The A to Z of Christmas

In case you missed it, here's a summary of this year's A to Z of Christmas...

Z is for Zoophagous

Christmas Day 1870 saw the city of Paris under siege by the Prussian army. However, the fact that the enemy had stopped any food getting into the city for 99 days (and counting), wasn’t going to stop Café Voisin, 261 rue Saint-Honoré, from serving a fabulous, slap-up Christmas dinner. If you had been fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to be there yourself you would have enjoyed the following splendid repast:

Hors-d’oeuvres

Butter-Radishes, Stuffed Donkey’s Head, Sardines

Soups

Purée of Red Beans with Croûtons

Elephant Consummé

Entrées

Fried Gudgeons, Roast Camel English Style

Jugged Kangaroo

Roast Bear Chops au Poivre

Roasts

Haunch of Wolf, Venison Sauce

Cat Flanked by Rats

Watercress Salad

Antelope Terrine with Truffles

Mushroom Bordelaise

Buttered Green Peas

Dessert

Rice Cake with Jam

Gruyère Cheese

Wines

First service

Latour Blanche 1861

Château Palmer 1864

Second service

Mouton Rothschild 1846

Romanee Conti 1858

Grand Porto 1827

And where did they get all the fresh meat from? Let’s just say a trip to the zoo on Boxing Day would have been a bit of a let-down.

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

Y is for Yule

To our pagan ancestors living in the frozen north of Europe and Scandinavia, the dark days of winter were a frightening time. The darkness was the domain of demons and malicious spirits. On top of that, Odin, chief among the Norse gods, flew through the sky on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir, looking down at the world with his furious one-eyed gaze, deciding who should prosper and who perish in the year ahead.

The sensible choice was to stay inside at this time of year, safe from the darkness and the horrors it held. To help keep the darkness at bay, on or around the 21 December, the time of the winter solstice, fathers and sons would go out into the forests and bring back to hearth and home the largest log they could find. This massive piece of timber was then put on the fire and left to burn for the entirety of the season of Yule – twelve days altogether.

Yule was the name given to the Viking festive feast, a time when light and new birth were celebrated in the face of darkness and death as witnessed in the natural world. It was at this time that evergreens were brought into the house; a sign that life persisted, even during these darkest days of the year.
However, despite the deeply-felt need to keep the darkness outside, in Scandinavia people believed that the burning Yule log also warmed the frozen shades of the family’s dearly-departed, who returned to the ancestral home every Christmas Eve. Some families even went to the trouble of laying a place for them at the dinner table.

Did you know...?
The Yule log was once associated with the Norse god Thor, who had a mysterious connection to oak trees.

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

X is for Xmas

Every year more than 400 million people celebrate Christmas around the globe, which makes it one of the biggest religious and commercial festivities in the world.

But have you ever wondered why Christmas is so often shortened to Xmas?

In fact, the practice dates back further than you might suspect, ans has nothing to do with devaluing the Christian festival, as many people believe. In reality, both Christ and Christmas have been abbreviated for at least 1,000 years. The word Christ appears in Medieval documents as both 'XP' and 'Xt' and can even be found in this form in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle from 1021. By why were those particular letters used?

To find out more you'll have to pick up my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- or its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

W is for Winterval (and Wassail)

Winterval - you might have heard of it. It caused a bit of a furore a few years back.

In fact, it all started in 1997 when Mike Chubb was working for Birmingham city council during the rejuvenation of the city centre. As the council's head of events he and his team were charged with creating a marketing strategy to cover:

"41 days and nights of activity that ranged from BBC Children in Need, to the Christmas Lights Switch On, to a Frankfurt Christmas Market, outdoor ice rink, Aston Hall by Candlelight, Diwali, shopping at Christmas, world class theatre and arts plus, of course, New Year's Eve with its massive 100,000 audience."

Chubb realised that with so many events competing for visitors, marketing them as individual occasions would be expensive, time-consuming and ineffective in acquiring sponsorship or funding. What the events needed, he decided, was a "generic banner under which they could all sit". His team settled on 'Winterval' – a portmanteau of 'winter' and 'festival'.

