Plinyesque Christmas wishes to all

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The return of commercial Christmas music is an annual source of saturnine gloom for me.

I am glad to see that Pliny the Younger didn't like Saturnalia/Christmas any more than I do; like me, he preferred a quiet study environment.

When I retire to this garden summer-house, I fancy myself a hundred miles away from my villa, and take especial pleasure in it at the feast of the Saturnalia, when, by the licence of that festive season, every other part of my house resounds with my servants' mirth: thus I neither interrupt their amusement nor they my studies.

Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (62–c. 113), "Letter XXIII, to Gallus," The Letters of Pliny. Tr. William Melmoth (1710?–99), rev. F. C. T. Bosanquet. Bohn's Classical Library. London: G. Bell and Sons, 1914. Accessed at [Project Gutenberg edition, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#2H_4_0024 (accessed 20121217).][]

[Project Gutenberg edition, http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#2H_4_0024 (accessed 20121217).]: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2811/2811-h/2811-h.htm#2H_4_0024 "Project Gutenberg edition of the Letters of Pliny the Younger"

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