Yule Britannia Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Christmas dinner

The original card can still be seen at the British Museum and depicted a Victorian family sitting around a feast and raising their glasses of wine toward the card's recipient. This angered the temperance movement of the time as it was thought to encourage alcoholism.
JC Horsley later campaigned against the modelling of nudes in art and became known as "Clothes-Horsley".

Answer: Oxford Street

Oxford Street contains some of the biggest shops in London including the headquarters of Marks and Spencers, John Lewis and Selfridges. Nearby is Hamleys which has long held the record for the biggest toy shop in the world.

Answer: In bird dung

Some think that the word "mistletoe" comes from old German elements meaning "dung on a twig", but others say the "Mistle" part comes from a word meaning basil. Either way, mistletoe is a parasitic shrub that grows on trees and was greatly revered by the ancient Druids who believed it had medicinal properties.

In Norse mythology, it was written that two parties that met under a sprig of the plant had to lay down their arms and make a temporary truce. This is thought to have led to the modern custom of kissing unwary maidens who pass under it.

Its link with Christmas is ironic as it was for a long time banned in churches for its pagan association.

Answer: Queen Charlotte

The custom of putting trees up in the house and decorating them is thought to have started in Germany in the 16th century, although there is no record of one until the 17th. In 1800, Queen Charlotte, the German wife of George III, brought a yew tree into the Queen's Lodge at Windsor and decorated it with sweets and candles for the children. Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV and the young Victoria also enjoyed the presence of Christmas trees. Prince Albert, who is often wrongly credited with bringing the custom to Britain did, from the late 1840s, donate many trees and did more than anyone else to make the idea popular amongst the general public. Strangely though, despite German influence, there is no record of a Christmas tree in the US until 1855.

Answer: 1950s

In 1958 to be precise. The Scots may not celebrate Christmas much, believing it to be just for the bairns (children) but they generally hold little back on New Year's Eve. They call this celebration Hogmanay, a word whose origin is uncertain but may come from a Norman French word meaning "New Year's gift".

It usually involves much drinking, singing, dancing and for some men, first-footing (attempting to be the first male to cross the threshold in the New Year).

Answer: A goose

The turkey-fowl was at one time often confused with a bird of that name, now called the guinea-fowl which was from Guinea but imported to Britain via Turkey. I have heard that the Turkish give the turkey a name meaning Mexican bird which is more accurate*. Right up until the Second World War, the turkey was a delicacy that only the rich could afford, so the reformed Scrooge was indeed being extravagant here. Goose would have been the usual Christmas meal in Victorian times.

The boar's head was, historically, a popular Christmas dish in England and there is a mediaeval carol about it that is still sung today. [I have since been informed that the Turkish actually call it "hindi" suggesting, like the French "dindons", that it came from India. How odd.]

Answer: 32

There are four lines in each verse which go "Fa la la la la la la la la" so that's four eights or 32 las per verse (and if you thought it went "La la la..." you might think the question to have been perverse).

Answer: Mince pies

When production was more localised than it is now, these three towns alone produced over 100 million mince pies a year.
The delicacies are widely popular in the UK throughout Christmas and the New Year and strangely do not contain any minced meat. Usually about three inches wide, they are basically two circles of short-crust pastry mix crimped around a filling of dried fruit, candied-peel, spices, possibly suet and alcohol, baked in an oven and topped with icing sugar.

Answer: Fruit

In 1984, the villagers of Cottingham, East Yorkshire, baked a Christmas pudding weighing 200lb. Unfortunately it collapsed, making it one of the country's largest culinary disasters. Incidentally, the Queen's cousin, Princess Alexandra is nicknamed "Christmas Pud" because she was born on Christmas Day.

Answer: Princess Diana

Although in 1995, impressionist Rory Bremner did the "Alternative Christmas Message" as Princess Diana.
King George V did the first Christmas broadcast on the radio in 1932. Sadly, he died in 1936 and his son Edward VIII abdicated the throne the same year, leaving poor George VI, who had a bad stammer at that point, to continue the tradition.

Answer: Wassail

Wassail is a mulled apple cider unique to Scotland and tends to include whisky north of the River Esk. The wassail was originally a name for festive drinking bouts all over Britain. The other three options were Scottish cakes and pies eaten (as well as the more famous shortbreads and Dundee Cake) over the festive season.

Answer: Twelfth Night

It is thought to have been the first night that the play was performed. The full title is "Twelfth Night (Or What You Will)" suggesting that you can call the play what you like (but any other title wouldn't have answered the question!). Historically, decorations used to remain up until Candlemas Eve or February 1st.

Answer: Aladdin

Widow Twankey doesn't appear in the original Aladdin story but takes her name from a once popular brand of tea. She has been played in pantomime by various actors from John Inman of TV's "Are You Being Served" to Ian McKellan of the "Lord of the Rings" films.

In panto, the title role is often a male (called the Principal Boy) played by a sexy female in tight shorts, while the main role is the Dame, usually a middle-aged man in drag. Another common feature is the appearance of two people in a horse or cow costume. To someone from outside Britain, all this can look rather odd!

Answer: Reindeerland

When they started dealing with Santa's letters in 1963, the Royal Mail received 11,000 such letters. By 2003 the Royal Mail received 750,000 letters a year to Santa.

Answer: Winterval

There was, of course much outrage. To be fair to the council, though, they did say that Christmas would be a great part of Winterval. Still, the new name never really took off. It was a marketing idea to help promote retail businesses in Birmingham. The idea was that winter was a great time to shop there, with many discounts
Childermas is actually an old name for Holy Innocents' Day on December 28th commemorating the killing of children by King Herod.