Little did he or anyone else on the events team realise that this name was to found one of the most persistent urban myths of modern times, and that 11 years later he would be writing an article explaining – again – what the event was and how it was never about renaming or banning Christmas.

To read more about this story, click here.

Of course, W is also for Wassail. The word 'wassail' comes from the Old English 'waes hael' meaning 'be healthy', but came to denote the practice of travelling from house to house, demanding food and drink in return for a few verses of whatever carol the singers could remember at the time.

Did you know...?

The expression 'to drink a toast' originates with the custom of wassailing?

Today you can enjoy English Heritage's own Wassail Ale and hear a traditional wassailing song as sung by the popular Britpop band Blur!

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

V is for Vienna

Starting at the end of November and lasting until Christmas Day you can find a Christkindlmärkte on nearly every street corner of the Austrian city of Vienna. Small huts provide you with all manner of Christmas gifts, food and - most importantly - hot punch, as well as Glühwein (heated sweetened wine).

RATHAUSPLATZ

The Christkindlmarkt on the square in front of the City Hall is Vienna's classic Christmas Market. Strolling among the elaborately decorated trees in the park, Viennese and visitors from all over the world can enjoy the wonderful Christmas atmosphere. The tree with seals, the "Kasperl tree", the "Herzerlbaum" (Hearts tree) as well as the "Post office in the clouds" offer a perfect setting for a souvenir photo.

SCHÖNBRUNN CASTLE
The festively illuminated Schoenbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Austrian Emperors, provides a spectacular backdrop for an idyllic Christmas village full of the scent of mulled wine and ginger bread. And almost every day, festive concerts spread Christmas mood!

SPITTELBERG
In this lovely historical quarter both traditional and original handicraft is sold on narrow paved alleyways, niches and courtyards. It's Vienna's most authentic Christmas market.

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

U is for Unprepared

So, with Christmas only two days away, are you ready for the big day yet? No? Me neither!

But before you dash off to the local garage to buy that special someone another chocolate orange, bear in mind that if you've already left your Christmas shopping a little late, you risk paying 50% more than those people who... how shall we put it?... a little better organised.

Those who were out buying gifts before December 17 spent, on average, £37.28 on each item, compared to £54.37 shelled out the following week.

Anyway, on that sobering note, I must dash! That box of Matchsticks isn't going to wrap itself!

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

T is for the (Glastonbury) Thorn

The Glastonbury Thorn is a hawthorn, of a type which originates in the Middle East, that grows in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey in Somerset, England. Legend has it that it grew from where Joseph of Arimathea (supposedly Jesus's uncle) laid his staff, and has flowered every Christmas Day since.

A cutting from the Glastonbury Thorn was sent to the monarch each Christmas by the Vicar and Mayor of Glastonbury. However, the tree was pronounced dead in June 1991, and cut down the following February.

Fortunately, plenty of cuttings were taken from it before its destruction so that a new Thorn could be planted. In fact, the hawthorn growing in the grounds of Glastonbury Abbey before 1991 was itself supposedly a cutting from the original plant, planted in secret after the original was destroyed.

Only hawthorn trees that budded or grafted from the original exist. The plants actually blossom twice a year, in May as well as at Christmas. The blossoms of the Christmas shoots are smaller than the ones the plant produces in May and do not produce any haws, the small, oval, berry-like fruit of the hawthorn, which are dark red in colour.

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You will find many other such interesting snippets of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

S is for Star of Bethlehem

In Christian tradition, the Star of Bethlehem (also called the Christmas Star) revealed the birth of Jesus to the magi and led them to Bethlehem. The star appears in the nativity story of the Gospel of Matthew, where magi "from the east" are inspired by the star to travel to Jerusalem. The star eventually leads them to Jesus' house in Bethlehem, where they pay him homage, worship him, and give him gifts.

Many Christians see the star as a miraculous sign to mark Christ's birth. Some theologians claimed that the star fulfilled a prophecy, known as the Star Prophecy, while astronomers have made several attempts to link the star to unusual astronomical events. Current contenders for the Star of Bethlehem include:

1) A series of three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn occurred in the year 7 BC (proposed by the German astronomer Johannes Kepler in 1614). However, modern calculations show that there was a gap of nearly a degree between the planets, so these conjunctions were not visually impressive.

