the 20th of December, by the time this podcast
goes out. We decided that we were going to centre
Christmas around, centre the podcast around Christmas.
That's what I meant to say. The words are eluding
me. So in order to give us a bit of break of
all the research that we normally put into podcasts.
I decided that we would go along the format of
a quiz. You guys can take part at home. I'm basically
going to ask James some questions, and once he's
given an attempt at an answer, I'll give him
the answer, and we can talk about it. So that's
how we're going to lay out this podcast. You
happy with that, James? Yeah, sounds fine. Definitely
give this a go. Cool. I know there are some really
crazy facts about Christmas. So I thought this
might be a nice change of pace for ourselves
and, of course, for our listeners. So let's,
without further ado, shall we get into it? Let's
go for it, Nick. Yep. Cool. So let's start with
question one. What Christmas food was banned
in the 17th century in England for being sinfully
indulgent? Was it Figgy Pudding? No. It was banned
under Oliver Cronwell of all people. Now, we've
spoken about Oliver in the past, haven't we?
Well, he banned theatre. He banned a lot, yeah.
He banned bishops. Like, he used a cathedral
as his base, but he literally used the cathedral
as his stables. Like, he loved literally shitting
over High Church. But looking at the way that
he did things, it's very difficult to believe
he was a pious man. Just kind of looking at how
practical, and if I'm honest with you, how ruthless
he was. I can't take him seriously as a follower
of Jesus. But anywho, sorry. Right, okay, assuming
it was him. Anything could be sinfully indulgent
in his eyes. This has been a Christmas food for
a very long time. It wasn't the goose, was it?
No, no, no. Right, I'm going to try one more
time. The thing is, were mince pies even a thing
at that point? Because I know they were brought
over during the Crusades. It was mince pies.
It was mince pies, yeah. Okay. Yeah. I guess,
yeah, they're kind of rich, I guess. I do love
them in spire. They are amazing. None of my kids
like them. My wife doesn't like them. So every
Christmas we get a six pack of mince pies and
I just end up scoffing at myself. Yeah. I mean,
all the better for yourself, I guess, but like,
I don't know, they are, they're not, Like modern
sweets, you know? But then again, maybe it's
just a generational thing. Like, I grew up with
occasionally hanging out with my neighbour and
his family used to get, like, Mr Kipling apple
pies. Yeah, yeah. And they're good. You know,
obviously they're mass -produced and stuff, but...
they're good so like i don't know that's what
kind of led me to led me to that whereas if you
haven't if you haven't done um if you're not
used to having pies as like a sweet snack thing
then i can understand like the flavor not being
for everyone yeah i um when i was growing up
i used to have a bakery that i passed every day
on the way to school and um it's the first place
i ever had Like bread pudding. Love bread pudding.
But as well as that... When it's done right.
When it's done right, yeah. I used to be able
to buy a slab for like a quid. You know what
bakeries used to be like as far as the prices
of things would be. It was so cheap to buy like
a slab of bread pudding. I used to go in there
with a quid every day and just buy as much food
as I could. But as well as that... Also got a
love for Eccles cakes. They used to do a lovely
Eccles cake, the size of a bleeding bus steering
wheel, you know. But that's where I first tasted
mincemeat. And, yeah, never look back. I love
the stuff. It's weird that it is meat, isn't
it? Because it just feels, it's like very, very
fruity. It is fruit. It's fruit. It's not meat.
It's just called Mincemeat. I don't know where
that name comes from. As a matter of fact, a
little bit of behind the scenes work for you,
James. Find out why Mincemeat is called Mincemeat.
Whilst you're doing that. I'll do that and then
we'll literally, I'll either break that out during
this episode or I'll break it out on the next
one. Yeah, no worries. So question two. All right.
Why are poinsettias red in winter? Now, you might
know this because there's a little bit of horticulture
in you, isn't there? There is. I'm studying it
at the moment. Yeah, I won't say the college
name just because, although there is only so
many around. Right. What was the name of the
plant? Why is it red right now? Poinsettia. I
should know this. I should know this, but I don't.
Do you have its common name? Is it literally
just called the poinsettia or is that the Latin?
