For most of us, Christmas is the time when we turn into couch potatoes on a non-stop diet of fattening food and old movies on TV. But do you know why the world's most indestructible Christmas gift is a pair of pants? That everyone's favourite carol was written by a drunk? Or how a moonlit stroll inspired the bright idea of Christmas decorations? But there's a traditional side to Yuletide, too. All those Christmas gifts, cards and lashings of goodies have an offbeat story behind them. Read these 25 of 50 things you didn't know about Christmas and be amazed.
  1. The King of Siam (Thailand) sent Queen Victoria a silver frying pan every Christmas. It seems he was convinced she did her own cooking on a stove in the corner of the room.
2. Santa Claus is the American name for St. Nicholas, who was born in a Turkish village in the 4th century.
 3. One of the biggest presents to change hands was a disused lighthouse, bought in 1951 by an American industrialist for his wife. She was delighted because her hobby was studying seabirds.
4. Henry VIII was the first to tuck into turkey for Christmas dinner. Its popularity soared when Queen Elizabeth I ate turkey on Christmas Eve as she heard of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.
 5. Americans used to celebrate Christmas twice. They exchanged gifts both on St. Nicholas' Eve and Christmas Day. They then decided it was all too expensive and rolled the two festivals into one.
6. The world's biggest cracker, constructed at the turn of the century for millionaire, William Charles, was nine metres high with a spiral staircase inside to reach gifts stacked on shelves.
7. The odds against a White Christmas in Britain are 60 - 1.
8. In Norway, sheaves of corn are strewn on rooftops to provide Christmas dinner for the birds.
9. Robin Red-breast Christmas cards became popular when postmen wore red uniforms. Stage coaches and snow took over after 1860, the coldest winter on record.
10. On Christmas Eve 1977, lonely artist John Helmes tried to commit suicide by jumping form New York's Empire State Building. A freak gust of wind blew him back onto the window ledge of an office below and he was pulled to safety.
 11. If a hungry mouse had not nibbled a hole in the church organ bellows at Obendorf, Austria, on Christmas Eve, 1818, we might not have had Silent Night. Guitarist Joseph Mohr offered to stand in for the organist. He strummed a carol he had just written and soon Silent Night was sung everywhere.
12. There were two Christmases in 1752. The British calendar, used since Roman times, was moved forward 12 days, giving everyone a unique chance to celebrate twice.
13. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children and also pickpockets, pawn-brokers and pirates, who flew his picture alongside the Jolly Roger for protection.
14. Larry Kunkle of Minneapolis, USA, and his brother-in-law Roy Collette sent each other the same pair of moleskin trousers each Christmas for almost 15 years. One year they arrived set in concrete, another inside a car crushed into a one-metre cube and once locked in a bomb-proof safe.
 15. Queen Elizabeth I ordered everyone in her service from the highest nobleman to the lowest scullery maid, to buy her a Christmas present.
 16. Under an ancient charter, the English town of Paignton, in south Devon, had to provide a Christmas pudding big enough to feed all its poor. In 1800 it weighed over 400 kilos.
17. Little Annie Hyde always missed out on her share of gifts because her birthday fell on Christmas Day. So author Robert Louis Stevenson ordered lawyers to give her his own birthday.
18. In medieval times, the centrepiece of Royal Christmas tables was an enormous mound of grub called ‘great pye'. Beneath thick pastry lay a whole turkey stuffed with a whole goose, stuffed with a partridge, stuffed with a pigeon.
 19. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, introduced Christmas trees to Britain from the forests of his native Germany.
 20. London confectioner Tom Smith invented Christmas crackers in 1850. At first, he called them ‘Bangs of Expectation' and filled them with sweets. But his kids thought they sounded like crackling logs and dubbed them ‘crackers'.
21. Each Christmas kiss beneath the mistletoe releases 800 000 microbes and can send the pulse rate soaring to more than 100 beats per minute.
 22. At Christmas lunch in Poland, an extra place is laid for the arrival of the baby Jesus, or anyone in need of a friend. Straw is often spread beneath the tablecloth as a reminder of the manger.