2) An astronomical event where Jupiter and Saturn were in a triple conjunction in the constellation Pisces (as argued by Dr. Karlis Kaufmanis).

3) A comet. Halley's Comet was visible in 12 BC and another object, possibly a comet or nova, was seen by Chinese and Korean stargazers in about 5 BC. This object was observed for over seventy days with no movement recorded. Also, ancient writers described comets as "hanging over" specific cities, just as the Star of Bethlehem was said to have "stood over" the place where Jesus was in the town of Bethlehem. However, in ancient times comets were generally seen as bad omens.

4) Uranus, which passed close to Saturn in 9 BC and Venus in 6 BC. However, this is unlikely because Uranus moves very slowly and is barely visible with the naked eye.

Did you know...?

The star often appears in representations of the manger scene found in Luke, although the star and the wise men do not appear in Luke's nativity story.

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

R is for Reindeer (and Rovaniemi)

How cool does this look? I mean, who wouldn't want to be pulled along, on skis, over snow by a galloping reindeer?

Having missed out on the opportunity to become a cross-country reindeer racer when I was young, I have instead, many years later, found myself writing about the reindeer (or rangifer tarandus for the classically inclined) in What is Myrrh Anyway? (and Christmas Miscellany).

For example, did you know that a reindeer calf can outrun a man at only one day old, or that the Finns once measured distance in terms of how far a reindeer could run without having to stop for a pee?
The reindeer is the only deer that can be domesticated, and was the first hoofed animal to be domesticated. It provides the nomadic tribes who live within the Arctic Circle (such as the Lapps) with milk, cheese, meat, fat, clothing, footwear, tools (made from the antlers and bones), highly durable bindings (made from the animal’s sinews) and a means of transport.

In Iceland, reindeer meat (or hreindýr) is becoming an increasingly popular Christmas dinner choice, while the Lapp people of Scandinavia believe that taking powdered reindeer antlers increases virility. Reindeer themselves are vegetarians by choice but when when the supply of greenery runs out they will eat anything, and everything, from eggs and shed antlers, to placenta and even rodents!

Did you know...?
Santa Claus - whose association with reindeer cannot go unremarked - has his official post office in Rovaniemi, the capital of the Province of Lapland in northern Finland. The jolly old elf receives somewhere in the region of 600,000 letters each year!

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You will find many other such festive facts in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

Q is for Quiz

Or rather The Chrismologist's Ultimate Christmas Quiz.

It's one that anyone from 8 to 80 can enjoy so why not test your family and friends this festive season? I'll be posting the answers in the New Year.

So, without further ado, here's the first question...

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You will find the answers to many of the questions in my Ultimate Christmas Quiz in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas. Just saying...

P is for Pizza

About a month ago, I met up with fellow author Steven Savile during one of his occasional visits to the UK. We met at Pizza Express and this is what Steve ordered...

That's right, it's a Christmas Pizza!

"Christmas Pizza?" I hear you cry. Well the idea isn't as crazy as it might sound. Nor is it as unlikely as you might expect.

If you're fed up with the traditional turkey for Christmas or just wondering what to do with the leftovers the next day? Then why not make yourself a Christmas pizza this year?

Christmas Turkey Pizza

For the Dough
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

For the Sauce
250ml whipping cream
4 tbsp. butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 strips crispy bacon, chopped

For the Toppings
1 lb. roast turkey or chicken
3-4 golden fingerling potatoes
1 small red onion
4 tbsp. whole cranberry sauce
1 sprig fresh rosemary

Preparation
1. Prepare dough – Mix all ingredients and let it rise until dough doubled in size, about 1 hour. Dust a pizza stone with flour. Roll out the dough to fit stone. Let rise for 20 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

3. Prepare sauce - melt butter over medium low heat. Add garlic and saute lightly - don’t burn the garlic! Stir in the cream and bring to a simmer and reduce heat. Add bacon and simmer until desired consistency is reached.

