Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a list – so here is ours!
1/ Before turkey, the traditional Christmas meal in England was a pig’s head and mustard. We are proud of our relishes and dressings but even with those as an accompaniment, it still doesn’t sound very appetizing!
2/ It is generally believed that Mrs. Claus’ first name is Martha.
3/ One of the most puzzling questions about Santa is how he manages to deliver presents to every child in just one night. Not even Santa can travel at the speed of light. Thankfully, he doesn’t need to. Because of the International Date line Santa has 34 hours to deliver all his presents and that means he is only travelling at 99.9999999% of the speed of light. Phew!
4/ Many zoos receive donations of discarded Christmas trees. Camels, zebras and giraffes munch happily on the evergreen pine needles. And the monkeys? They have their own party swinging through the branches!
5/ In Japan Christmas isn’t a national holiday. But it is traditional to buy a meal from a certain well known fried chicken shop with secret herbs and spices. This tradition began 40 years ago when American tourists to Japan couldn’t find chicken or turkey anywhere else. So they started visiting the chicken shops. The company soon caught on to the marketing opportunities. Nowadays if you want takeaway chicken on Christmas Day, you better place your order in October!
6/ “Hot cockles” was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. One person was blindfolded and the other players took it in turns to hit them. The blindfolded player had to guess the identity of the person delivering each whack! This game didn’t die out until the 1800s. Maybe the good old days weren’t that good after all!
7/ Jesus was probably born in the spring and not on Christmas Day. However, it is a matter of recorded fact that the current Prime Minister of Canada was indeed born on the 25th December 1971!
8/ If you received all the gifts from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you would have 364 presents.
9/ Stuck for something to buy for the person who has everything? Why not buy those 364 presents. A mere snip at $46,131. This includes expenses such as wages for the pipers and drummers as well as a huge hike in the cost of turtledoves. If that is a little out of your price range, then have a look through some of our delicious edible gifts and make someone happy this Christmas.
10/ During the Christmas period of 2016 Australians received more than 22 million unwanted gifts. This amounted to $530 million.