23. Absent-minded Sir Henry Cole, founder of London's Victoria & Albert Museum, forgot to send greetings letters to his friends in 1846. At the last minute, he had 1000 cards printed in time for Christmas. He sold the leftovers for a shilling each - and a whole new industry was born.
24. Pantomime has been performed in London for more that 200 years, but not always for children. The first production was the saucy story of Don Juan.
 25. Mince pies were originally oval with a sunken lid, to represent the manger. They were always baked with a pastry baby nestling inside.
26. Britain’s first-ever Christmas celebrations were held in York in 521 AD when, according to legend, King Arthur’s soldiers sang and prayed after the Battle of Baden Hills.
27. The carol While Shepherds Watched was penned (written) by Nahum Tate, an incurable drunk who spent most of his life heavily in debt.
 28. The little town of Bethlehem, New Zealand, gets more mail at Christmas than the rest of the year put together.
29. Christmas pudding was the favourite Yuletide dish of George 1. Traditionally, it was made on the last Sunday in Advent and stirred by each member of the family who made a wish.
30. The tiniest Christmas card on record was sent to the Prince of Wales in 1929 - it was inscribed on a grain of rice.
 31. Barty Marshall of Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, threw out a tree after Christmas 1950. It was last recorded as being nine metres tall in his back garden.
32. Christmas pantomime (a play based on a fairy tale) has its roots in the ancient Roman festival of Saturnalia, when everyone celebrated by dressing in drag.
33. Holly was once the universal symbol of good luck. People planted holly bushes in their gardens to protect them from thunder, lightning and the ‘evil eye’.
34. Mother Goose really existed. She was Elizabeth Foster of Boston, USA who married Isaac Goose in 1660 and raised his 10 children from a previous marriage. They then went on to have 10 more of their own.
  35. The idea of decorating Christmas trees came from religious leader Martin Luther after a walk one crisp, frosty evening. He went home and used candles to recreate the twinkling stars of the night sky.
36. Boxing Day sport was born in 1663 when the River Thames froze over and a huge ‘Frost Fair’ was held on the ice with wrestling, horse-racing, boxing and skittles.
 37. Mistletoe was banned in churches for centuries because of its pagan associations.
38. Each year, the British Premier sends around 2 000 personal Christmas cards, while the US President signs about 60 000. Big-hearted Werner Erhard of San Francisco, USA, beat them both with a staggering 62 824 greetings in 1975.
 39. Worried dad, John Coleman, thought his son might pull over the Christmas tree in their tiny Chicago, USA, apartment. So he decided to hang it upside down from the ceiling. Twenty years on, the family wouldn’t have it other way.
 40. Parents in Calexico, California, USA, where snow is unheard of, ferried tons of it by plane from Canada. At Christmas, 1949, they dropped it over the town to give kids a treat.
41. British’s oldest carol, The Boar’s Head, is still sung at Queen’s College, Oxford, every Christmas Day.
42. The Babes In The Wood panto story is thought to be based on the murder of the two princes in the Tower of London by Richard 111.
43. Ninety years ago, an Indian prince, the Gaekwar of Baroda, sent a card to an English women he had fallen in love with. It was made from ivory, decorated with 44 diamonds and valued in those days at R6-million.
44. Christmas was banned in Britain by Cromwell’s Parliament in 1644. Eating plum pudding and mince pies was denounced as a heathen practice.
 45. Mistletoe was once used as a divining rod to locate underground water and buried treasure before people got around to smooching under it.
46. Russia kicked Santa into the cold on anti-religious grounds. Father Christmas was banned for 19 years but reinstated when political fashion changed.
47. Hiding coins in Christmas puddings originated with the Romans who believed it was a promise of future wealth.
 48. Christmas Day once fell on December 27 at Wolverhampton, England. In 1889 a racehorse of that name went down at the fifth fence.
 49. Our favourite carols come from all over the world: The Holly & The Ivy originated in France; an American wrote Oh Little Town of Bethlehem; and the tune of Good King Wenceslas came from Sweden.
 50. Before fairy lights were invented, red apples were hung alongside candles as colourful tree decorations.
PEOPLE Dec. 2004 - other ‘25 things you never knew' next Christmas 2006
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