Thank you for the podcast! Interestingly, about the X in Xmas. The letter X looks a lot like the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter in Christos. You see this in the Chi-Rho Christogram that looks like a P through an X. You also see chi and rho in early paintings and mosaics of Jesus where he's making chi and rho finger-symbols. These both go back to first couple centuries of Christianity, and if I remember correctly, Xmas has been used for a millennium or so as well. I agree with your assessment of turkey - it tends to be dry. And I don't like potato or cranberries or most of the rest of usual anglo-NA Christmas food. I've always had difficulty with Christmas dinners because of that, taking a smol symbolic dollop of mashed potato, alongside a pile of turkey (specifically dark meat) and a dinner roll. My mother-in-law is French Canadian so that family serves tourtière for Christmas lunch. My husband has made roast duck on occasion. That's interesting about firs vs pines - in Canada, for the people who use real trees as Christmas trees, we mostly use Balsam or Douglas fir trees. Balsam firs smell more and better (which I really like), but Douglas firs keep their needles on a bit longer. The advantage of firs is that the needles are nice and short, so it's easier to put the decorations on. Most of our pines have long needles that look luscious outside in the snow, but not as much inside.
Thank you for the podcast!
Interestingly, about the X in Xmas. The letter X looks a lot like the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter in Christos. You see this in the Chi-Rho Christogram that looks like a P through an X. You also see chi and rho in early paintings and mosaics of Jesus where he's making chi and rho finger-symbols. These both go back to first couple centuries of Christianity, and if I remember correctly, Xmas has been used for a millennium or so as well.
I agree with your assessment of turkey - it tends to be dry. And I don't like potato or cranberries or most of the rest of usual anglo-NA Christmas food. I've always had difficulty with Christmas dinners because of that, taking a smol symbolic dollop of mashed potato, alongside a pile of turkey (specifically dark meat) and a dinner roll. My mother-in-law is French Canadian so that family serves tourtière for Christmas lunch. My husband has made roast duck on occasion.
That's interesting about firs vs pines - in Canada, for the people who use real trees as Christmas trees, we mostly use Balsam or Douglas fir trees. Balsam firs smell more and better (which I really like), but Douglas firs keep their needles on a bit longer. The advantage of firs is that the needles are nice and short, so it's easier to put the decorations on. Most of our pines have long needles that look luscious outside in the snow, but not as much inside.