- "Hot cockles" was a popular game at Christmas in medieval times. It was a game in which the other players took turns striking the blindfolded player, who had to guess the name of the person delivering each blow. "Hot cockles" was still a Christmas pastime until the Victorian era. (Lets bring this one back into fashion!)
- "Wassail" comes from the Old Norse "ves heill"---to be of good health. This evolved into the tradition of visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and drinking to their health.
- A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.
- Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday. This tradition began in 1836.
- Although many believe the Friday after Thanksgiving is the busiest shopping day of the year, it is not. The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the two busiest shopping days of the year.
- An artificial spider and web are often included in the decorations on Ukrainian Christmas trees. A spider web found on Christmas morning is believed to bring good luck.
- As early as 1822, the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by the amount of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution to the problem was to limit by law the number of cards a person could send. Even though commercial card were not available at that time, people were already sending so many home-made cards that sixteen extra postmen had to be hired in the city.
- Before settling on the name of Tiny Tim for his character in "A Christmas Carol," three other alternative names were considered by Charles Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, and Small Sam.
Did you know that the fruit this summer is supposed to be the best it has been in years? Apparently, fruit loves hot weather. I personally have eaten more peaches and cherries this summer than I have in about five years just for that reason. As I have been a little overzealous lately buying peaches and cherries I found myself with a few peaches that were going to be too ripe for me to eat on the same day. That is unless I wanted to have them for every meal plus a few snacks. So I decided to make this recipe for Vanilla Peach Coffee Cake. Vanilla Peach Coffee Cake Adapted from Allrecipes.com Batter: 2 eggs 1 C milk 1/2 C oil 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 C sour cream 3 C flour 1 C sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda Topping: 5 or 6 large peaches, diced. 3 Tbsp. butter, melted 11/4 C brown sugar 1Tbsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. nutmeg 4 Tbsp. flour Vanilla Icing: 1 Tbsp. butter 1 tsp
Wow, I see y'all already have Christmas on the brain!!
ReplyDeleteSLOW DOWN!!!
Could this be the reason the clock is moving way too fast... time flying by... people like you talking too much about things that are months away... stop the insanity! haha
Love you guys :-)