12 Days of Christmas

Why not wow your friends, with your weird and wonderful Christmas knowledge? Or if you are making homemade gifts, crackers or table settings, then you could include some 12 days of Christmas fun information on the yuletide season…

Table of Contents show

1-3

Can you guess some of the most popular toys from past decades? Well here you go… Hot Wheels, Kerplunk, Mastermind, Uno, Othello, Hungry Hippos, Rubik’s Cube, Care Bears, Teddy Ruxpin, Sylvanian Families, Game Boy, Barbie, Power Rangers, Tamagotchi and Furby to name a few. How many did you remember/have?

Did you know that lots of people actually post letters to Santa each year, in fact over half a million cards, letters and parcels end up in Santa’s main Post Office in Lapland, Finland every year. They have received mail from nearly 200 countries. Apparently, France, Canada and the US are most likely to send Santa letters…

If you think about Christmas films, you might imagine that ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ tops the popularity list. But when it was released in 1947 – it was what we now describe as a ‘box office flop’. But it is a much more recent film (2018), The Grinch, featuring Benedict Cumberbatch, that is actually the highest money-making Christmas movie to date.

4-6

The Queens speech is still popular, with over 7 million people (consolidated figures) watching in 2018. However, more people tuned into watch Call the Midwife!

If you have a real tree for Christmas, you might be surprised to know it could have taken anywhere from 4-15 years to grow, with the average 6-foot tree taking 6-7 years to mature for cutting!

The Song ‘Jingle Bells’, was originally going to be called ‘One Horse Open Sleigh’, and wasn’t in fact written for Christmas, but for Thanksgiving. As a bonus fact – this was the first song to be broadcast from space!

7-9

Staying with music, do you know the best-selling single of all time? Well, it’s ‘White Christmas’, sung by Bing Crosby, selling over 50 million copies globally!

You might imagine that Robin’s turn up on Christmas cards so often, as they are a festive colour and a common bird seen in winter. When in reality it was started by Victorians. When postmen wore bright red uniforms, that saw them nicknamed ‘Robin’s’, eventually it became an icon of Christmas.

Many of us will pull crackers this year, and they are not too different from when they started. They were invented by Tom Smith, who was a sweet shop owner. He got the idea from French bon bon sweets that were wrapped in paper with twisted ends. Tom started selling sweets wrapped like this with ‘love mottos’ placed inside. Later on he started adding trinkets, and the bang. Such was their popularity, that by 1900 he was selling 13 million a year!

10-12

A law was passed by Oliver Cromwell in the 17^th century regarding gluttony and specifically banning the consumption of Christmas pudding and mince pies on Christmas Day. This law has never been rescinded! This rather flies in the face of other folk lore that suggests if you consume a mince pie daily from Christmas Day until the 12^th night, you will have good fortune in the coming year!

What are the chances of getting a snowy Christmas? Well in reality, we are more likely to get snow in February or March in the UK. As I write this William Hill, puts the odds as 12-1 if you live in Penzance, 8-1 for Norwich, 5-1 in Leeds and 3-1 in Aberdeen!