Poinsettia is the plant, I'm pretty sure. Let
me have a look. Yeah, it's just called a poinsettia.
Okay. I know that I've literally worked with
this plant. Couldn't tell you what it looks like,
though. Annoyingly. It's a really interesting
plant because it looks like it's covered in flowers
on top. But they're not. Okay. It's not flowers.
It's got like... Okay, there we go. Poinsettia
search. Yeah, I have worked with these. See,
it looks like flowers, doesn't it? But they're
leaves. Yeah, they're modified leaves. But this
is the annoying thing about botany generally.
Everything that looks like something quite often
isn't. It's all guidelines. There's no hard rules
in botany. It's all guidelines. Yeah, so they're
essentially leaves that are discoloured because
of the change in sunlight hours. Yeah, so the
chloroplast has been removed and it's got another
chemical in there. And I used to know the name
for it a couple of weeks ago, where it's the
red chemical. Yeah, shows through. Okay. That's
interesting. So they're literally, none of that's
flowers, that's all leaves. Yeah. I mean, that's
far... Fontisia cross feserai, or red robin,
or magna volcano, has a far more elaborate name,
but a far less vivid effect. It's like this,
only the things that are on top still tell their
leaves, and sometimes they're green at the base
of the leaf, and it goes red towards the end,
as if it's on fire. Wow. Yeah. Just put in a
red robin plant, and you'll see what I mean.
Okay, so I've done a quick search, and it's because
during the Middle Ages, mincemeat, it had the
same fruit stuff, but it used to have finely
chopped meat, such as beef or venison, combined
with the fruits. Oh. And alcohol for... Oh, okay,
and the alcohol's in there for the preservation.
Okay, so the meat didn't go bad because it was
steeped in alcohol. Because it was steeped in
alcohol and fruit. Wow. That's cool. It also,
apparently, it's derived from the French word
mincia and the Vulgar Latin word miniatia, which
means to finely chop. Oh, okay. So it's because
it's finely chopped. But I will admit, again,
it's interesting that none of those individually
fully covers it, but all together you kind of
go, all right, yeah, I can see that. Yeah, that
makes sense. It's just something that we've gone
on with. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. All right.
Sorry. All right. Sorry, a complete right. So,
so far, I've got the first question wrong twice,
only to get it the third time. And the second
question, I'll just whiff that because I'd forgotten
the plant. So let's see if I can get this third
one. Okay. So what did the word, sorry, where,
where did the word Carol come from and what did
it originally mean? Interesting. You know what?
I've never actually thought about this because
you get, so when you, when you're taught stuff
as a kid, you just quite often accept it. Yeah.
Yeah, you do. This is called this, and you just
go, okay, rather than why, or that's stupid.
Yep. See if you can have a dig at it, though.
Why is it called a carol? Okay, so a Christmas
carol tends to be carols. They're not nowadays,
but traditionally they used to be religious songs.
Could the term carol refer to a form of chanting
or a type of chantry or something along those
lines? Unfortunately, no. It's from the old French
word carol, which meant a joyful dance in a circle.
Love it. And obviously... It wasn't exclusive
to Christmas. You could have a carol that was
a dance and song with your friends all in a circle.
I love that because it's like the name Kayleigh,
which is a... I've got a cousin named Kayleigh,
I've got a friend named Kayleigh, but I love
it as a name because it literally is celebration
or dance and it's nice to know the carol. also
means the same. It's got the same kind of history,
yeah. Yeah, that's nice. What's one of your favourite
Christmas carols? It's, okay, it's an old classic
and it's not the coolest one out there but I
do like Silent Night just because you listen
to it. There's another one which I can't remember
the name of as well because I need to actually
go to traditional church a bit more. Is it Silent
Night? No, because there's... There's one which
goes... Oh, I know the one. That one, and what's
one of the lyrics in that? It's not a biblical
lyric, but it's one that sums it up, which is,
with the mean, the meek, the lowly, lived on
earth our saviour holy. Yeah. When I say it like
that, it sounds incredibly dry, but it's just,
I don't know, for some reason, I didn't believe
it growing up, but when I, now that I do, when
I hear those, yeah, when I hear those songs,
it does. does have an emotional effect on me
um yeah so so silent night what's your favorite
one uh i've got a few obviously for different
reasons i was in scouts a little donkey came
up with different um lyrics uh fantastic of course
you tend to find load of songs in scouts that
have different lyrics than what you remember
um yeah ones that you wouldn't necessarily sing
in the church um but i think out of all the ones
that i would sing in the church on christmas
eve Is it Old King or Good King Wenceslas? Oh
yeah, Good King Wenceslas. Oh, that's such a
good one. I love it when Sheldon Cooper in The
Big Bang Theory literally sings that. He belts
it out but then doesn't stop. Yeah, he does all
the verses. All the verses. There's of course
that everlasting question slash joke about that
carol as well. How does Good King Wenceslas like
his pizza? Firm and crisp and even? Deep pan,
crisp and even. Love it, love it, love it, love
it. Yep. That's a good one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That always comes up. Yeah, yeah, good stuff.
