Cul de Sac by Richard Thompson for December 27, 2022

Welcome to grownup world, Alice.

My son was 10 when his dad gave him a baseball and a bat. He hated sports and so did dad, not sure why he gave him that. Came in handy 10 years later when someone was breaking into our home!

Santa wants to reduce his soccer ball inventory.

Yes, Alice is always surrounded by Dill and darkness! And we haven’t even gotten to Krampus.

Santa is Hispanic, maybe. He wants to make a Pele out of Petey!

Somebody whose name is an anagram of “Satan” is pretty much guaranteed to have a dark side.

Dad’s expression is priceless.

Marvelous how Mr Thompson managed to make Alice’s hair look even more ‘bedheadsy’.

This is an aspect of teaching kids to believe in Santa that hadn’t previously occurred to me. If they believe that the gifts are coming from this magical being, then they can be more honest with their parents about not liking what they got.

Dad seems to be thinking that this was Mum’s idea and he knew it was a bad one.

To give Alice a “Little Miss Funsy” doll is certainly dark. Or maybe more sardonic?

“Little Miss Funsy”?

Maybe Dad is trying to stop the dweebness from getting any worse.

For once I completely agree with Alice. I also don’t disagree with Petey. Petey, maybe save the ball for the next time you are harassed by Ernesto, and throw it at his head and run!

Mom’s are full of good intentions. I hope she is not using them as pavers.

We need to wrap up the person who came up with the plastic you cannot open without a nuclear weapon!

Love Mr. Otterloop’s expression in panel 1, and from it I infer that this soccer thing was Madeline’s idea, trying make her firstborn more active.

And I also take this occasion to agree completely with Alice (for a change) about all-but-unopenable plastic packaging!