There are no plums in plum pudding -- Christmas traditions

In 1819 a certain Scottish lady -- so the story goes -- was preparing Christmas dinner when she had an unexpected visitor -- her local minister.  In haste, fearing for the minister's displeasure at her festive preparations, she hid the meal in its iron pot, fresh from the fire, under her bed.  During the next few minutes of what was probably sober conversation, the red-hot pot set her bed afire.  Fortunately, this event never turned into a Christmas tradition.

The Scottish lady tried to hide the evidence of a Christmas celebration from her minister because by the early 19th century there were still some religious authorities who condemned any festive recognition of Christmas.  Fortunately for our contemporary sensibilities, and also fortunately for our modern national economies, the Scottish minister's disapproval was rooted in a puritanical revulsion for public gaiety that was then in its final throes of fading from Anglo society.

Many centuries' worth of English history had created a wealth of Christmas traditions sufficient to overwhelm mere revolutionary attempts at stifling and subduing enjoyment of those traditions.  The practice of Christmas celebrations was a tradition that was already well-established for over one thousand years when the English Parliament, acting with the authority of the Puritan Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell, outlawed any Christmas holiday observance on Christmas Eve of 1652.

In 1661, less than a decade later, the monarchy and Christmas festivities were restored to England.  Almost two centuries were required to return Christmas celebrations to their pre-Puritan levels of acceptance and indulgence.  Victorian-era England accomplished that -- with some significant changes -- and in doing so bequeathed fourteen centuries' worth of traditions that have become closely associated with modern festivities marking the Christmas holiday time.

Here is a sampling of Christmas traditions, highlighting their history and how they became traditional:

My good friend the Muslim

A presidential candidate advocates precise tracking of American Muslims (Donald Trump); another, the bombing Islamic State terrorists in Syria until the "sand glows" (Ted Cruz; does this sound like using nuclear weapons, and if the result is glowing sand, would he not think that innocents could be harmed, too?); and also banning Muslims from traveling to the United States (Trump again). Bernie Sanders seems a little flummoxed by the whole Islamic thing.

Trump doesn't even have the after-thought and perhaps insincere decency to follow up his remarks, as he did a few months ago when he uttered his opening racist comments about Mexicans, by saying of Muslims in general, or even more particularly of American Muslims, ". . .and some of them are good people."

Public figures are saying things about followers of Islam that are, frankly, stupid, mean, hurtful and unfair.  Would it be surprising if an American Muslim were to say "Gee, I feel as if other people are looking at me like they don't trust me or they just don't like me?" I would be surprised if there were not a lot of that feeling going around right now.

Which makes me wonder something: