Ten Festive Facts!

1. Did you know one Brussels sprout contains more vitamin C than an orange?

2. Christmas pudding was originally a soup or stew.

3. Boxing Day is so called because it was the day money was distributed to the poor from church poor boxes.

4. Mistletoe is the Saxon word for ‘dung twig’ because it is spread through bird droppings. If mistletoe falls on the ground it loses its magical properties!

5. Victorian postman were nicknamed ‘Robins’ because of their red uniforms, this is why the robins appeared on Christmas cards.

6. Slade’s Merry Christmas Everyone earns the most royalties each year, White Christmas is the best selling Christmas song of all time.

7. Christmas is the most widely celebrated festival on earth.

8. Holly was regarded by the Druids as a sacred plant because of its ability to survive through the winter, hence its name ‘holy’ the prickly leaves were thought to deter witches and demons, whilst for Christians the prickles of the leaves represent the crown of thorns worn by Christ and the red berries the blood he shed.

9. Tinsel was invented in 1610 in Nuremberg, Germany.

10. Carol singing has its origins in the old practice of wassailing. People would take the wassail bowl around from door to door and in return for gifts, money or food they would drink the heath of the occupants in with some hearty wassailing songs such as Here we come a Wassailing and We Wish you a Merry Christmas. These songs eventually became carols.

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