The file uploader included quite an interesting essay with this image, which starts "As a very sparsely populated, expansive, and – moving into winter – dark place, Iceland can offer you plenty of time and space for reflective alone time... or toss you into an abyss of isolation."^[1]

Polar bear plunge in Kuwait. "Although the soldiers were not plunging into one of the many frozen lakes of Minnesota, the event was similar in the fact that the pool was filled with ice bringing the overall temperature close to 32 degrees."^[1]

The Commons description says "Weird looking Christmas tree".

Swedish Yule goat by Robert Seymour (1836)

Caganer ... look it up

Japanese Christmas traditions include fried chicken.

At this precise moment, my favorite sentence on Wikipedia is this: "Berrien Springs, Michigan, was known as the Christmas pickle capital of the world." My second favorite: "The guard provided the pickle, which Lower later credited for saving his life."^[2]

Image desperately wanted for Icelandic Christmas folklore § The Yule Cat: "The Yule Cat, a huge and vicious cat who is described as lurking about the snowy countryside during Christmas time and eating people who have not received any new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve."^[2] In lieu of that elusive image, we present this presumably non-vicious cat instead.^[3]

It's not winter everywhere at this time of year; especially not in the Australian town of Werrimull.

Austral but not Australian: cola de mono is a traditional holiday drink served "very cold" in the Chilean summer. The etymology is very curious – multiple puns and a possible early 20th century legend surround it.