Right, so let's move on. Question four. Which
country first decorated Christmas trees with
real candles? Was it Norway? No. I'm not even
in the right area, am I? A bit too north. A bit
too north. Okay, let's say Hungary. No, it's
Germany. Damn it. They're Germans. They obviously
learned to engineer some things a lot better
after they set fire to their trees a number of
times. I was actually explaining to my daughter,
actually, that the Christmas lights on the Christmas
tree used to be candles. She was blown away.
And I was like, yeah. And then after that, they
actually had... like christmas lights like fairy
lights that weren't fairy lights they were full
-blown bleeding light bulbs that were colored
like dipped in i suppose like ink or like colored
glass yeah yeah they were they would blow all
the time as well and cause fires wouldn't they
they wouldn't weirdly enough i'm just working
in the cafe today uh i actually saw a number
of people literally full -on wearing bulbs fairy
lights around their necks. Yeah, I've seen that.
That's ridiculous. It's new. It's definitely
new. I prefer it over the David Hasselhoff jacket
with lights in it. Have you seen those cars that
they have done up now? There's a car, it's not
even a car, it's a van that is driving around
my area. It's literally covered from head to
toe in fairy lights. like okay are they are they
fixed are they fixed on tight or are they loose
no no they're fixed on it's almost on like a
mesh that's covered the car um and then it's
clipped into place i could oh but that's nice
though because if you use the right programming
and algorithms on that literally have your car
doing all sorts of things You can have a party
bus, you can have, like, maybe some kind of rotating
rainbow or, like, waves of colour, like, coming
and going like the wind. Yeah, yeah. Oh, there's
all sorts you can do with that. I like the sound
of that, but that is mental. That's brilliant.
Number five. What happened to Christmas Day in
England in 1644? I know that sounds like I'm
sending you back 500 years to try and find out
something that you're unlikely to. It's obviously
distinct from all the other Christmases. Was
it cancelled due to the death of a monarch? Close,
but not quite. Was it postponed due to the death
of a monarch's child? No. It was cancelled because
Christmas was abolished. It's Cromwell again,
isn't it? Quite possibly. Quite possibly. I don't
remember specifically. You know what? What was
the year? 1644. It was Puritans. It was the Puritans.
Was that Cromwell? That was Cromwell. There you
go. Alright. Interesting, interesting, interesting.
Okay. I should have seen that coming. To be fair,
it's interesting that when it comes to... There
are religious wars over differences, but sometimes
there are internal schisms over the smallest
flipping thing. Yeah. I think it's ridiculous
that they just decided, no, we're not doing Christmas
this year. Yeah. I mean, half the people that
celebrate Christmas in this country now aren't
even religious, and yet it's a cultural thing.
It's a Great Britain cultural thing. We celebrate
Christmas, right? So it's almost accepted, if
you're over it, that you take it. as given that
we're going to celebrate Christmas, right? Imagine
George, sorry, not George, Charles, just turned
around tomorrow and went, no, no, no, we're not
doing it this year. I don't fancy it. I'm abolishing
it for a year. There'd be revolt, wouldn't there?
There would be revolt, but then again, like the
royal family do not have the power that they
used to have. There's loads of media about the
problem of having one person with a huge amount
of power. And to be fair, there's a lot of programs
about it because it's literally the way it's
worked throughout history. Which, unfortunately,
is badly. But, yeah, you know what? I'd actually
like to see Charles put his hat... Well, unless
it's specifically James Masters has to be thrown
out the country or deserves death or something.
