With Christmas just days away, here are some interesting facts you might not know about the festive season.

1. Christmas pudding was originally a soup made with raisins and wine.
2. Hanging Christmas stockings out originated from the Dutch custom of leaving shoes packed with food for St. Nicholas’s donkeys. He would leave small gifts in return.
3. Boxing Day gets its name from all the money collected in church alms-boxes for the poor.
4. In Greece, Italy, Spain and Germany, workers get a Christmas bonus of one month’s salary by law.
5. Candy canes began as straight white sticks of sugar candy used to decorate the Christmas trees. A choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral decided to have the ends bent to depict a shepherd’s crook and he would pass them out to the children to keep them quiet during the services. It wasn’t until about the 20th century that candy canes acquired their red stripes.
6. Early Christmas trees were decorated with fruits, flowers and candles, which were heavy on the tree branches. In the 1800’s German glass blowers began producing glass balls to replace the heavy decorations and called them bulbs.
7. Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 1046 kilometres a second.
8. Many parts of a real Christmas tree can actually be eaten, with the needles being a good source of Vitamin C.
9. Gold-wrapped chocolate coins commemorate St. Nicholas who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.
10. Ruldolph the Red-nosed Reindeer was invented for a US firm’s Christmas promotion in 1938.

We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

If you are a tenant and require urgent repairs during the Christmas office closure please download the Urgent Tradesperson List