Interesting Facts

According to card manufacturer Clintons, Father Christmas now appears on 5.6 per cent fewer cards than before. (Their research also found that the appearance of robins on festive cards has declined by 23.4 per cent in 10 years, but the snowman has increased in popularity by 17.1 per cent. Images of snowflakes also rose by 14.3 per cent and Christmas trees have become more common, appearing on 7.3 per cent more cards.  Glitter now appears on 34.7 per cent more cards than a decade ago. Despite the changes, traditional designs are still popular, such as Victorian street scenes, holly bushes, bells and stars. Personally I prefer hand made cards.)

According to a survey conducted by Sky Rainforest Rescue, 9 out of 10 Brits are unable to identify 5 common trees. Most were able to name 5 trees, but they couldn't recognise them when shown a picture. (The survey found that many adults couldn't tell a maple tree from an oak or a fir, and nine out of ten people struggled to identify the pointed leaves and red berries of a holly tree. Many didn't even know where conkers come from, or that acorns grow on oaks. Horse chestnut, maple oak tree? Never heard of them. And the worst of all the fir tree, traditionally put up in our homes for Christmas, caused confusion with more than 1 in 10 unable to name a picture of one. I guess it was unrecognisable without its clothes on. )

Wikimedia Commons image by  Tristanb 27,000 trees have to be felled to provide the world with just one day of loo roll. (Demand for toilet paper is increasing and Britain is the biggest consumer of toilet roll in Europe. I don't know what the answer is.  In my defense I use recycled toilet paper, but I can't imagine a life without it all together. Flannels, washing with water - the idea freaks me out. When I'm travelling I keep some tissues on me at all times.)

Berlin waste management company BSR, collects around 400,000 Christmas trees each year. (At this time of year in Germany people throw out their old Christmas trees for collection.  Many are shredded, recycled as wood chips and finally used in the production of wooden pellets for central heating systems. Some cities in Germany burn discarded Christmas trees to generate heat and electricity. In some areas, up to the 25th of January, the council lets you know when to put your tree out for collection, but in most areas, one person will put a tree on a street corner, and then the next day there will be 20 to 30 of them there.)

In Germany discarded Christmas trees are donated to zoos for the animals to eat. (Thousands of trees, that weren't sold during the lead up to Christmas, are fed to elephants, camels, polar bears and a variety of other animals. But it's no good trying to donate your tinsel bedecked tree, the trees have to be free of any chemical treatment, and so only certain vendors of Bio trees are eligible.) Source

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the world's net rate of forest loss has slowed markedly in the last decade, with less logging in the Amazon and China planting trees on a massive scale. (But (there's always a but) the Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010 finds the loss of tree cover is most acute in Africa and South America. Still, wWay to go China! You get knocked a lot, so praise where praise is due. Please plant lots of different trees, not just money-making ones.)

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.)

According to an EU-commissioned study, the annual cost of the lost of forest is more than the amount being lost in the current banking crisis. (Seemingly if you add the value of the various services that forests perform, such as providing clean water and absorbing carbon dioxide, the annual cost of deforestation comes in at between $2 trillion and $5 trillion.)

According to figures from accident and emergency departments in England, injuries to children from tree falls are down. In 2006-7, only 1,067 children went to casualty due to tree falls. (That sounds like good news, but the bad news is that children are more likely to injure themselves in a tumble out of bed - 2,531.)

The most valuable tree in the UK is a plane tree in central London. (It has been valued at £750,000, but as it is six-foot-wide and stands in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, that's not so surprising.)

powered by ODEO The Fortingall Yew, an ancient yew tree in the churchyard of the village of Fortingall in Perthshire, Scotland, is probably the oldest tree in Europe. (Various estimates have put its age at between 2,000 and 5,000 years. Of course to find out how old it really is they'd have to chop it down and count the rings.)