QI Chistmas facts!

[Nicos]

I thought it'd be nice to run a parallel thread to Ollie's just for Christmas facts....

England has only had 7 White Christmases in the 20th Century

[Nicos]

English Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas between 1647 and 1660 because he believed such celebrations were immoral for the holiest day of the year.

[Nicos]

If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 gifts.

[Nicos]

BEFORE turkey/goose the traditional Christmas meal in England was a pig's head and mustard.

[Nicos]

THE abbreviation Xmas isn't irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.

[Nicos]

Poet Clark Moore is credited with naming Santa’s reindeer; Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Doneder, Prancer, and the most famous reindeer, Rudolph.

[piskieinboots]

Crackers were invented by Thomas J. Smith of London in 1847, as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper (the origins of the traditional sweet-wrapper).

[OllieMartin]

Poet Clark Moore is credited with naming Santa’s reindeer; Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Doneder, Prancer, and the most famous reindeer, Rudolph.

All of these reindeer are females.
Only female reindeer have antlers during winter, the males shed theirs.

[Nicos]

(a female called Rudolf???...hmmmm)

[Nicos]

Pope Julius I declared Christ’s birthday as December 25th sometime during the 4th century.

[Nicos]

"Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. "Hot cockles" was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era.

welll....that sounds fun!!!

[OllieMartin]

Every year NORAD (The North American Aerospace Defense Command) tracks Santa's progress delivering presents.
The project originated in 1955 when a Colarado-Springs store ran a promotion encouraging children to call Santa Claus on a special telephone hotline. Due to a printing error, the telephone number given was in fact the number for the Director of Operations at the Continental Air Defence (CONAD). After Colonel Harry Shoup realised what was happening when calls started coming in, he instructed his staff to give children Santa's position (possibly being festive, but possibly so he didn't give away that people could contact CONAD on this number!).
Three years later Canada and the USA combined their domestic air defence organisations into NORAD, but the tradition continued. About 800 volunteers work from 2am Christmas eve to 2am Christmas morning to field the calls. In 2006 they received 500,000 calls requesting Santa's location and people were advised that a flight of CF-18 Hornets had been scrambled as an honour guard and to ensure he has no difficulty with Air Defense Indentification Zones.

[Nicos]

In the British armed forces it is traditional that officers wait on the men and serve them their Christmas dinner. This dates back to a custom from the Middle Ages.

[Nicos]

Long before it was used as a "kiss encourager" during the Christmas season, mistletoe had long been considered to have magic powers by Celtic and Teutonic peoples. It was said to have the ability to heal wounds and increase fertility. Celts hung mistletoe in their homes in order to bring themselves good luck and ward off evil spirits.

[Nicos]

The actual gift givers are different in various countries:

England: Father Christmas
France: Pere Noel (Father Christmas)
Germany: Christkind (angelic messenger from Jesus) She is a beautiful fair haired girl with a shining crown of candles.
Holland: St Nicholas.
Italy: La Befana (a kindly old witch)
Spain and South America: The Three Kings
Russia: In some parts - Babouschka (a grandmotherly figure) in other parts it is Grandfather Frost.
Scandinavia: a variety of Christmas gnomes. One is called Julenisse.