Merry Christmas!

Me standing by the Bath Christmas Tree, located infront of the Bath Abbey and the Roman Baths Museum

The big day is nearly upon us! Merry Christmas to you all!

Here in the UK we typically celebrate Christmas on the 25th December. Children (and adults!) open their presents on this day and families get together for a big Christmas meal which normally includes roast turkey, brussels sprouts, Christmas Pudding and Christmas crackers. If you are not familiar with Christmas crackers - these are not the crackers that you eat but are instead festive table decorations which you pull with someone else to open. In doing so you create a big bang and inside the cracker there is normally a small gift, a paper crown (to wear during the meal) and a very dubious joke (worse than the infamous dad jokes!) The following day, the 26th December, is also a public holiday in the UK and is known as Boxing Day. The name is likely to originate from the Victorian era when servants were given this day off after working on Christmas Day. They would receive a special Christmas box containing gifts from their masters. Nowadays, if the weather is nice some people use Boxing Day as a chance to go for a walk with friends or family to help exercise off all the Christmas food!

Here are a few Christmas facts you may like to share with family/friends:

1. The abbreviation "Xmas" is not a modern day abbreviation, it actually dates back to the 16th Century! Like the word Christmas, Xmas also has a religious meaning - the "X" is said to represent the first letter in the Greek word for Christ.
   

2. During winter, only the female reindeer keep their antlers - the males shed their antlers. I learnt this whilst chasing the Northern Lights in Norway back in February! Does this mean that Santa's reindeers have been given the wrong names? Should Rudolph be Rudolpha?!
   

3. Do you know where the name Santa Claus comes from? It is Dutch - Sinterklass - which means Saint Nicholas who was a Christian Bishop in the 4th Century. He later became the patron saint of children.
   

4. And one for the children ... in parts of Spain, children feed a small log with treats in the run up to Christmas. The log is known as Caga Tio - the pooping log! On Christmas Eve - the log is covered with a blanket and the children sing the Caga Tio song to it and then tap it with a stick. When they lift up the blanket the log has magically pooped lots of treats for the children!
   

When I travel I love to learn about the different customs and rituals!

Wherever you are in the world I wish you a wonderful time over the Christmas period with family and friends :)

Christmas wishes to you from Bath (and Stonehenge...!)

Many thanks for my guests who took this photo of me during our Stonehenge Inner Circle Tour in the run up to Christmas! Proof that the stones are pretty big!