I'd like to see him put his fist down, actually,
or put his foot down on something. You know,
as long as it's... Actually, no, no. Scratch
that, because it's always going to have negative
repercussions on someone. You're not going to
please everyone, regardless of what you do. Yeah,
you're not. Okay, I'd like to maybe... see him
do try and do at least try and do something positive
and put his foot down and even if it ends up
getting a little bit messy I think we're going
to have to wait for William for that yeah I don't
think Dad's got it oh he's battling cancer and
stuff which is a shame that his reign is going
to be so short but I don't know he's done some
good work through the Prince's Trust and that
so that's something Yeah, right, anywho, sorry,
next question. Let's go. How do we know that
Santa's reindeer are female? Well, it's the names,
isn't it? But it's also, well, okay, so this
is the weird thing. Reindeer are the only type
of deer where the female deer also has antlers.
Yeah. Now, it's not just that the females only
have antlers, whereas all other species of deer,
it's the males who have antlers. But... Were
they the only ones that were used for pulling
sleds? No. Oh, OK. Give me a second. I'm just
going to have another quick think. Now, you know
what? I'm just going to stick with the names.
You can't have a male... It's not the names and
it's not the engendered use of a particular animal.
It is because female reindeer keep their antlers
through winter. Males lose theirs before Christmas
time. Interesting. Females will keep their antlers
until spring. Oh, okay. I've learned something.
That's brilliant. It's pretty cool. That is pretty
cool. And now that you think about it, that actually
totally makes sense because it is August, September
time is when deer normally start shedding their
antlers or start like literally rubbing them
against trees until they fall off. Yeah. So that
remains the same for reindeer, but in the males.
The females will only start to do that around
February, March time. It's mental. Also, it's
only just occurred to me, I don't normally think
about what sex the reindeer are, but that means
Rudolph is also female. I don't know why. I just
literally assumed Rudolph was male. I think it's
because of the natural leaning towards male dominance
in society more than anything. I think it's a
societal... I think it's just me being a little
bit... Yeah, a little... yeah a little bit sexist
there which so i'll need to keep working on that
but oh good uh moving swiftly let's try this
one then how many gifts are given in total in
the 12 days of christmas oh my god this came
up in a pub quiz yeah i thought it might i thought
you might ages ago ages ago and i've already
forgotten but i should also be able to figure
this out using a formula I'm not going to do
that, but if you will give me 15 seconds, I'm
going to try and just do it really, really quickly,
okay? Yeah. So we've got 12 days in total. On
the 12th day, it's 12, so it's 12 plus 11. Sorry,
listeners. Yeah, this is happening. It's okay.
This is happening. It's okay. We're back in year
two. All right. We got 12. Plus 11. So 23. Plus
10. 33. No, I'm doing this. Plus 9. 42. Plus
8. 50. Plus 7. 57. Plus 6. 63. Plus 5, 68. Plus
4, 72. Plus 3, 75. Plus 2, 77. Plus 1, 78. 78
gifts in total. Now... The answer I've got...
Where did I fuck up? Where did I fuck up? Like,
I'm really worried about this now. Hold on, hold
on, hold on. How much of an idiot do I look like
right now? What you gave isn't necessarily true,
because if you actually receive a partridge in
a pear tree only on day one... Counts as two,
because it's the pear tree and a partridge. No,
it's the partridge in a pear tree. That's the
one gift, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And on day
two, you receive the second day's gift and a
partridge in a pear tree. Oh, God damn it. Yeah.
Yeah. That's a lot of partridges. Well, that's
12 partridges in pear trees, then. Yeah. That's
also a lot of five gold. That's 45 gold rings
as well. Yeah, I mean, given the fact that they
are literally giving you that many presents,
I think that money is not really the problem
here. Yeah, no, sorry. I'm just jumping to conclusions.
You're all good. Oh, mate. Okay, how... Oh, no.
