A few days ago, Ambassador of Americana and High Potentate of Mid-Twentieth Century Kitsch Charles Phoenix (a royal figure in our household!) posted a 1960s festive slide of an elderly lady and her pet poodle seated next to what he called an “Astro Weenie Christmas Tree”: “what appeared to be a tinfoil covered Styrofoam cone covered in multi-coloured toothpicks, each finished with a savoury tidbit.” This inspired Phoenix to create his own facsimile – which further prompted Pal to do HIS own variation when we had guests over for casual but elegant “Christmas cocktail capers” chez nous on Sunday afternoon! (We had vegetarians in attendance, so he skipped the cocktail sausages and focused mostly on olives, cubes of cheese, cocktail onions and cherry tomatoes instead. Pal didn’t really anticipate anyone eating his Astro Tree, but people were picking from it all afternoon!).
