Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great joints of meat, sucking pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince pies, plum puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts, cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense twelfth-cakes and seething bowls of punch that made the chamber dim with their delicious steam.
A Christmas Carol, Dickens.
Britons last week could only hope that the Ghost of Christmas Present would provide a transformation for them, as it had for Scrooge. Instead, they chuckled grimly over a bitter Christmas jest, "Starve with Strachey, shiver with Shin-well" (Fuel Minister...