Fascinating Facts and Trivia

There are more life forms living on your skin than there are people living on the planet.

The average American will eat 35 tons of food in their lifetime.

Beer was not considered to be an alcoholic beverage in Russia until 2013.

The strongest beer in the world has a 67.5% alcohol content.

900 posts Carl-nice one mate.

Slade the pop group are set to make £500,000 this year from their Christmas hit "Merry Christmas Everybody" and I suspect so will the other groups/artists that get royalties from air play of their hits like Paul McCartney, Wizzard etc.

The Germans are credited with the tradition of Christmas trees. While evergreen branches had long been seen as a reminder of springtime during the long winter months, it was the Germans who first brought them inside to be decorated. This tradition became internationally popularized after Germany’s Prince Albert introduced it to England in 1846 when he married Queen Victoria. The couple were pictured in front of the tree in 1848, and the tradition took off after that.

In Germany the most popular Christmas bauble is a gherkin with a hat on-it is hidden on the tree and whoever finds it gets an extra present from Santa Claus.

The plants of Holly and Ivy have been used inside homes as decoration as far back as the 9th century, representing Christian notions of everlasting life. The red berries symbolize the blood of Christ and the holly, his crown of thorns.

One of the most popular times of the year for break-ups (according to Facebook) is in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. Maybe it’s the stress of the season or realizing you don’t want to buy your significant other a gift! Interestingly, Christmas Day is the least common day to end a relationship.

Just a case of wanting to get more involved with the forum generally. Given that I’ve been a member since 2009, my post count was a bit of a joke really.

You can take some of the credit Greeny as seeing what you’ve done in a relatively short space of time gave me the boot up the arse I needed to get more involved.

Friendly boot, more slipper than boot perhaps. No, it is people like you that is keeping this going BUT be careful not to shoot all your bolts in one go-let others post their stuff(if they have it) you and I don't want to hog it all and it is hard to keep up with all the posts-I will thank them just give us a chance guvnor!

I’ll be leaving this thread pretty clear for a bit, just one or two a day to help keep it ticking over...

That's fine mate great contributions from you and others(more from the Mods I think? ) have made this thread a great success.
Now here is something that I've always puzzled about until now:
If you’re looking for a short-cut on your Christmas cards this year, don’t feel bad about using the “X-mas” abbreviation. The name Christmas is technically a contraction of “Christ’s Mass.” X is the first letter of Christ in Greek, and for hundreds of years it was used as a stand in for the word as a whole. So, writing X-mas isn’t being lazy at all! It has been an accepted abbreviation since the mid-1500s.

Fred Astaire was due to star with Bing Crosby in 'White Christmas' having been in 'Holiday Inn' but he didn't want to do so the role was re-written and given to Danny Kaye.

Cliff Richard has had 3 Christmas No.1's and they were Mistletoe and Wine, Saviour's Day and The Lord's Prayer(Millennium) but he also had non-No.1 with Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem.

And finally for tonight:
The first artificial Christmas trees, which date back to the late 1800s, were made in Germany out of dyed goose feathers. Later, the creators of toilet brushes realized that their machinery could create pine-like branches that looked just like real trees, were less flammable, and could hold more decorations.