EDITION 745
24 DECEMBER 2018

There's a lot more to Christmas than unwrapping gifts and decorating the house. It's an age-old celebration with centuries of tradition and meaning behind it. So take a breather from our usual 10 things you didn't know last week, and the craziness of Brexit, and learn some of these fun facts about Christmas. They'll come in handy if your family plays a game of trivia over the coming days. Please share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends. I'd be very grateful if you did.

1. Why does Santa Claus live in the North Pole? St Nicholas, a fourth century Christian who used his inherited wealth to benefit children, and who was the origin of the tradition of Santa Claus, actually lived in present-day Turkey. It was in America during the 19th century that he became associated with the North Pole: in the December 1866 issue of Harper’s Weekly, Thomas Nast, the “Father of the American Cartoon”, drew a jolly, rotund Santa Claus, and listed his home address as “Santa Claussville, N.P.”. In 1952, developers bought land in Alaska and renamed it North Pole, hoping to attract toy manufacturers to the area. It didn’t work, but today the Alaskan North Pole is a tourist attraction; each year its local US Postal Service receives hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to “Santa Claus, North Pole”.
    
2. St. Nick was actually more generous than jolly. Sure, you probably knew that the idea of Santa Claus came from St. Nicholas. According to legend, the fourth-century Christian bishop gave away his abundant inheritance to help the needy and rescued women from servitude. As his story spread, his name became Sinter Klaas in Dutch, which later morphed into Santa Claus.
    
3. The tradition of hanging stockings started with an accident. According to legend, it came from the tale of a poor man who couldn't afford his three daughters dowries. Apparently St. Nick dropped a bag of gold down their chimney one night so that the eldest could get married - but it fell into a stocking that was drying by the fire!
    
4. You can thank Prince Albert for your Christmas tree. The origin of Christmas trees goes all the way back to ancient Egyptians and Romans, who marked the winter solstice with evergreens as a reminder of spring, according to History.com. But it wasn't until Prince Albert of Germany introduced the tree to his new wife, Queen Victoria of England, that the tradition took off. A drawing of the couple in front of a Christmas tree appeared in Illustrated London News back in 1848, and royal fever did its work.
    
5. It’s a wonderful life. 'Tis the season to overindulge and watch feel-good Christmas films with your entire family squeezed on the couch. And here's what we are most likely to be watching, as the BBC has revealed Britain's favourite Christmas movie has been announced. 1964 classic It's A Wonderful Life pipped Will Ferrell's Elf to the top spot in a survey of more than 7,000 people by Radio Times.
    
6. Mum’s the word. A survey by the Food Network has revealed, on average, British women do not attempt their first Christmas lunch until the age of 34. Nearly half of women polled said they felt a real sense of achievement when finally dishing up the Christmas dinner and 28% of British men admit that their partner’s dinner is better than their mother’s.
    
7. Mince pies on Christmas Day? It’s technically illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day in England. In the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas pudding, mince pies and anything to do with gluttony. The law has never been rescinded.
    
8. Burn after reading. The Yule Log was originally an entire tree that was carefully chosen and brought into the house with great ceremony and burned over the 12 days of Christmas. A Chocolate Yule Log or ‘bûche de Noël’ is now a popular Christmas desert, made of a chocolate sponge roll layered with cream. The outside is covered with chocolate or chocolate icing and decorated to look like a bark-covered log.
    
9. Dreaming of a White Christmas? For a Christmas to be officially classified as “white” a single snowflake needs to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25th December on the rooftop of the Met Office HQ in London.
    
10. The bottom line. Mariah Carey makes about £375,000 per year from All I Want For Christmas and the Pogues make about £400,000 from Fairytale of New York. But top of the tree are Slade, who are reckoned to earn £500,000 per year from Merry Christmas Everybody.