Christmas Faire P.S.

Since posting our viewing-reading-listening recommendations for Christmas, all tested in the Pointless Digressions kitchens, others have jumped into the snowball fight with their own Yuletide choices, some of which, we have to say, are okay. And we have remembered one or two worthy runners-up ourselves, so here goes:

Additional Christmas listening: "England's Carol" by the Modern Jazz Quartet, as cool and pristine and perfect as an early morning at a frozen pond. Which then reminds us of the MJQ's equally elegant "Skating in Central Park." And, if you can find it, "Away in a Manger," a lovely duet channeling Brahms by George Shearing and Don Thompson. There is a rousing Christmas gospel number by Nina Simone, the Nefertiti of jazz singers, and essential to the season must be Louis Armstrong's "Zat You, Santy Claus?"

More Christmas viewing: "Love, Actually," a film by Richard Curtis, who gave us "Four Weddings and a Funeral," "Notting Hill," and "The Tall Guy," which deserves to be much better known. In his spare time, Curtis also created "The Vicar of Dibley." "Love, Actually," an ensemble piece, tells a number of Yuletide tales which suggest the pathways of love are about as predictable as the workings of a pinball machine. It involves such engaging actors as Hugh Grant, playing a Tony Blair-style prime minister, Billy Bob Thornton, playing a George W.-style president, and Bill Nighy playing (and singing) an aging rock star. And then, there is "The Bishop's Wife," with Cary Grant as a harp-playing angel who takes Loretta Young (the bishop's wife) ice skating. David Niven plays the bishop with a very stiff upper lip, held in place by his moustache and his clerical collar.

And that's it for now. Off to dip more sugar plums.