All right, so I'm right out. Okay, what's the
actual answer? 364. One for every day of a leap
year, excluding Christmas Day. So you receive
gifts for almost every, yeah, for every other
day where you haven't received gifts. Yep. Interesting.
Okay. Yeah, that sounds brilliant. It's cool,
isn't it? But once you know... Yeah, once you
know, you know. Although it didn't work like
that for you, because they would have told you
the answer in the pop quiz. I need to remember.
I'd have loved looking at the quiz papers afterwards,
seeing the maths on the back of the sheets of
people trying to scribble it down quickly. Well,
it's... Pub quizzes are good. Even if you don't
know the answers, you walk away learning something.
Absolutely, yeah. Even if it's a really basic
thing, which you should have known before, the
fact that you know it now is better than not
knowing. Anywho, sorry. Right. Next question.
Hit me there, Nick. Okay, so this one is a little
bit of a science -y one. Why do Christmas smells
like pines and spices? seems stronger in winter.
Is that... Now, what I'm struggling with is whether
that's pathological or whether it's sensory.
So I'm going to say that we're going to go along
the sensory path of during times of cold, your
nose becomes more sensitive to certain... well,
to smells generally. because of the temperature
and i think that that's a survival not even instinct
i think that's a survival feature which enables
you to find food when food is more scarce how
off how off am i i mean it's not to do with your
nose being more sensitive it's more to do with
the air moving less and therefore it slows the
dispersion of the scent. Oh, yeah, that'll do
it. So you smell more of the scent because it
doesn't disperse as quickly because the cold
air doesn't move as fast as hot air. Fantastic.
Cyanids! Yeah, yep. Which Victorian Christmas
decoration sometimes contained poison? It's not
so much about the decoration as much as the colour
of it. Is it... Right, I'm thinking either ball
balls or tinsel. Yes to both. Since you've said...
Right, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm
going to say bulbuls, and I'm going to say red.
And the reason being that, is it cadmium red,
which is the safe one now, or is that the poisonous?
Yeah, I'm going to say it's that. All right,
you know what? Shot in the dark of half -remembered
facts. Red bulbuls, cadmium red. Cadmium red
being poisonous. You're in the right ballpark,
but it's the wrong colour. Green. Green dye was
made with arsenic. That's so much worse. Yeah.
I do like it though, because there is a red dye
that was used all the way up until... like the
early 80s. And that had to be recalled. A number
of products had to be recalled that were painted
with this red dye because it's radioactive. Like
literally this red dust powder, which is used
as a dye, is literally radioactive and was out
there as a product until the 1980s. the reason
I know this is partly some research to do with
Marie Curie but also Vox Machina one of the first
campaign of Roll20 the person who plays Percy
is a famous voice actor but he was also a child
actor and he advertised a serial which had this
stuff in it and it got recalled and pulled and
all of that lot but it's still he distinctly
remembers doing this advert and there is yeah
it's like there are yeah there is a video of
of him being kind of like the child in this advert
like with to do with this serial that got banned
but anywho sorry moving on all right arsenic
though yes so much worse in the green dye that's
right okay the next one Does arsenic produce
a lime green or does it produce a deep emerald
green? Christmas green is more of a deep emerald,
isn't it? Arguably worth it. Right, moving on.
Okay, so this one, I think you will know the
answer to this question. I mean... I think people
give me too much credit, generally. I can almost
guarantee you do know it, but what colours did
Santa wear before red became standard? Wasn't
it green and red? It was green, but it could
be also blue and brown for different reasons,
or bishop's robes. Yeah. Didn't know about the
bishop's robes. Okay, but I knew it was green.
Did not know about blue and brown. Where is it
blue and brown? That'll probably be more Norse.
Yeah, okay. I'll buy that. Yeah. Extra bonus
points if you can tell me why it's now red. Yeah,
I can tell you this one. Although I'm worried
this is now a trap. But I will... Yeah, no, no.
Totally having an Admiral Ackbar moment. Oh,
Ackbar's is a very good curry house as well.
But I'm going to say it because Coca -Cola changed
the colour of Santa to fit in with their own
corporate image. Yep. Oh, thank God. They bought
the rights to Santa. They bought the rights to
Santa? Yes, because that's a thing they could
do, apparently. Really? Yeah, they rebranded
Santa and basically Santa became red because
of Coca -Cola. That's ridiculous. It is, yeah.
