A Solstice Carol: Timing and Distance
Let’s cut to the chase - I’ve tried to come up with scenarios tracing Xena’s and Gabrielle’s journeys, and placing dates on the episodes, to fit in with themes of the XWP episodes and the old rule-of-thumb most of us have followed that one season = one year.
I included some very fanciful, highly subjective notions of locations during that first season, which then brought it close to the one season/one year supposition, and actually fitted in with *Remember Nothing*, where Xena tells Gabrielle that she comes to the Temple of Fates each year to remember Lyceus on the anniversary of his death. Gabrielle didn’t know that, so obviously they hadn’t been travelling for a full year together by then (Season 2, Episode 2).
My deductions were based on *Dreamworker* being on the **Summer Solstice** which in turn was based on a comment made in *The Execution* – see that post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/xena/comments/1llrjst/season_1_episodes_12_13_and_14_timing_and/). Backtracking the first two episodes before that (*SOTP* and *Chariots*) brought me to a date of late May/early June when Xena first met Gabrielle, which fitted in nicely.
Using that as a starting point, and adding in lots more guesses, I’ve initially dated *Return of Callisto* to around 24^(th) November in the second year of their travels, which looked promising, bearing in mind I’ve swapped *Warrior…Princess…Tramp* to happening before *Return of Callisto* (see the reasoning for that in this post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/xena/comments/1mg4878/warrior_princess_tramp_timing_and_distance/)).
By *Intimate Stranger* they had travelled from Delphi to Amphipolis, 270 miles or around 14 days so push that up to 8^(th) December.
No specific location was mentioned for either *Ten Little Warlords* or *A Solstice Carol*, so you could place each of them wherever you wanted in the remaining time between 8^(th) December and 21^(st) December and voilà *A Solstice Carol* COULD HAVE taken place on the appropriate date in my guesstimates about timing in the series.
EXCEPT, in *Ten Little Warlords* they had a full moon. The last full moon was in *Return of Callisto* so for the dates to fit, we need to skim a few days off, here and there, bringing *Return of Callisto* back to mid-November. A month later on would be mid-December which would still leave a few days for our girls to travel to wherever *A Solstice Carol* was set.
Win-Win.
Looking ahead, however, I have now realised two things:
Firstly, *The Execution* takes place late in Season 2 so Xena’s reference to “Last Winter” when Gabrielle was in Athens doesn’t fit. By my timings, it would have had to have been two winters ago, not one, so that naturally throws out ALL my timings.
Secondly, the next definitive date I can recall is in *Maternal Instincts* when Xena says it’s been “One year, two months, and twelve days” since they have seen Solan. *Orphan of War* aired as Season 2, Episode 1. *Maternal Instincts* is Season 3, Episode 11. Now although there’s a difference of only "1 year, 3 months, 19 days" between the original airing dates of these two episodes (provided by Wikipedia), the distances covered during that period are exorbitant – going to the Middle East for *Giant Killer*, to Britannia for *The Deliverer* and China for *The Debts I and II* and I just can’t see how any of that’s going to correspond to what Xena said in *Maternal Instincts*.
So I’m decided to throw up my hands 🤷♀️and call it a day. You can’t fit logic to a fantasy/adventure show!
I'm just going to assume that all the 'different' caves they found themselves in were teleportation chambers that would transport them both in time across history and place across the world in the blink of an eye. OR that the Greek Gods used them all as playthings and would throw them here and there and then wipe their memories, sitting up on Mt Olympus and being entertained by the exploits of their favourite girls, much as we were during the series!
I’d like to thank all those who supported me in these endeavours and commented, especially IseQween who engaged with me on every post. It’s been an interesting exercise.