Wander in silence through ten rooms decked for Christmas past then tell all over mulled wine and mince pies.

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Which is why you know exactly what explains the typical rise in heating bills, just after peak consumption of mince pies.

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Catherine was particularly considerate of him, bringing in brown paper bags full of apples from her garden and Tupperware containers of mince pies to share with his housemates.

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This year, she decided, she would buy mince pies from the new delicatessen, the one that sold Polish sausage and French cheese, just to see if anybody noticed the difference.

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For Virginian George Washington, Christmas at Mount Vernon began at dawn with a fox hunt and ended with a staggering spread of hams, beef, turkey, goose, oysters, mince pies, wine and rum punches.

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They do include the regular wish for an unlimited stash of extra-filled mince pies although the individual requests range from an extra two and a half inches of height, a head guard with a built in radio playing Beyonce Knowles on repeat and a seasonal supply of "notgetintheicebathwheneveryoulike" cards.

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