12/12/2025
Fletchers Fun Facts Friday
1. Every single U.S. state grows Christmas trees.
2. Tinsel used to be made of real silver.
3. Hanging stockings out comes from the Dutch custom of leaving shoes packed with food for St Nicholas’s donkeys. He would leave small gifts in return.
4. The tradition of putting tangerines in stockings comes from 12th-century French nuns who left socks full of fruit, nuts and tangerines at the houses of the poor.
5. Boxing Day gets its name from all the money collected in church alms-boxes for the poor.
6. According to tradition, you should eat one mince pie on each of the 12 days of Christmas to bring good luck.
7. It’s technically illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas Day in England. In the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas pudding, mince pies and anything to do with gluttony. The law has never been rescinded.
8. Mistletoe (Viscum album) is from the Anglo-Saxon word misteltan, which means “little dung twig” because the plant spreads through bird droppings.
9. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was invented for a US firm’s Christmas promotion in 1938.
10. Traditionally, families gather together in the kitchen of their homes to mix and steam Christmas pudding on Stir-up Sunday, the last Sunday before Advent. Everyone takes a turn to stir the pudding mix and make a special wish for the year ahead.