I hope at least they had to pay a good amount
for it. Do you know how much they had to pay
for that? No, not a clue. Okay, but that's mental.
That's like saying, oh, we're going to buy the
rights to London. We're now going to change its
name to something ridiculous, and there's nothing
anyone can do about it because it's our legal
property. Well, I suppose he is a fictional character,
but like IP, intellectual properties has properties,
and that's, yeah, but okay. But anyway, that's
a whole other argument for another time. Yeah.
All right, last one, and then we're going to
go on to some more funnier questions. What Christmas
tradition was invented to reduce bad behaviour
at work? I've got a million and one horrible
ideas now coming out of this. OK. All right.
No, we're going to. OK. Right. So I'm going to
say a bad one. Cool. Kissing under the mistletoe.
To stop everybody using the smoking area for
the wrong reasons. No, it's not that. It's not
that? It's not that? Or just kissing under the
mistletoe so the boss, who's happily married,
can get to the water cooler? No, that's not it.
No? Okay. All right. Fine, fine, fine. All right.
Different, different thing. Okay, so we've got...
Got carol singing. Got kissing under the mistletoe.
It's not making holly wreaths to keep everyone's
hands busy so nobody ends up stealing stuff.
No. No, and I'm going to tell you now. It's the
office party. The Christmas party was invented
as a means to stop boisterous behaviour in factories.
In the hopes that if they gave you a massive
appeasement once a year, you'd stay in line for
the rest of the year. Or they could literally
use it as a thing of, look, you keep behaving
this way, we're not going to fire you, but you're
not welcome at the Christmas party. That's a
sad thing, though, that such a big thing is like
a control element. Ah, that's life, though, isn't
it? Yeah. Okay, let's move on to some funnier
ones. Let's go with... Why do more people injure
themselves at Christmas than any other time of
the year? Decorations. They're literally hanging
up decorations in weird places. They're up ladders.
They go up into their attic. People don't go
into... I don't know about you. I haven't been
up in my attic in years. I am in and out of my
attic all the time, but that's because my wife
likes to shove stuff up there. But she doesn't,
to be fair. She gives me things to shove up there.
Okay. All right. Well, you know what? Fair play
to you. It's probably a little bit safer because
you're using the stuff all the time. You're right
to a point. The most identifiable reason... that
people injure themselves more at Christmas than
most other times of the year is due to overconfidence.
At Christmas, you find yourself doing things
like you alluded to there that you don't tend
to do at other times of the year. There's a lot
more knife work. There's a lot more people that
cook. And they quite often deal with a lot more
frozen food, which poses risks of... of being
quite heavy and hard. But also they're up and
down ladders, like you mentioned. They're dealing
with things being in the runway all the time.
Yep. So there's just a lot more occasions for
people to become overconfident with things they're
not very well skilled with and injuring themselves.
Yeah, fair enough. That makes sense. Yeah, if
you're changing things. Do you know whether it's
better or worse than the Halloween stats for
pumpkin carving? Like, to be fair, I love pumpkin
carving, but I imagine each year you're going
to get a lot of people cutting their hands a
little bit. Yeah. By no means makes it a bad
thing. My pumpkin this year was so much better
than any one that I've done before. Honestly,
I feel like since having kids, I have progressively
got better at pumpkin carving year by year. And
I'm really proud of that. That's fair enough.
Because I was absolutely shocked in the first
year that I carved a pumpkin. uh well next time
it's happening we'll need to yeah i need to come
around and give that a go uh yeah just carve
a with you that'll be grand okay um all right
next next what is the most common lie told at
christmas dinner The stuffing's vegetarian? No,
that's terrible. No, it's not. Okay, it's not
that. Right, all right. No, you haven't put on
weight? I don't know. Oh, nice to see you. You
don't enjoy seeing all your relatives. No, I
like it, though. I really like it. It's I'm full.
Yeah. Although, to be fair, I love Christmas
dinner, but it's not for everyone. No. It's not
for everyone. Yeah. Okay. Fair point. Fair point.
