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Yes, quite an easy one this time, about 1/2 hour, but clever clues all relating to the "season". (Dare I say it in these PC times? Christmas; celebrating the birth of the credit card.) (-;>

@Rosalind - had to look up RTFM; not a texter, but I could use that at work almost every day.

@GK - Happy birthday! 28th? I hope January brings a tougher one to challenge us a bit.

@Aristo - thanks for doing the explanations.

@Les - looking forward to your new puzzles.

Cheers, all.

Perhaps someone can explain the wordplay for 7D. Def is clear & all crosses verify.

Les- I think the producer in 26ac is a kind of donkey.
Syzygy- this has to be a first!- the garments in question have 2 components, the first a circumference and the second the -er- excitement factor. Don't get me started is just repeating 23 ac - there because it's a down clue
Is 7ac a word?

Finished except 9 dn which I imagine must be the third proper noun. Just don't have the crossing letters.
You can't please everyone all the time- I was glad it was easier than usual!
Looking forward to your new puzzle, Les
And I thought you might be a lawyer, Ari!

Hiya Rosalind,

The clue for 9d is not a prpoper noun, just a noun. The Def is 'He's late' - You're looking for representative letters and then some more representative letters (abbre) for the clue parts inside an anagram of one of the words.

Re 26a) Can't see a donkey Rosa, the Def is the 'in court' part. The rest is a homophone, I was saying to aristo that over here, the 'uh' part doesn't quite sound right (for me) but the rest is perfectly ok, I suppose it will be pronounced slightly different in other places with various accents and dialects. What's your thoughts?

Be good, les

I liked the bra clue. Yes, Rosalind, 7a is a word- over here at least. It's informal, but is used as both noun and verb, and I've never heard anyone use the longer form as a verb, only this one.

Here's one of those pronunciation thingies. I don't really detect a difference, Les, and the a seems to have an uh sound too. I thought you might mean that the a sounded more like the one in ass. :)

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/assizes

Well that's a new crossword for me, and a very pleasant one with a nice balance. I knew 're-up' from The Wire, meaning to stock up on drug supplies, so I was able to make the leap to the other meaning. 14 and 39 were my way into the theme, confirming the phrase that had been dancing around in the back of my head from the start. 34d was my favourite, giving me the first letter to 42, which was the last in.

Hi, Bullfrog. I've seen your website. Cool.

If you're interested in trying other Harper's puzzles see post #1 re the Dropbox link formats.
The earliest is actually 2011-01:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62858730/Harpers%202011-01%20puz.pdf

For solutions, substitute "sol" for "puz".
The "%20" translates to a space in some browsers. No worries, just change the date.

There are a few missing months when the magazine didn't arrive. I can't give you a full list here, but might figure out a way.

They aren't all this easy. Give them a shot.

Sorry Mr A, mixed you up with Mr S. And you don't even live in the same country!
Thanks you to those who tried to help with 9dn. I still haven't got it, have it ending with SEL which I think can't be right as I can see what the word ptobably is. Giving up, life's too short. Enjoyed the crossword anyway, thank you Mr S.