Christmas Food Fun Facts

If you are looking to impress at Christmas dinner, then this collection of fun facts is sure to leave your guests gobsmacked.

  1. A Traditional Christmas Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings can contain up to 7000 calories.
  2. The most popular Vegetarian Christmas Dinner is a Nutroast.
  3. Turkey first arrived in Britain in the 16th Century and has been popular ever since.
  4. The concept of the Yule Log is of Scandinavian pagan origin.
  5. It was a certain Mrs Cratchet who served up the Figgy Pudding in Charles Dickens ‘A Christmas Carol’.
  6. There was a Victorian Club called the ‘Goose Club’, which enabled the poor to save for Christmas poultry.
  7. A ‘wattle’ is the noun given to the skin hanging from a turkey’s neck.
  8. In 1670, a German choirmaster invented the ‘candy cane’ so that the children were quiet during the church services. FACT.
  9. We may thank St. Nicholas for the tradition of chocolate gold coins, as he was famed for giving out coins to the poor.
  10. The festive fruit cake was originally designed to last a full year. It was made at the end of the harvest season and would last until the beginning of the next.
  11. The term sugar plum began in the 17th Century and did not refer to the plum at all. At this time, ‘plums’ referred to any type of dried fruit covered in refined sugar.
  12. The cranberry, of the red sauce variety, is also known as a ‘Bounceberry’.
  13. Not only do we owe Henry VIII a nod for the development of tennis, but he popularised the tradition of roasting turkey for Christmas.
  14. In 1607, in a British colony in Jamestown, Virgina the winter warmer ‘eggnog’ was first introduced.
  15. The very first types of Christmas Pudding contained not only dried fruit, spices and prunes but beef and mutton. So, the modern pudding is really quite light considering!
  16. One method of generating heaps of good luck for the new year is by eating a mince pie for all the 12 days of Christmas. Now that’s a great regime to try and stick to!
  17. King George the 1st was affectionately known as the ‘Pudding King’ as he famously ordered a plum pudding for his first Christmas in England.
  18. In the old days, children used to be thrilled when they received an orange in their Christmas stockings. Oh, how times have changed!
  19. Bubble and Squeak is traditionally served on Boxing Day and is an ingenious way to use up any leftovers from Christmas Day!
  20. Gingerbread men used to be eaten in England by single women who were looking for a husband. Some pagan traditions live on.
  21. Believe it or not, Kentucky Fried Chicken is now a traditional Christmas fast food treat in Japan. Fact!
  22. The Tudors in England would roast peacocks and then return the preserved feathers to impress guests at a Christmas banquet!
  23. Pannetone is the name of the traditional Italian Christmas cake.
  24. An onion can resemble a tiny hedgehog during the festive season when attaching a number of cloves to it. This is traditionally used in the making of bread pudding.