4. Spread sauce thinly on dough then arrange the remaining toppings as desired.

5. Bake in the center of the oven until the dough is golden at the edges, about 35 minutes. Remove, let sit for 5 minutes, then cut and serve.

And here's a recipe for a sweet Christmas pizza

Sweet Christmas Pizza

Ingredients
12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 pound white almond bark divided
2 cups mini marshmallows
1 cup rice cereal
1 cup peanuts
16 ounces red maraschino cherries, quartered
3 tablespoons green cherries
1/3 cup coconut
1 teaspoon oil

Melt chocolate with 14 ounce almond bark in large saucepan on low heat, stir until smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in marshmallows, cereal and peanuts. Pour into greased 12 inch pizza pan. Top with cherries. Sprinkle with coconut. Melt remaining almond bark with oil over low heat. Stir until smooth. Drizzle over coconut. Chill. Store at room temperature.

And here's a Christmas pizza the Franklin family made earlier...

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information - including recipes - in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

O is for Overindulgence

Surveys show that on average we will eat our way through as many as 6,000 calories on Christmas Day alone which, according to the British Dietetic Association, may be a result of overindulging on second helpings, snacks and alcohol.

Whilst we are likely to put on an average 5lbs (2kg) in weight over the Christmas period, the Christmas meal is not the main culprit. In fact, the traditional turkey roast can be very good for us.

The problem is that over Christmas we can eat roughly three to four times more food than we actually need. Meaning that we can end up in the New Year weighing a lot more than we did. It also means we are storing up problems for the future. After all the extra calories have to go somewhere. These extra calories will be laid down as fat, and it’s those extra few pounds that can do you harm in the long term.

So what does the average Christmas Dinner mean for our bodies? Here are the nutritional facts:

CHRISTMAS DINNER

Christmas Dinner	Calories	Fat
Roast turkey(90g)	149 kcal	4g
Roast potatoes(85g)	127 kcal	4g
Stuffing(100g)	231 kcal	15g
Bread sauce(45g)	42 kcal	1g
Roast parsnips(90g)	102 kcal	6g
Boiled carrots	14 kcal	0g
Brussel Sprouts	32 kcal	1g
Gravy(50g)	17 kcal	1g
Cranberry sauce(30g)	45 kcal	0g
Pork sausage(20g)	62 kcal	5g
Bacon(40g)	135 kcal	11g
TOTAL	956 kcal	48g

CHRISTMAS DINNER EXTRAS

Christmas Dinner Extras	Calories	Fat
1 slice of Christmas cake(70g)	249 kcal	8g
1 portion of chocolate log (30g)	101 kcal	3g
1 portion of cheese and biscuits	394 kcal	27g
1 portion of mixed nuts (40g)	243 kcal	22g
1 portion Christmas pudding (100g), custard and brandy butter	587 kcal	22g
1 mince pie and double cream	368 kcal	25g
1 glass of mulled wine	245 kcal	0g

Of course there are plenty of ways of ensuring you don't overindulge over Christmas - but what would be the fun in that?

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

N is for the Nutcracker

At Christmas time it is not uncommon for many families to attend the only ballet the will see all year. The name of that ballet? The Nutcracker. But how did a ballet about a mechanical device for cracking nuts become such a popular festive tradition?

The story itself is quite old, older than the one we see portrayed on stage, which is actually an adaptation by the French author Alexandre Dumas, possibly better known for such titles as The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo.

The Nutcracker was actually Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's final and least satisfying ballet, after he took on the project with a marked lack of enthusiasm. It is ironic then that it would be The Nutcracker that was to become one of the most beloved Christmas traditions.

The Nutcracker premiered in Tchaikovsky's native Russia in 1892. It wasn't until 1944 that an American ballet company decided to perform the entire ballet. That year, the San Francisco Ballet took on the task, from then on performing the ballet as an annual tradition.

But it was really George Balanchine who really set The Nutcracker on the path to popular fame. In 1954 he choreographed the ballet for a New York company, and not a year has passed since when the ballet hasn't been performed in New York City.