Here's one for you. Why are Christmas gifts statistically
more likely to be unwanted? Than any other type
of gift? Yep. Is it because of the number that
are being given? So because it's not one gift
from loads of people on one occasion, it's one
gift per person from everyone, which means that
you're going to get some crossover. So statistically,
you're more likely to have a repeat. but also
the more gifts you're getting for people the
less you focus on the individual I think it's
it's stigmatic so it's more about you feel obliged
to buy for everyone right yeah it doesn't mean
you know them well enough to buy them something
meaningful you just buy them something and because
of that you end up with Because you panic buy
under pressure, you don't buy valuable gifts.
I don't mean valuable as in financially valuable.
Well thought through. Yeah, you don't buy meaningful
gifts. Because you're just buying something.
I have to get them something. I always say, just
get them a bottle of wine. If you don't know
what to get, get them a bottle of wine. Because
even if they can't, even if they don't drink
it. they can put it in a bloody raffle or they
can put it in um they can they can give it away
to someone else as a gift you know like it it's
not something that it'll either go down really
well with dinner or it will just go to someone
else so you're solving the problem down the line
okay fair enough Okay. It's a good point. Alright.
What's the next one? Here's a good one. Roughly
what percentage of people secretly re -gift Christmas
presents? Just at all? Yeah. Because we've all
done it. I reckon. I reckon it's quite high.
Okay, so it's like... if it was how many gifts
do i or does a person who does this do it's not
going to be that high i reckon you know maybe
you do one in 20 ideally less than 1 in 20 so
like 4 but if it's the number of people who have
re -gifted a gift i reckon it's massively high
i'm going to say 84 it's 25 that low Oh, I guess
I'm just scum. 25 % of people secretly re -gift
Christmas presents. You personally. Nobody's
getting anything of mine. Even if I don't like
it, it's still mine. Yeah, okay. It was given
to you. It was a gift. I'm keeping it. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's mine. But you don't
like it. It's mine. But it doesn't fit you. But
it's mine. Yeah. Yeah. No, I completely get that.
Oh, dear. All right. Which popular Christmas
beverage is also called Milk Punch? Eggnog? Yep.
It's that sort of colour. That's the only thing
that gave it away. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. What
are the two most popular names for Santa Claus?
Saint Nicholas and Father Christmas. Yep. Oh,
thank God for that. Okay, I'm glad I'm getting
some right for a change. Also, do you know where
the words Santa Claus came from? Is it like St.
Klaus or something? Very close. Because it's
all German. Like, it's all Albert bringing in
a load of German stuff. Yep. But what's his name?
Jolly old. It's not St. Nick. Is it St. Nicholas?
Santa Claus, St. Nicholas. I'm really not. It
was the Dutch. I'm really not sure. It was the
Dutch trying to say Santa Claus, St. Nicholas.
Huh. Misheard or interpreted in a different way
and ended up Santa Claus. That's interesting.
But that does happen. Like the whole mispronunciation
thing. Like killer whales are a type of dolphin.
And it's not that Inuit people were foolish and
thought that they were whales. It's because it's
a mispronunciation. It's a misinterpretation.
They're not killer whales. They're whale killers.
Yeah. Here's one I didn't know. Which country
did eggnog come from? That's a good question.
Is it Holland? No. See, I thought it was an American
thing. It's not us, is it? It is us. Typical
American fashion. They've gone and robbed it
from us again. Yeah. It's the old apple pie fiasco.
Don't tell an American that an apple pie is an
American. Oh my God, they'll murder you. Yeah.
No, that's ours. We did that. Yeah. As we did
with Eggnog. That was us. Interesting. But...
I hate to say it, it's one of these things where
I'm not a massive fan of it, and because I'm
not a massive fan, I'm not... What's the right
word? I'm not that proud of it? Yeah. Do you
know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So, like, okay,
cool, that eggnog is ours, but I'm not super
happy about it. It's no yoke. All right, but
moving on. Have you seen Elf? The... Will Ferrell.
