Interesting Facts

In the 17th century, in Boston USA, the Puritan PTB banned Christmas for over two decades: from 1659 until 1681. (It was illegal to observe Christmas by taking the day off from work, feasting or celebrating in any other way, and anyone caught doing so was fined five shillings, which was a lot of money back then. The ban was finally lifted in 1681, but many Puritans continued to rally against the holiday, some would even march through the streets on Christmas Eve shouting, "No Christmas! No Christmas!"   In 1870, Ulysses S. Grant was the first president to declare Christmas a national holiday, but even then some schools stayed open on Christmas day until as late as 1870, with harsh punishments for any children who bunked off. I knew that Cromwell banned Christmas in the UK in the 1640s, but seemingly 8 countries have done so, and not just in the past. It is currently banned in 3 other countries, and "discouraged" in several others.  Suffice to say I...

According to research by the UK communications regulator Ofcom, the fairy lights on your Christmas tree can slow down your WiFi. (The research also revealed that nearly 6 million homes and offices in the UK have underperforming Wi-Fi, and it's not just fairy lights that can affect speeds: other electronic devices, including lamps, speakers, TVs and monitors can, and I believe a wet dog walking through the room will also block the signal. I often get told that WiFi is fine for our online sessions, but now I feel justified in my statement to people, use a broadband cable.)

According to website LatestinBeauty.com, 1 in 3 three women are disappointed when they open the present from their partner on Christmas Day. (25% of men were branded “clueless” when it came to buying gifts, and 50% of women admitted they were unlikely to get their dream present as their partners had good intentions but were hopeless at getting it right. The worst gifts ever received were:- a Shewee (A reusable plastic contraption for those caught short while out and about.) a fishing rod cellulite cream intimate bodywash a windscreen wash kit (Spot who went to the all night garage.) a fossil a dustpan and brush a chainsaw weighing scales a high visibility jacket for dog walking a lurid green jumper with an embroidered alien In reality most women’s wish lists are fairly straightforward: a designer handbag, a romantic break or a watch were amongst the longed for items. Hubby gave me a Swiss Army knife once, but I asked him to.)

Turku is the official Christmas City of Finland. (The Declaration of Christmas Peace has been taking place there every year, almost uninterrupted since the Middle Ages (records show it was cancelled in 1939 during the Winter War). The declaration takes place at 12 noon in the Old Great Square of Turku, on the day of Christmas Eve. The declaration ceremony begins with the hymn Jumala ompi linnamme (Martin Luther's Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott) and continues with the Declaration of Christmas Peace read from a parchment roll in Finnish and Swedish.  It is broadcast on TV and radio, and of course nowadays the internet.  The old laws guarantee everyone Christmas peace from Christmas Eve until the end of Christmastide on St Knut's Day. I wonder if we could extend that.)

British pop group Slade earn £500,000.00 in royalties every year from their festive hit "Merry Xmas Everybody". (The top Christmas earners for 2013 were approximately:- Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody - £512,000 The Pogues - Fairytale of New York - £386,270 Mariah Carey - All I Want for Christmas - £347,615 Wham - Last Christmas - £301,620 Cliff Richard - Mistletoe & Wine - £98,400 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas? - £78,030 Shakin Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone - £53,834 The Pretenders - 2000 Miles - £45,344 East 17 - Stay Another Day - £30,220 Jona Lewie - Stop The Cavalry - £13,260 I need a Christmas number 1!)

Today is LEON day. Does this mean it's the Learn English Online Network day?  No, unfortunately not, it's simply Noel spelt backwards, because there are exactly 6 months to go till Christmas.  

According to the annual Christmas Price Index compiled by PNC Wealth Management, if you were to buy every item mentioned in "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would have to fork out nearly $100,000. (Trying to buy the 364 items repeated in all the song's verses — from 12 drummers drumming to a partridge in a pear tree — would cost $96,824, an increase of 10.8 percent over 2009.  That's inflation for you.)

