Chicagoans can likely blame the city's budget -- not the Grinch -- for stealing Christmas this year.
The City Council's buffet table was void of any goodies Wednesday, with the usual holiday spread of cookies and doughnuts limited to a coffee pot in the corner of the room.
Each alderman, however, did receive a gift from Mayor Rahm Emanuel: a nicely-wrapped calendar so they can look forward to 2012's council meetings.
Emanuel did host a party -- dubbed a holiday party under the city's first Jewish mayor -- at the South Shore Cultural Center on Wednesday.