During previous years, visitors to Highfield Lights have helped raise funds for the following:
Midshires Search & Rescue
Ridgeway School, Kempston
Cygnet
Wing, Bedford Hospital
Keech Cottage, Luton
Greenfield Playgroup
The definition of a white Christmas in England is when one snowflake falls on the roof of the London
Weather Centre.
The Queen's speech was televised for the first time in 1957.
The first British monarch to broadcast a Christmas message to his people was King George V.
Christmas in the UK was banned between 1647 and 1660 by Oliver Cromwell, who thought feasting and festivities
on a holy day were immoral.
Father Christmas has 2 addresses, Edinburgh and the North Pole.
Letters addressed to 'Toyland' and 'Snowland' go to Edinburgh.
Myrrh is an
aromatic gum resin that can be extracted from a small desert tree known as Commifera Myrrha or the dindin tree.
Frankincense is a sweet smelling gum resin from certain Boswellia trees.
The three kings are supposed to be added to the Christmas crib on the twelth night.
The twelve
days of Christmas refer to the time it took the 3 wise men to visit the manger. The twelve days of Christmas are the days
between Christmas Day (25th December) and Epiphany (6th January).
The 1st Christmas card was
designed by J.C. Horsley in 1843.
The 1st Christmas stamp was released in Canada in 1898.
The 1st postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria in 1937.
Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called 'robins'. This was because their uniforms were red. Christmas
cards often showed a robin delivering Christmas mail.
Santa's reindeers are called Dasher.
Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donder (Donner), Blitzen, Cupid and Comet.
Rudolph the red nosed reindeer
was created in 1939 by Robert May wrote a poem about him. Johnny Marks set the poem to music in 1949
Christmas caroling began as an old English custom called 'Wassailing' which comes from 'Ves heill' to be
of good health. This evolved into visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and toasting to a long and healthy life.
St Francis of Assisi introduced Christmas Carols to formal church services.
The earliest
English collection of Christmas carols was published in 1521.
The giving of a lump of coal
in the stockings of naughty children comes from Italy.
The gifts in the song 'Twelve Days
of Christmas' - a partridge in a pear tree, 2 turtledoves, 3 french hens, 4 calling birds, 5 gold rings, 6
geese laying, 7 swans swimming, 8 maids milking, 9 ladies dancing, 10 lords leaping, 11 pipers piping & 12 drummers drumming
(78 on day 12) total 364, one for every day of the year.
The biggest selling Christmas single
of all time is 'White Christmas' by Bing Crosby.
Charles Dickens could be considered
to be responsible for saving Christmas as it had almost died out, the Times mnewspaper did not mention Christmas once between
1790 and 1835. The tale of Scrooge 'A Christmas Carol' was published on 17th December 1843. It immediately sold out.
Charles Dickens wrote several other Christmas stories after 'A Christmas Carol' but none were
as successful.
The 4 ghosts in 'A Christmas Carol' were the ghosts of Christmas past,
Christmas present, Christmas Yet to Come and the ghost of Jacob Marley.
More than 52,000 christmas
lights, around 8,200 Christmas ornaments and almost 2,000 candy canes feature in the movie 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'.
A sweet shop owner from London by the name of Tom Smith invented the Christmas cracker. The idea came
to him after he had seen some sweets in France wrapped in twists of paper. At christmas time, he used a similar method but
instead of sweets placed toys and novelties inside the twisted wrapping.
The biggest functioning
Christmas cracker was 45.72 metres long and 3.04 meters in diameter. It was made by an Australian rugby player and was puller
on 9th November 1991.
Each year around 35 million Christmas trees are produced to cope with
the Christmas demand.
The Christmas tree displayed in trafalgar square in London is an annual
gift to the UK from Norway since 1947. The Norwegian spruce given is a token of appreciation of British friendship during
World War II.
The best selling Christmas trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir,
Fraser fir, Virginia pine, Balsam fir and white pine.
Christmas trees are edible. The needles
are a good source of vitamin C. Pine nuts or pine cones are also a good source of nutrition.
An old wives tale says that bread baked on Christmas Eve will never go mouldy.
The traditional
Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.
A goose was
the customary Christmas dinner until Henry VIII decided to tuck into a turkey.
In Victorian
England, turkeys were popular for Christmas dinners. Some of the birds were raised in Norfolk and taken to market in London.
To get them there, the turkeys were supplied with boots made of sacking or leather and walked to market. Geese didn't
get boots, instead, their feet were painted with a layed of tar.
In Britain, eating mince pies
at Christmas dates back to the 16th century. It is still believed that to eat a mince pie on each of the
Twelve
Days of Christmas will bring 12 happy months in the year to follow.
Mince pies were once shaped
like mangers and are thought to dateback to the sweetmeats presented to the Vatican on Christmas
Eve.
Umble pie was a popular medieval dish made from the 'umbles' of deer (heart, liver, tongue, feet, brains and ears).
This was mixed with stewing beef, bacon, oysters and rabbit or hare, on top of which would be a layer of dried fruit.
The ingredients used to make 'umble pie' were only considered suitable for huntsmen and servants. The best parts of
the animals were resevered for the lords and ladies.
Frumenty was a spiced porridge enjoyed
by both rich and poor. It is thought to be the forerunner of modern Christmas puddings.
A favourite
Twelth Night joke was a surprise pie. A very large amount of pastry was prepared and baked as an empty pie case. Holes were
cut in the bottom and live birds and frogs were put inside the pie. Then, as the nursery rhyme says, 'When the pie was
opened, the birds began to sing.'
It is estimated that 400,000 people become sick each
year from eating Christmas leftovers.
