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xmas
A Christmas Letter from Babylon 5 23 December 2259 Mr. and Mrs. Leonard
Keffer Communications Port 986.330.15.16LK Denver, Colorado 80004-1516-402
Federated States of Canada Earth Dear Mom and Dad, In your last letter,
you worried that because I'm so far from home, I won't have a
"real" Christmas this year. You'll be pleased to learn that the
station has been awash with Christmas festivities. Someone in the EA
Cultural Affairs Office decided that as part of Babylon 5's cultural
exchange program, the differnt worlds represented by embassies here should
take turns staging typical holiday celebrations in which everyone on board
is invited to participate. As you'll see from the accompanying holographs,
Earth Alliance has led the way by holding a series of traditional events
in anticipation of Christmas. So far the big highlight of the Christmas
festival has been the Christmas Pageant in which several members of the
diplomatic corps helped stage an abridged version of Charles Dickens's
"A Christmas Carol." I don't know how Captain Sheridan (my C.O.
and the Earth Alliance ambassador) talked them into it, but the production
was a great success. [HOLOGRAPH #1] The fellow dressed up as Ebeneezer
Scrooge is Ambassador G'Kar from the Narn Regime. He inserted some
hilarious ad libs about "enlightened self-interest" into
Scrooge's speeches. The Earther playing Marley's Ghost is a war vet named
Amis who lives here on th station. His Marley scared the daylights out of
everybody. [HOLOGRAPH #2] Here are the Three Spirits who visited Scrooge
on Christmas Eve. From left to right, they're the Ghost of Christmas Past
(Ambassador Delenn from the Minbari Federation), the Ghost of Christmas
Present (Ambassador Londo Mollari from the Centauri Republic), and the
Ghost of Christmas Future (Ambassador Kosh Naranek from the Vorlon
Empire). The scenes between Scrooge and Christmas Present seemed a little
tense, but Scrooge's scenes with the other two went okay. The scenes with
Christmas Future had *terrific* sound effects. [HOLOGRAPH #3] That's
Captain Sheridan in his Bob Cratchit outfit. I wanted to get a picture of
him with Tiny Tim, but when Commander Ivanova saw me aiming my holocamera,
she brandished her crutch and threatened to use my skull as a croquet
ball. (It's a Russian thing, I guess.) The rumor is that Captain Sheridan
had to pull rank on her to get her to take the part, and that she had more
fun with it than she was willing to admit. Whatever the case, she limped
convincingly. [HOLOGRAPH #4] This was taken at the Christmas party that
Captain Sheridan threw for diplomatic staff, EF officers, and other
invited guests. As you can see, we even had a Santa Claus wm the guests
could ask for presents. That's Ambassador Mollari sitting on his lap. (Ooof!)
The civilian they got to play Santa struck me as a little thin for the
job, even with the padding inside his costume, but he really got into the
part. It looked to me like he could ask people, "What do you
want?" all day long. [HOLOGRAPH #5] The woman you see here is Talia
Winters, who works as a commercial telepath in Psi Corps. The fellow just
behind her is Michael Garibaldi, the Security Chief for the station. This
shows them when he suggested that she should have played Santa Claus
because she's the one "who really knows who's been naughty or
nice." [HOLOGRAPH #6] This is Chief Garibaldi gasping for breath just
after Ms. Winters' elbow hit him in the stomach. [HOLOGRAPH #7] This is
one of the buffet tables at the party. As you can see, the Captain put out
a good spread. (An awful lot of fruitcake, though!) There had been some
concern about the food for the party when word got out that Dr. Franklin
was on the refreshments committee, but for once he wasn't so strict about
"nutritional values." [HOLOGRAPH #8] This is Vir, Ambassador
Mollari's attache, sampling the egg nog. There had been a rumor that they
were going to have to spike the egg nog with Zima, but somehow the staff
came up with some genuine Jamaican rum. When I asked where it came from,
the waiter serving the egg nog, a fellow named Orwell, just smiled.
[HOLOGRAPH #9] Thisis Vir, several cups of egg nog later, trying to string
some Christmas tree lights on Ambassador Kosh. I'm told he apologized
profusely the next morning. [HOLOGRAPH #10] Lately Ambassador Delenn has
taken a keen interest in Earth customs, and Chief Garibaldi enjoyed
explaining our Christmas traditions to her. I took this hologram when she
asked about the mistletoe hung from one of the overhead lights, and he
offered to demonstrate its use with the next woman who walked under it.
[HOLOGRAPH #11] This is Ambassador G'Kar's attache, Na'Toth, walking under
the mistletoe. [HOLOGRAPH #12] This is Chief Garibaldi explaining to
Ambassador Delenn that he has to wait for an Earthwoman to walk under the
mistletoe because both participants have to know the tradition. [HOLOGRAPH
#13] This is Commander Ivanova walking under the mistletoe. [HOLOGRAPH
#14] This is Chief Garibaldi suddenly excusing himself from Ambassador
Delenn in order to rush off and attend to a security matter that he said
had slipped his mind. [HOLOGRAPH #15] The Minbari delegation really made
an effort to get into the spirit of the holiday. This is Lennier,
Ambassador Delenn's attache, leading a Minbari chorus in some traditional
Christmas carols. They did a good job with the music, but they had an
occasional bit of trouble with English pronunciation. Can you imagine
listening to a dozen verses of "The Twelve Days of *Chrysalis*"?
[HOLOGRAPH #16] The Minbari were also the first to take up Captain
Sheridan's suggestion that the diplomatic staffs put up traditional
decorations at the entrances to their suites. This is the Christmas tree
that the Minbari decorated. It's not a real spruce--there are too few in
The Garden for the Captain to have allowed any to be cut down--but the
Minbari decked it out with so many colorful ornaments that you could
hardly tell the tree was artificial. I don't know why they didn't mount a
star at the top, but the triangular thingamagig they used instead put on
one heckuva light show. [HOLOGRAPH #17] These are the two trees displayed
outside the Drazi ambassadorial suite. I have no idea why they
spray-painted one purple. [HOLOGRAPH #18] Instead of trees, the Centauri
expressed interest in hanging Christmas stockings as decorations. Because
their quarters don't have fireplaces, they had no fireplace mantels from
which to hang the stockings, so they mounted them on their doorways
instead. This is the door to Ambassador Mollari's apartment; I don't know
why he put up *six* stockings instead of one. [HOLOGRAPH #19] This is
Ambassador G'Kar filling Ambassador Mollari's six Christmas stockings with
lumps of coal. [HOLOGRAPH #20] This is the entrance to Ambassador Kosh's
suite. As you can see, there are no decorations outside the suite, but
there has been been a rumor that *inside* the suite is an elaborate
decorative scheme based upon an "Angel of Light" theme. Trouble
is, the Ambassador won't let anyone see it! (At least I think that's the
case. There was another rumor that Ambassador Delenn had been in to see
it, but when Captain Sheridan asked her about it, she just smiled and said
nothing.) So, all in all, it looks like we're going to have a Very Merry
Christmas here on Babylon 5. There's a lot going on, but I'll try to write
again soon. Enjoy the holidays! Love, Warren
***************************************************************************
***** sorso@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu ***** "Every silver lining has a
cloud." *****
***************************************************************************
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