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Hi Philo,

Welcome aboard - Merry Christmas:-)

I found this fairly easy but nevertheless enjoyable, managing to finish without any hints.
5d was my COD as it needed a PDM!
No rhyming pair this week.

Welcome Philo and good luck with yesterday’s Maskarade, I thought it was fun but there’s a whole other thread on that subject!

Hi Rossim,

5d was also my COD - I was wondering what is was trying to say then finally saw the VIII staring back at me - like you say, a real PDM:-)

Well I managed to complete the entire thing without noticing that both the clues and answers are heavily infused with a theme!

Different to have themed pairs rather than rhyming ones in the long parallel answers, and pleasing to have such pairs both across and down.

This one was a very quick solve for me, even though I have often found the Everyman challenging. I used the crossword solver on this site to help find three of the answers but needed no anagram cheats or google or dictionary look-ups at all.
I find it interesting how differently we respond to crosswords - seems to depend on one’s knowledge base and way of thinking or mood even.

Loved Henry VIII and hippy too.
Christmas commiserations to all...

Me too. I sailed through till I got to 16d, 24d and 27a left. Then Brendan's mistaken hint helped with 16d and the other two feii into place. FOI 2D. Loved 5d. Hosting a short Carol service in our close at 5:30 using Premier Christian Radio, socially distanced of course. Plan to enjoy some of the theme afterwards! Stay safe!

Morning all - well it is in this time zone. Got distracted after finishing yesterday so never got to checking things on here. So have a safe Christmas everyone from the other side of the globe. And thanks Brendan for heading this up week after week.
This puzzle - drink and food obvious which is apt for now. I thought it wasn’t quite as difficult as some recent ones and I did love the “hippy”.

Hello all and Happy Christmas!
Another newbie here. Love this crossword though usually need some tips from you guys to complete.
Understand answer to 12a from first half, but don't get second half: "hippy if you will". Can you put me out of my misery and explain the joke?
Thanks...!

Hi Alistair,
Hippy = related to the hip (bone)

The answer is near the hip but I think there might be more to it than that