Like kids all over the Western world, Lydia made a wide variety of Christmas crafts at school over the past several weeks. She made gifts for nearly everyone in the family, paper snowflakes for the windows, ornaments for the trees, and more holiday cards than you could shake a stick at.

Like proud mothers all over the Western world, I oohed and aahed over every new item she offered up, declaring that each was more lovely than the last. I do have to confess, however, to being momentarily startled and taken aback when she revealed her pride and joy earlier this week:

You may think, as I did for the most fleeting of instants, that she had fashioned a Ku Klux Klan member from her soda bottle and crepe paper, but, no, it’s only a stjärngosse, an innocuous attendant of Santa Lucia. And yes, once I had recovered, I assured her that he was beautiful.