Our UK readers and contributors may have seen this extract from the 2025 naughty list. Unfortunately there appear to be problems with the transparency of data processing for both the nice list and the naughty list. We are advised that: "He's making a list, He's checking it twice, He's noted down who's been naughty or nice, Santa Claus is being prosecuted under Article 5 (1) (a) and Article 6 of the General Data Protection Regulations ..." However, he IS compliant with aviation regulations:

I've saved some of the best for Christmas week:  There a very many parodies of the Christmas carol " Mary did you know? " and more than one very good version which has been adapted to tell the story of Din Djarin and Grogu and begins " Mando did you know? "  I think this one is probably both the funniest and one of the most musically charming.

The UK Veterans Foundation posted the graphic below and the words, "Please take a moment to remember our brave heroes who won't be home for Christmas." 🎄  Posted to remember all those who are away from home in service and defence of any peace-loving and law-abiding democratic country. Thinking particularly of the armed forces of Ukraine as they spend their fourth Christmas defending their country from an unprovoked and illegal invasion. ❤️

" On Basilisk Station ," by David Weber, first published by Baen Books in 1993 (and I'm looking at my copy from the first paperback printing in that year as I type) was the first book in the series, introducing the far future space navy officer Honor Harrington and beginning the creation of the "Honor Harrington" science fiction universe also known as the "Honorverse." This series has grown to contain, currently as of December 2025, more than forty books, set in a future universe in which mankind began to disperse over much of the galaxy, starting in 2103 AD. This story is set about two thousand years in our the future: according to the calendar used ine the novel it is set in 1900 "post Diaspora" by the calendar used within the book, which corresponds to 4006 AD (or Common Era, CE) These stories have sometimes been described as "Ms Hornblower in space."  " On Basilisk Station " is dedicated to Cecil Scott Forester, the au...

" Challenges ," edited by David Weber, is the 4sth and latest book in the Honor Harrington science fiction universe or "Honorverse and the eighth collection in the "Worlds of Honor" series of short stories and Novellas which join 32 full-length novels, in the main series and it's spin-offs and prequels, plus a companion volume. Details of all the "Honorverse" books and how they fit together are given in the Series page which you can find by following this link Book Series overview: David Weber's "Honor Harrington" universe book reviews. The five novellas which make up " Challenges " have their main action in the early years of human development of Honor Harrington's original home system, on the three inhabited planets which comprise "The Star Kingdom of Manticore." In Manticore's history as laid out in "House of Steel," the Honorverse companion, the original slower-than-light sleeper colony ship ...

OK, I think this is about the limit for the number of versions of "All I want this Christms" I can get away with posting. This one has Mariah Carey's music as the soundtrack with various scenes from most of the Star Wars films, and Star War Rebels as the visuals.   That's going to be the last version of that particular song I post, this year anyway, but any gluttons for punishment can find a few more,  here:   All I Want Is Star Wars (music video parody) - YouTube here:  All I Want For Christmas Is You (Stormtroopers looking for droid Star Wars Parody) here:  All I Want For Christmas is R2-D2 Parody. or here! OVERWATCH XMAS SONG - "All I Want For Christmas is Loot" (Parody by JT Music)

This page is an index page and overview for all the books of the "Honor Harrington" science fiction universe, or the "Honorverse." This is a set of military and espionage science fiction, currently as of December 2025 containing more than forty books, set in a future universe in which mankind began to dispersed over much of the galaxy, starting in 2103 AD. The main stories are set about two thousand years in the future, with two prequel series set about 400 years before, in what by our calendar will be the thirty-seventh century (the earliest book in the first Prequel series, "A beautiful Friendship," is set 1518 years after the diaspora, or in 3621 BC.) The series has sometimes been described as "Ms Hornblower in space" because they contain some very strong and obviously intentional similarities and homage to C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels. One of the novels in the series - "Echoes of Honor" - is an almost exact parallel...

On Sunday 14th December and again on Tuesday 16th BBC Radio 4 broadcast the programme, " CS Lewis, the evacuee, and the wardrobe. " Narrated mostly by the actress Emma Freud, it is the story which begins when her mother Jill Freud (nee Flewett) as a girl during World War II, was evacuated from London, as many children were, to get them to relative safety away from Nazi bombs. One of the people who lived in the house to which the young June Flewett was evacuated was an Oxford don who was introduced as Jack Lewis, and it was a while before she came to realise that while his friends and family called him Jack, his real name under which he wrote and broadcast was Clive Staples Lewis - and he was her favourite author. As this graphic about the programme relates: Many years later, in a letter to Jill Freud, Lewis's Stepson Douglas Gresham told her that she had bee the inspiration for the character Lucy in "The Lion, the witch, and the wardrobe." Jill Freud died at the...

I have had some difficulty deciding which of the huge number of parodies of " All I want for Christmas " to pick and include for my selection of Space Opera Christmas parodies. However, it was not difficult to decide that "All I want for Christmas is Batuu" would be one of them as it is probably both the best produced and most entertaining. For anyone who is somehow reading this blog but isn't a total Star Wars nerd, Batuu is where the future Grand Admiral Thrawn (then Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo of the Chiss Expansionary Defence Fleet) first met and worked with the future Darth Vader (then Jedi General Anakin Skywalker) as Chronicled by the galactic historian Timothy Zahn in the book "Thrawn: Alliances." Thrawn: Alliances (Star Wars) (Star Wars: Thrawn): Amazon.co.uk: Zahn, Timothy: 9781984821027: Books MEGA-NERD WARNING - the rest of this post is aimed at those who are genuinely interested in the very fine detail of the worldbuilding in...

 

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And here is the Mandalorian theme adapted in a similar style Star Wars: The Mandalorian Theme | EPIC CHRISTMAS VERSION

And here is another version of the same idea The 12 days of Star Trek

A similar parody from the viewpoint of her husband Vic Mignogna : Vader Did You Know? And a couple of versions referring to the Mandalorian and Grogu,  Mando, Did You Know? - A Star Wars/Christmas Parody Song Mando, Did You Know? I've left the best until last, this one is probably the funniest of the lot. Mando Did You Know?

Or alternatively with the first five Star Trek captains: Star Trek Captains sing Make It So (Let it Snow)