  
• 24) Ant-friendly abbreviation for the twelfth month of the year. (3)
  
• 26) 26th December, the Feast of Stephen. (6,3)
  
• 28) Reindeer often mistaken for a kebab. (6)
  
• 30) Found on Christmas cakes. (5)
  
• 32) Once in David's city, also a type of 30 across. (5)
  
• 34) The first one of these the angels did say. (4)
  
• 37) Where there was no room. (3)
  
• 38) ? Atwell was Christmas #1 in 1954 with 'Let's Have Another Party', this saint's school choir was 1980 Christmas #1 with 'Grandma'. (8)
  
• 40) We're walking in the. (3)
  
• 41) Mary's cousin Elizabeth's husband, John the Baptist's dad. (9)
  
• 44) Musical sound, a quick one is often written in Christmas cards (4)
  
• 46) Rudolph the reindeer had a red, shiny, glowing one. (4)
  
• 48) What people eat too much of at Christmas.
  
• 51) '? You', 1983 Christmas no 1 for The Flying Pickets. (4)
  
• 53) What Father Christmas sits on when children sit on him. (5)
  
• 54) Where Father Christmas lives. (5,4)
  
• 56) In other words (2)
  
• 57) Polygamous Herod had ten wives. Multiple wives may live in a ? (5)
  
• 59) Inuit person living in the Arctic Circle. (6)
  
• 63) The name of both Jesus' mother and the woman in the lingerie department in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. (4)
  
• 64) Horse and reindeer harness. (5)
  
• 66) Christmas at ?, an 1888 poem by Robert Louis Stevenson. (3)
  
• 67) Choir mentioned in 'The Fairy Tale of New York'. (4)
  
• 68) Another name for Wise Men or Three Kings. (4)
  
• 69) Duke of Bohemia murdered by his brother in 935, posthumously promoted to king by the Holy Roman Emperor a few years later. (9)
  
• 72) Wet white fluffy stuff. (4)
  
• 75) Oh no it isn't. (2,3,2,2)
  
• 80) Every time a Bell rings, an angels gets 'Mull of Kintyre', 1977's Christmas #1 by Paul McCartney and ? (5)
  
• 82) Comedian with Ernie Wise. (4,9)
  
• 83) Pirate used to hang up stockings. (4)

Down

• 1) Gift given to the baby Jesus along with Gold and Myrrh. (12)
  
• 2) We'll tak' a cup of kindness yet for the sake of ? (4,4,4)
  
• 3) Scrooge. (8)
  
• 4) Colour of Rudolph's nose. (3)
  
• 5) Father Ted was given a Golden ? award. (6)
  
• 6) Bird pictured on Christmas cards; a round one is a type of letter. (5)
  
• 7) Greg Lake believed Father Christmas. (2)
  
• 8) The number of geese-a-laying. (3)
  
• 9) What people who eat too much at Christmas aren't. (4)
  
• 10) The Three Kings are also known as Wise what? (3)
  
• 11) In Good King Wenceslas, Heat was in the very what? (3)
  
• 13) Harry Belafonte was 1957 Christmas #1 with 'Mary's ? Child'. (3)
  
• 14) 28th December, the day when it was traditionally good luck to beat children with a stick to remind them of the children killed by Herod. (11)
  
• 16) The amount of room in the inn. (2)
  
• 17) Bing Crosby first sang 'White Christmas' in Holiday? (3)
  
• 21) The 25th December is Christmas? (3)
  
• 25) In the meadow we build a snowman and pretend that he is Parson Brown. (3)
  
• 27) Dr Seuss' green and hairy creature who dislikes Christmas. (6)
  
• 29) Sage and stuffing. (5)
  
• 31) Girl's name sung at Christmas. (5)
  
• 33) I'm dreaming a white Christmas. (2)
  
• 35) It's Now Never' was 1960's Christmas #2 by Elvis (2)
  
• 36) Wherefore have ye ? your sheep On the lonely mountain steep? (4)
  
• 38) Christmas time, Mistletoe and. (4)
  
• 39) Animal noise fireplaces make. (5)
  
• 42) Father Christmas's favourite word; he often says it thrice. (2)
  
• 43) 'A Spaceman Came Travelling' and ET are both about an ? (5)
  
• 45) Colourful noose given to men at Christmas, no-one knows why. (3)
  
• 47) And this is Christmas and what have you done? (2)
  
• 49) The Teletubbies' 1997 Christmas #2 hit was 'Say Eh-?' (2)
  
• 50) Herod's first wife and a Day particularly revered by the LGBTQ+ community. (5)
  
• 52) God rest merry gentlemen. (2)
  
• 55) Piece of paper; and monarch forth they went together (4)
  
• 58) Ox and ? before him bow. (3)
  
• 60) The UK's largest producer of peanuts. (2)
  
• 61) Card proving you are allowed to buy alcohol. (2)
  
• 62) 1978 Christmas #1: Boney M 'Mary's Boy Child / Oh ? Lord' (2)
  
• 63) I in my kerchief and ? in her cap had just settled down to a long winter's nap. (2)
  
• 64) Abbreviation for Religious Education. (2)
  
• 65) The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl sang 'Fairytale of York' (3)
  
• 70) ? Lewis wrote The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. (2).
  
• 71) Long time ? in Bethlehem so the Holy Bible say. (3)
  
• 73) He's making a list, checking it twice, gonna find out who's naughty ? nice. (2)
  
• 74) Institute for women dedicated to making a lot of Christmas cakes. (2)
  
• 76) Abbreviated title of the person who makes speech each year, also initials of Lord Rockingham's XI song that contains the lyric 'there's a moose, loose, aboot this hoose'. (2)
  
• 77) Word used in Santa Claus: The Movie to make reindeers go. (2)
  
• 78) Another word for thank you, said after presents have been received. (2)
  
• 79) Who is dreaming of a White Christmas. (2)
  
• 81) St Winifred's School Choir sang 'There's one quite like Grandma' (2)

Please note: all songs and Christmas chart positions are based on Britain's national chart.

Answers next week!

Bluebottle

23.12.19 Front Page

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