Yeah, I have seen it. I mean, it's got its charms
in it. You've got Peter Dinklage playing someone
other than Tyrion Lannister. Yeah, you know,
there's some nice moments in there. Yeah. You
know, it's a Christmas film. It's a classic Christmas
film. I prefer Elf over The Grinch. Some people
may find that offensive, but you know what? I
like Elf. My favourite Christmas film is actually
Christmas Carol, but it's The Muppets' Christmas
Carol. Well, yeah. There's a lot of... Well,
there's a reason why that's been played loads
of times. My family don't like it, but I'm like,
I don't care. This is the Christmas film for
me. You've got... What's his name? You've literally
got Kermit the Frog ice skating. Yeah. It's the
two narrators, Gonzo, is it, and the rat. I can't
remember the rat's name. But they were hilarious
all the way through it. Cracking up. Anyway,
the question I was actually trying to ask is,
in Elf, what was the first rule of the Code of
Elves? Look, no, you know what? An elf must be
productive? No, it's treat every day like it's
Christmas. Oh, yeah, it totally was that. Yeah.
Yep. Yep, I remember that now. That is what it
is. All right, here's the last one I'm going
to do, all right? What is the best -selling Christmas
song ever? Is it Mariah Carey's All I Want for
Christmas Is You? Oh, God, no. Maybe the most
played, but certainly not the best selling. Okay,
right. Is it... It's the Christmas time. Do they
know it's Christmas time? No. Is it Fairytale
of New York? No, but my God, that's one of my
favourites. is one of my favourites, despite
the swearing in it and stuff. Well, actually,
I guess partly because of that, but it's just...
It's just real. That's what I think. Yeah. No.
It's White Christmas by Bing Crosby. Yeah. Yeah,
okay, yeah. Sorry, now that you say that, that's
obvious. Yeah. Yeah. Bing Crosby. White Christmas,
if I'm remembering correctly, it was in It's
a Wonderful Life. What an incredible film that
was. I need to actually watch that. I know that's
in the Red Dwarf books. That's actually David
Lister's favourite film, It's a Wonderful Life.
Yeah, it's such a good film. I'd never seen it
until I was an activities coordinator at a retirement
living complex. and i used to do a movie night
and it got to christmas and i decided i would
let the residents choose what christmas film
they wanted to watch they all chose white christmas
uh sorry it's a wonderful life and uh yeah it
sat through all of it with them and it was incredible
very good film okay like i know it's something
about kind of like it's all about kind of giving
and um risk -taking but then also about uh communal
conscience yeah is uh what i've been been told
it's all about i can't remember the specifics
but just core values more than anything it's
just that whole i think a lot of what christmas
films are about now is about that core value
that that um christmas philosophy you know and
it pretty much started from it's a wonderful
life brilliant Cool. Well, that was a great change
of pace, James. I thought that was exactly what
we needed at this time of year, this close to
Christmas. But I am going to wrap things up there,
I think. Yeah, fair enough. Fair enough. Thank
you very much for doing a question segment. Maybe...
That's something that we should do moving forwards,
but with other topics. But I can imagine that
maybe that will devolve. But that's something
for us to think about. Thank you very much for
planning the questions and for asking them. You've
definitely kept it light. I've definitely learned
a thing or two. One little fact I'm going to
throw out there. Don't worry, I won't take up
loads of time. But the singer... of Santa Baby,
the original one from the 1950s. Yeah, I know
her name. What's her bloody name? I know her
name. I can't remember it off the top of my head,
but did you know that she was a voice actress
all the way up until the early 2000s? Yeah, Urfa
Kitt. So, amazingly talented woman. She also
plays the evil woman in The Emperor's New Groove.
Oh, really? Yeah, which I found absolutely just...
kind of amazing that just that somebody who had
had a music career decades previously is then
able to just kind of literally just go on a dime
and then uh or sorry spin on a dime put their
hand to multiple things and later have a come
a little bit of a comeback in their career in
in getting a major movie part uh in the early
2000s it's crazy that crazy yeah that's it anywho
um Sorry, I'll let you close up and then we'll
go about our business. Thank you, as always,
listeners, for downloading and listening to the
podcast today. At this time of year, it's really
important to remember those that are around you,
especially those that you don't talk to very
often. So remember to share the love and I wish
you all a very happy Christmas or a happy holiday,
depending, obviously. Thank you very much. It's
goodbye from me and it's goodbye from James.
Bye, guys.