Christmas, former Soviet union style: Four pages of Soviet-era Christmas Cards in this gallery. — Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog

 

Not a crack up: In one of those hilarious “serious” articles commissioned to leaven the merriment of Christmas, the Sun today reports on a survey conducted by UK academics to decide upon the worst ever Christmas cracker jokes. — Defamer

A very merry Mars: This Christmas Eve, Mars is at its closest to Earth for the next nine years. Mars is also “at opposition.” That’s astronomy-lingo for “directly opposite the sun.” It means Mars is up whenever the sun is down: on Christmas Eve, the Red Planet will be visible all night long. As Christmas scenes go, it doesn’t get much better. Gliding in formation across the sky, the moon and Mars seem so close you could almost reach up, grab the pair and bounce them down the street… – Nasa

Father Bob on volunteering: …volunteers pop out of nowhere at Christmas time. They inundate small local charities, like mine, with offers of hands on help. Great! The trouble is that small, local charities are usually flat out all year doing their compassionate best to answer immediate needs. Triple that output at Christmas. We’re embarrassed when we have to knock back seasonal volunteers. But, volunteers of the world please don’t lose heart. — Father Bob

A Christian Christmas in snowy Iran: … Yep. That’s Iran. Tehran, Iran. The Hub of Human Evil. According to American hate radio, anyway. Snowy Tehran on a peaceful winter day. Makes you think of Boulder, don’t it? Surrounded by snow-covered mountains? Those are the Alborz Mountains. And they are higher than the Rockies. They are the highest peaks in Asia west of the Himalayas, in fact – with skiing on the upper slopes all year round. Shocked? I certainly was when I first started surfing the web for photos of Iran. I was shocked by the mountains. Shocked by the snow. Shocked by the busy ski shops. Shocked by the “cool dudes” throwing snowballs in their trendy clothes… – LewRockwell