Christmas facts (some fun stuff)
DID YOU KNOW: Some bizarre Christmas facts
Despite what many people think, Coca Cola did not create the red outfit we see Santa wearing. It was actually created in the 1870’s by Thomas Nast. Doesn’t stop you from wanting to start singing ‘holidays are coming, holidays are coming’ though does it!
The traditional song ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ was a song sung by poor people to their masters in Dickensian times as a means for demanding alcohol and food to celebrate…. ‘We won’t go until we get some’.
Queen Victoria was the very first person of nobility to send a Christmas card, but commercial cards had been sent since 1843. If you are lucky enough to have one of these in your family’s archives, it’s probably worth about £30K.
In Germany, Christmas trees were originally decorated with fruit and nuts, and then sweets and candles. The origins of the tree as a means of celebration go back to the Romans and Ancient Egyptians who used evergreens as symbols of everlasting life.
We know the man in the red suit with the big white beard as Father Christmas, Santa and (sometimes) Saint Nic, but in other countries there are different characters for celebrating Christmas. In Italy La Befana, a kind witch flies around delivering toys from her broomstick.
Approximately 15,000 people end up in A&E due to mishaps whilst decorating their homes for the festive season, that’s an awful lot of damaged baubles!!
Do you like a mince pie? Tradition has it that you should eat one a day for the 12 days of Christmas, but it’s actually illegal in the UK to eat them on Christmas day. Oliver Cromwell banned them and all forms of gluttony in the 17th century. The law has never been cancelled, but we don’t think you will end up in gaol (that’s the olde worlde name for jail) if you do eat one though!!
Scientists reckon Santa has to visit 822 homes every second to deliver everyone’s pressies, and his sleigh would have to travel at 650 miles a second. To this day we still don’t know just how he actually manages to do it so successfully each year.
Dreaming of a white Christmas? The odds are 1 in 6* for snow to fall and lay in Scotland this year. *Even though it’s snowing right now!!
Cooking Christmas dinner is so stressful that research suggests the person in your home responsible for this task starts drinking at approximately 11.48am … but that’s okay isn’t it, it is Christmas after all.
Believe it or not, we average a 7000 calorie consumption on Christmas day and the daily allowance is passed by 2pm. Surely the big, long nap after lunch helps burn some of those calories away… haha!
Well, there you have it, some random facts about Christmas. Now it’s time to start boiling those sprouts.
And you thought we only obsessed about hair!
