Fun Christmas Facts

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As I've said before, Christmas is my favorite time of year. We give gifts, celebrate the birth of Christ, and hang with our families. There are a few strange facts about Christmas and these can be good fun to share with those we love.

1. The Yule Log is a good luck charm and part of the 12 days of Christmas celebration. We can thank the Druids for that one. Traditionally, before putting up the Christmas tree you remove the first 12 inches  of  stump and burn it in the fireplace. 

2. What is Hot Cockle? It's a game where one person is blindfolded and another smacks the blinded person. You have to guess the name of the person who hit you.  Sound like fun?

3. What percentage of mall Santa applicants were discovered to have criminal backgrounds by Pre-emply.com? 7%

4. How many houses must Santa visit on Christmas? 842,000,000

5. During the middle ages the favorite Christmas dinner sported a hogs head.

6. Percentage of Americans who re-gift: 28%

7. What is Christmas pudding? I had a tough time discovering the real pudding. Some say it is a blood pudding, others a fruit pudding, but the one thing I did discover is that it's supposed to be bad form to cut a Christmas cake before Christmas. So, they invented Christmas pudding. You can scoop it instead of cutting.

Traditional Christmas Sweets

• FRANCE: Buche de Noel (a Génoise or other sponge cake, baked in a large Swiss roll pan)
• USA: Pumpkin Cake (with cinnamon and ginger, frosted with cream cheese frosting)
• SPAIN: Nougat (made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts)
• HUNGARY: Beigli (roll of sweet yeast bread with a dense, rich, bittersweet filling)
• ITALY: Panettone (is a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan)
• SWEDEN: Pepparkakor (heart-star and goat-shaped gingerbread biscuit)
• UK: Christmas Pudding (steamed pudding, with dried fruit and nuts, usually made with suet)
• PORTUGAL: Pain Perdu (French toast made with bread and eggs, milk, sugar and cinnamon)
• GERMANY: Lebkuchen (large cookies made of honey)

Merry Christmas Everyone! And Happy New Year!