Happy New Year, one and all! I thought I'd post an odd little video that is a New Year's Day tradition in my household. It's not hysterically fun, but it is slapstick British sketch comedy with a cute sense of pace and repetition. It's also more than a little melancholy as Miss Sophie celebrates her birthday alone, presumably because she has outlived all of her dear friends. And it ends on a slightly sassy note as well, when her butler James carries the old lady off to bed, presumably for the "same procedure as every year."

There's quite a strange little story behind how this British comedy sketch from 1963 about a birthday party became a New Year's Day tradition in Germany, but, like most customs, you don't really need to know the origins in order to enjoy the practice. And so, without further ado, I present "Dinner for One":

Other New Year's Day traditions: eggs Benedict, Bloody Mary Mars (my own recipe, with a green glob of wasabi and asparagus) and the Vienna Phillharmonic New Year's Concert (which is delayed here because my PBS station isn't airing it until 9pm(!) and my analog NPR station went ALL NEWS (grrrrr!)).