Happy Christmas! According to research by, of all things, Jarlsberg cheese company, a typical Christmas Day in the UK runs like clockwork. By 9.00 the presents have all been unwrapped, and the first (alcoholic) drink is drunk at 11.48, dinner follows at 3.24 (after the Queen's speech) then 8 hours later everyone is in bed. (As a child I experienced a slightly different Christmas. We were always woken up by "Oh come all ye faithful" played on the radio, then we were allowed to unwrap Santa's presents, but we had to wait until after we had eaten dinner and the washing up had been done to open the other presents. My mother wasn't stupid. It guaranteed good behaviour for most of the day.)

A typical British family has its first festive row at precisely 9.58 on Christmas morning. (The presents have been unwrapped, overexcited children row with their parents, who are trying to tidy up the discarded wrapping and packaging material before rushing round trying to shove an oversized turkey into the oven. Arguments start about what to watch on TV and the average parent ends up losing it, and telling off their children for the first time by 11.07am.)

According to the Recycling Consortium, nearly 3,000,000 kg of aluminium foil will be used to wrap Christmas turkeys. (A Peugeot 307 only contains 75 kg of aluminium.)

According to the Recycling Consortium the UK will get through an extra 500 million aluminium drinks cans over the festive period. (Add that to the next interesting fact! That's a lot of alu.)

During Christmas 2008 the UK consumed around 10 million turkeys. (From free-range fresh, to frozen, it's still the bird of choice.)

People in the UK spend around £20bn on Christmas. (£1.6bn of that goes on food and drink.)

The largest secret Santa event involved 1,270 participants. (It was organized by Boots UK Limited in Nottingham, UK, on December 18, 2008. Secret Santa is a tradition in which members of a group are randomly assigned other members to whom they anonymously give a gift. All the participants agree on a price limit and then they write their names on small pieces of paper and put them in an envelope. Each person then draws a name. The name drawn is the recipient of the gift. You'll usually find secret Santa events in workplaces, because it helps to limit the number of gifts people have to buy.)

Austria is campaigning to save the Christkind, their traditional Christmas gift giver, from the red and white menace of Santa Claus. (Traditionally the Christkind leaves a fully decorated tree and presents after dark on Christmas Eve, but Santa has been dropping down the chimney and is better at self promotion. This has caused a bit of a fuss, as Santa is seen as an American usurper, but according to the curator of the Joanneum museum in Graz, even the Christkind is not really an Austrian tradition. It all started in the Protestant areas of Germany in the 16th Century, and only arrived in largely Catholic Austria in 1870. Before that Austrians would make seasonal offerings to household spirits. If the children of Austria are canny, they'll invite the Christkind, Father Christmas, Santa and any little sprites or spirits to leave presents.)

According to Time Out, this year’s Christmas lights in the Market Building at Covent Garden, London will be spectacular chandeliers made from 600 LED tubes. (The seasonal transformation also features a 40ft christmas tree, and a 37ft topiary reindeer. There will be occasional visits by live reindeer, who hopefully won't eat their shrubby cousin.)

The 21m tree in Trafalgar square is turned into mulch which is then used as fertiliser in Parliament Square. (The tree is taken down after Christmas and fed into a chipping machine. It makes about 15 bags of mulch.)

According to the Recycling Consortium, around 125,000 tonnes of plastic packaging will be thrown away over Christmas. (That's the equivalent weight of more than 50,000 polar bears! And that's not counting all the cardboard boxes.)

According to the Recycling Consortium, in the UK we will go through an extra 750 million glass bottles and jars over Christmas and the New Year. (That's a lot of wine and pickled onions.)

According to the Recycling Consortium, people in the UK will put up about 8 million Christmas trees. (Unfortunately most of them will be thrown away in January, generating over 12,000 tonnes of rubbish. Hopefully most people will recycle them. Once a tree has been chipped it takes about 10 weeks for the wood to become compost.)