The Nutcracker is on at the O2 from 27-30 December this year. If you'd like to go and see it, follow this link.

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

M is for Mistletoe

A popular practice among the more lascivious of middle-aged middle managers at the office Christmas party is that of coping a kiss off any unsuspecting young temp who happens to stray too close under the tawdry sprig of mistletoe sellotaped to any convenient light-fitting, smoke alarm or door lintel. But how did such a pervy practice ever come about, especially during a season linked to chaste Christian thoughts and virgin births?

Like so many others, it is one of those traditions that is a hangover of our pre-Christian past. Both the Ancient Greeks and the druidic priests of the Celtic peoples revered the mistletoe, believing it to have supernatural healing properties. To the Romans the mistletoe was a symbol of peace and used as part of the Saturnalia celebrations.

Like other plants that remained green all year long, is was taken as a symbol of prosperity and fertility. Thoughts of fertility returning to the land were foremost in the minds of the early peoples who relied on the land for their immediate survival, especially in the bleak midwinter. In Norse mythology, the plant was sacred to Frigga (also known as Freya) who was the goddess of love.

In medieval times, mistletoe was fed to cattle to make sure they calved in the spring, and any woman hoping to fall pregnant would carry a sprig of it about her person. It was also considered an effective treatment for toothache, nervous disorders, epilepsy, heart disease and snakebites. It was even believed to bring quarrels to an end, and was a sure means of protection against witches and lightning strikes! (One strongly-held belief had it that mistletoe was formed when lightning struck a tree.)

The more modern practice of kissing under the mistletoe can be traced back to 18th century England. Young women who stood underneath the mistletoe could not refuse a kiss and if any unfortunate girl remained unkissed under the berries it was said that she would not marry at all during the coming year.

In one version of the custom, every time a young man stole a kiss from a girl he plucked a berry from the mistletoe bough. When all the berries had been plucked, the privilege ceased, as is recalled by this ditty:

Pick a berry off the mistletoe
For ev’ry kiss that’s given.
When the berries have all gone,
There’s an end to the kissing.










Did you know...?
The name 'mistletoe' comes from two Anglo-Saxon words, mistel, meaning ‘dung’ and tan, meaning ‘a small branch’. Birds, (usually the mistle thrush) feast on the mistletoe’s berries, then, having had their fill, they do what everyone does after a big meal – they void their bowels. The seeds excreted in this way germinate in the bark of the tree and a new mistletoe plant grows.

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You will find many other such facts about evergreens in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

K is for Krampus

In the twenty-first century, we've got so used to the idea that Santa brings gifts to good little boys and girls, it is easy to forget that not so long ago bad little boys and girls were likewise punished.

In the wild heartlands of Europe, such legends are not so easily forgotten, and so it is that in countries such as Austria and Hungary, on December 5 communities remember Krampus*, a demonic anti-Santa who accompanies St. Nicholas during the Christmas season, warning and punishing bad children.

In the Alpine regions, traditionally young men dress up as the Krampus in the first two weeks of December, particularly on the evening of 5 December, and roam the streets frightening children and women with rusty chains and bells. In some rural areas the tradition goes so far as to include the birching of young girls!

Images of Krampus usually show him with a basket on his back used to carry away bad children and dump them into the pits of Hell.

So when the fat man with the bulging sack asks if you've been good or bad, you'd better have been good, for goodness sake...

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.

* The word Krampus originates from the Old High German word for claw (Krampen).

J is for Jethro Tull (and Jingle Bells)

No, not that Jethro Tull, the English agricultural pioneer who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution, perfecting the horse-drawn seed drill in 1701.

This Jethro Tull!

Jethro Tull might not be the first name that springs to mind when people ask "So which is your favourite Christmas pop song?" but Solstice Bells from 1976 is suitably festive and much maligned.

Anyway, if you've not heard it before you can enjoy it here now.

For another festive Jethro Tull track, follow this link.

And while we're on the subject of the letter J, here's Jingle Bells sung as you've never heard it before...

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You will find many other such tasty morsels of information in my book What is Myrrh Anyway?- and its American counterpart Christmas Miscellany: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Christmas.