Christmas Facts

1. It was the custom to eat goose at Christmas until Henry VIII decided to tuck into a turkey. 93 per cent of the population in the UK will eat turkey on Christmas Day; this means 11million turkeys being cooked!
   
2. According to legend, King Arthur made merry in York in 521 surrounded by "minstrels, gleemen, harpers, pipe-players, jugglers, and dancers."
   
3. Christmas carols were banned between 1647 and 1660 in England by Oliver Cromwell who thought that Christmas should be a solemn day.
   
4. The word carol comes from the ancient Greek choros, which means, “dancing in a circle,” and from the Old French word carol, meaning “a song to accompany dancing.”
   
5. In 1551, playing sport on Christmas Day was made illegal. This law was later ignored.
   
6. England has only known 7 white Christmases in the entire 20st century.
   
7. Christmas pudding was first made as a kind of soup with raisins and wine in it.
   
8. The Queen’s Christmas speech was televised for the first time in 1957.
   
9. Each year approximately 35million Christmas trees are produced.
   
10. The first Christmas card was designed by a man named John Calcott Horsely for Sir Henry Cole, the friend who had given him the idea. A thousand copies of the card were printed and sold for one shilling. This is reportedly the first Christmas card to be produced and sold to the public. Now, the average person in Britain sends 50 Christmas cards each year.
    
11. Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called “robins”. This was because their uniforms were red. Victorian Christmas cards often showed a robin delivering Christmas mail.
    
12. It is estimated that approximately 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.
    
13. On average, each person will spend £330.00 on Christmas gifts, and around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging are thrown away over Christmas.

* http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/Xmas/dinner.html