Christmas Fun Facts Part 3

frankp57By
Dec-21-2020
Chester Today, Have Your Say, Just A Bit Of Fun
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So far you’ve been mesmerised by an array of ‘need to know’ Christmas Fun Facts. You now know a good bit about Christmas trees, Christmas songs, the origins and traditions of Christmas and a whole lot more. Surely I can’t have more interesting factoids to bamboozle you with? You bet I have. Is there no end to these talents? Welcome to Christmas Fun Facts Part 3.

Before you are stunned even more with another plethora of Yuletide snippets and on the subject of Christmas trees. Did you know that the Christmas tree at Trafalgar Square is donated every year by the people of Oslo in Norway. Why is that you may ask? Well, it’s in thanks for the assistance the UK gave to Norway in World War II.

Christmas Fun Facts Part 3

Christmas Fun Facts Part 3

We all recognise that Christmas is an expensive time for most of us it seems, unless your name is Ebeneezer and you’ve been called Ebeneezer for a reason. I’ve just come from town now and the streets and shops in Chester city centre are packed. No doubt other days this week have been the same. Also tomorrow will be manic probably. Tomorrow seems more like a Christmas Eve in a way, simply because it is Saturday.

Anyway, I digress. Christmas is an expensive time. But how much is spent at Christmas?

Christmas And The Amount Of Money Spent

In case you hadn’t notice, we British love Christmas. It is estimated that in 2020, we Brits will be spending £24.2bn on Christmas gifts. That works out at an average of £476 for each British adult. Actually that is down on last year. This total spend is 10% less than the £26.9 billion spent on Christmas gifts in 2019. Also of course, the per adult is down. In 2019 the average was £513 per adult. A reduction of £37 per adult. Understandable maybe because of the current circumstances?

Back in 2016, each UK home on average spent £809.97 at Christmas. Around 58.5% of that is on presents. The remaining amount is spent on food and drink, travel and decorations.

In 2017 this average per household had risen to £821.

Are all presents well received though? It would appear not. It is estimated that a cool £700 million is actually spent on unwanted gifts. I remember a good pal of mine last year popping into the pub and excitedly saying he had finished buying his wife’s presents.

Roy’s Story (Name Changed To Protect The Deeply Embarrassed)

“So, what did you get Carol? (name changed to protect the embarrassed), I asked.

“An ironing board and something to extract the stones out of fruit”, replied Roy (name changed to protect the DEEPLY embarrassed!!).

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see him on Boxing Day. It would have been interesting to see if he was wearing the ironing board and if he was walking in a funny way!!

If you can be prudent then why not? An amount of £51,000,000 is saved each year by cashing in discount vouchers. Nice one!!

The ATM’s will be going ballistic as well. An estimated £18,000,000,000 (that’s £18bn) will be withdrawn from UK cash machines over Christmas.

If any of you fellas have just bought your better half a box of chocolates and a kitchen whisk, then you’d better get back to the shops as soon as you can. Pronto!! According to research, an average of £330 is spent by UK adults buying Christmas presents.

Lego

Who still has their Lego kit from years ago? If you do and you don’t want it anymore, then why not sell it. You shouldn’t have too much trouble selling over Christmas. Why is this? Apparently, during the Christmas period, nearly 28 Lego sets are sold EVERY SECOND. Staggering!!

That’s enough about money. So, what else do I have to make you aware of?

Christmas World Records

Isn’t it amazing the lengths some people will go to in order to get their names into the record books. Some of the records are quite bizarre. For instance, did you know that 32.56 metres is the length of the longest ever Christmas Stocking. It was also 14.97 metres wide. One word springs to mind. Why?

How many Christmas cards do you send each year? I’ll bet it’s nowhere near 62,824. That is the record number of Christmas cards sent by a single person in a year. At the time of writing, that would cost in excess of £40K in first class stamps. I wonder how many they got back in return?

According to the Guinness Book of world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was on display in 1950 at the Northgate (no, not Northgate, Chester) Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.

You have probably built a snowman right. Ever built one over a 100ft tall? No, I didn’t think so. In 1999, residents of the state of Maine in America built the world’s biggest ever snowman. He was a huge 113ft tall. Just imagine the size of the carrots that went into that project.

Frank Carson’s Back – It’s A Cracker!!!

The largest ever Christmas cracker was 63.1m (207ft) long and 4m (13ft) in diameter. It was made by the parents of children at Ley Hill School and Pre-School, Chesham, Buckinghamshire on 20th December 2001. I wonder what the joke was inside the cracker?

Secret Santa is all the rage nowadays. The largest number of participants in the largest ever Secret Santa, organised by Reddit in 2012, was 30,000.

To be fair you get pretty decent cards for 99p at The Card Factory in Frodsham Street. No, that’s not me being a cheapskate. Just saying. They do also have a wide range of more expensive cards around the £2 or £3 mark as well. However, I must confess, I have never come across any card in there selling for £20k. Yes, that’s right £20,000!! That is the value of the most valuable Christmas card sold at an auction in the UK.

When it comes to wonga, there aren’t many that can match the spending power of the mega rich in the Middle East. Did you know, the most expensively dressed Christmas tree was valued at just under £7,000,000? It was erected and displayed by the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 16 to 29 December 2010.

We all love Christmas lights on our Christmas tree don’t we. Maybe 40 to 50 lights would do most people. You certainly wouldn’t go much more than that. Somebody did though. Did you know, the most lights lit simultaneously on a Christmas tree is a staggering 194,672. This was achieved by Kiwanis Malmedy and Haute Fagnes in Malmedy, Belgium, on 10 December 2010.

Some quite bizarre world records in that little lot.

That concludes this fascinating Christmas Fun Facts Part 3 trip down the information highway.

Christmas Fun Facts – Happy Birthday Santa Claus

“Happy Birthday Dear Santa; Happy Birthday To You“

It’s not exactly true that it is Santa’s birthday, but did you know…..that the image of Santa flying his sleigh is 203 years old this year. Yes indeed. The festive image of Santa and his helpers flying all around the world was created by Washington Irving in 1819. Happy 203rd birthday Santa and sleigh!!!

Is This A Website Or An Encyclopaedia?

That’s the lot for Christmas Fun Facts Part 3. Pretty amazing stuff or what!! Maybe I should change the name of the website to “Wiki Chester Lifestyle”, such is the fountains of knowledge imparted. Can there really be any more fascinating info to make you aware of?

Who’s up for Christmas Fun Facts Part 4? Leave it with me and I’ll give my head a big wobble and see what (if anything) falls out!! I may, or may not dazzle you with more staggering facts. We’ll see.

I hope you have enjoyed reading my ultra important Christmas Fun Facts so far over the last few days. Let’s not forget though as well as having fun, Christmas is a time for giving and thinking of others. On that note, keep in mind others maybe less fortunate at this time of the year. I’m sure you will.

And of course, during these strange times, stay safe.

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