Things I don't get about other people's Christmasses #4 cherries in the pudding

Maybe I'm a purist or something but the idea of cherries - or exotic fruits in Christmas pudding is not a nice thought. Plain dried fruit with some candied peel yes, prunes and figs even - but cherries - why? They are sweet with very little flavour - they work well in fruit cake, but this is a more ancient form of cake. Go back centuries and you will find spicy bread pudding is viewed as cake, it's the earliest form of cake. Bread crumbs and suet make the base of this pudding. The steaming for days makes it rich and dark, it doesn't need cherries. A curious concept of luxury creeps in in the supermarket advertising for Christmas pudding: keep it simple, that's how it's meant to be. It's probably the oldest style of food we celebrate Christmas with. Cherries are the wrong sort of fruit.