Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas from Liza at Pens and Poison!

I am Jewish, so I am on a plane to New York today because Christmas is the cheapest day to fly (I could make a Jew joke here but I will refrain from doing so because we live in very fraught times).

If you celebrate Christmas, have a wonderful day taking photos in flannel pajamas and opening presents filled with soaps, scented candles, tech gadgets that don’t do anything your iPhone doesn’t already do, and kitchen supplies. Based on anecdotal evidence, this seems to be what people do on Christmas.

In all seriousness, have a wonderful Christmas filled with lots of presents you actually want, family, good tidings, and food! Ho ho ho, as they say in Santa Land.

If you want to give me a gift for Christmas, you can hit this button right here:

I’m taking a few days off of writing to regain my sanity, but we’ll be back after New Year’s with some more amazing content—I have lots in store for Pens and Poison in 2025, so stay tuned!

(If you’re wondering why I had a Christmas tree growing up as a Jew, you can read this essay about my Soviet-Jewish background and how the Soviet Union decided to secularize Christmas by moving the holiday to New Year’s. I did not have a Christmas tree—I had a New Year’s tree. You can also watch this lovely Soviet New Year’s film, where you will learn that, indeed, Soviet families put up Christmas trees for New Year’s.)