Christmas Tree Care

We have been speaking to the head honchos over at Good Elf, they offer up some useful advice on how to get the most out of your real Christmas Tree, we do not advise this…

› Continue reading

Turkey Hotline launched to help flustered Christmas cooks

Amateur chefs who get flustered while preparing their Christmas turkey can relax this year after a free helpline was launched offering last-minute cooking tips.

The Turkey Hotline has been set up by the British Turkey Federation (BTF) to help cooks negotiate any pitfalls they might encounter in roasting their festive bird.

A team of eight experts are on hand to offer advice on defrosting, cooking times and carving techniques until 5pm on Christmas Eve.

They expect to deal with several hundred callers a day on turkey-related issues in the lead up to Christmas. A spokesman for the BTF said many first time roasters do not know which end of the bird to stuff, or how long a turkey should be in the oven for.

Half of them deliberately leave the bird in for longer than they should to kill any bugs, he added. Confusion over cooking the perfect turkey has been exacerbated by conflicting methods proposed by celebrity chefs such as Nigella Lawson and Delia Smith.

Lawson has insisted that cooking a 6.5kg (14lb 5oz) turkey for only two hours and 45 minutes is perfectly adequate to deliver moist, succulent and tasty meat.

Meanwhile, Smith suggests that the correct cooking time for the bird, assuming it is stuffed, should be four hours and 50 minutes.

The Food Standards Agency, the government watchdog, offers yet another “safe” cooking time – four hours and 20 minutes.

The Turkey Hotline is on 0800 783 9994

Tags: British Turkey Federation, Turkey

Online Spending stats for Christmas Day!

Almost 4m Britons spent over 100m quid online on Christmas Day, according to figures issued by the IMRG.

Some 3.8m consumers spent a total of £102m - an average of £26.80 per shopper - on Christmas Day, up 21% on the same day last year.

However, the number of people shopping online on Christmas Day was 14% lower than in 2007.

James Roper, CEO at IMRG, said, “The volume of transactions was 26% higher, and the value rose by 21%, indicating that serious bargain hunting was the order of the day.”

On Christmas Day etailers such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Play.com were running online sales.

Statistics from online digital research firm eDigitalResearch found online traffic increased by nearly 100% between Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Chris Russell, director at eDigitalResearch, said, “We noticed that most traditional retailers commenced online sales when stores closed on Christmas Eve, with pure play retailers starting after last delivery day deadlines were reached. This means that the increased purchases on Christmas Day and the huge surge in traffic on Boxing Day could have been as a result of this.”

Source: NMA

Tags: Christmas, christmas eve, imrg, online sales, Sales, Shopping, traffic

Did you know, 10 Unusual Christmas Facts…

1. Did you know: It is illegal to eat mince pies on Christmas day. Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas pudding, mince pies and anything to do with gluttony. That law has never been rescinded so mince pies are illegal.

2. Did you know: Goose is the only bird you can eat legally on Christmas day! In 1588 Elizabeth I enacted a law making it an offense to eat any other bird on Xmas day.

3. Did you know: Christmas crackers were invented almost by accident by Tom Smith in 1847 originally using sweets in a twist of paper. The tradition is now only found in the UK.

4. Did you know: 7 out of 10 dogs will recieve a Christmas present in the UK.

5. Did you know: Over 200,000 trees are felled each year to make the 2 billion Christmas cards that are sent in the UK over Christmas.

6. Did you know: Dido, Annie Lennox, Sir Isaac Newton, Anwar Sadat, Humphrey Bogart and Sissy Spacek all share their birthday with Christmas Day.

7. Did you know: Santa Claus is real and based on St Nicholas of Myra, ‘Sinterklaas’ who lived in 4th century Byzantine Anatolia and gave secret gifts. Did you also know that the Coca Cola Company invented his distinctive red suit.

8. Did you know: Over 10 million turkeys are eaten over Christmas.

9. Did you know: Xmas originates from the greek letter chi, pronunced with an aspirated (kh), which is the first letter of Christ’s name.

10. Did you know: That Christmas day used to be on the 24th December but was moved in the 15th century for political reasons.

Tags: Christmas, Christmas facts, Did you know, Fun, Oliver Cromwell, Quick Facts

A Christmas Dinner of Caviar in Milan.

Homless and vulnerable people at hostels and care homes for the elderly in Milan are in line for a luxury Christmas lunch after officials donated £350,000 worth of seized caviar to them.
The 40kg haul of top-grade Beluga caviar was discovered during spot checks on strictly controlled foodstuffs.

Authorities decided there was too much of the delicacy to dispatch to restaurants quickly so it was given to the canteen of a hostel to be served up on Christmas Day.

Juri Mantegazza, a spokesman for the Italian Forestry Corps in Milan and who seized the caviar, said: “Tests carried out on the caviar showed it was edible, but as it does not keep very long and there was not enough time to arrange for it to be distributed elsewhere, we donated to a local charity. We have, however, kept a small amount as part of the investigation.

“I understand that the charity will distribute the caviar to various hostels in the Milan area and they will serve it as part of the Christmas Day lunch for the homeless.

“It’s a little Christmas present for those who wouldn’t normally eat caviar.”

Father Virginio Colmegan, of the Casa della Carita (House of Charity) said: “Every gift we are given is warmly accepted even if the majority of our guests don’t even know what these little black balls are. What is important to remember is that even the poor have rights and dignity, more than the desire for luxury items.”

Father Roberto Davanzo, of the Carita’s charity in Milan, said: “We are against all forms of waste and if this was the only alternative then it is warmly accepted. Even homeless and tramps have the right to try at least once the food of the rich.”

Beluga caviar is found in the Beluga sturgeon in the Caspian Sea, but it is considered an endangered species and there have been several trade bans in an attempt to save the fish.

Source: The Scotsman

Tags: Caviar, Christmas Dinner, Christmas lunch

London is the Party Capital

London firms are splashing out £100million on staff parties over just two nights as the capital celebrates the biggest party season of the year.

Hotels, restaurants, clubs and bars will be full to capacity tonight as around one million workers down tools to celebrate ahead of the Christmas break.

Analysts today revealed that London companies had sanctioned between £80million and £100million on two massive party nights, last night and tonight.

The figure is down slightly on last year, when £120million was spent over the Thursday and Friday nights before Christmas, with the fall blamed on the credit crunch.

Companies have swapped huge company bashes for smaller departmental events, as well as sharing venues with other firms to cut costs. Many firms are moving their annual bash to January to secure a better deal

Source: Mail Online

Tags: Christmas, Christmas Party, Entertainment, hotels, money, office

Christmas with all the Strimmings

It took the Holleys five years to prune the evergreen into the perfectly round shape it is today.



The couple achieved the life-like effect by spraying the branch tips with diluted white emulsion paint, using plywood for the leaves and attached toilet ballcocks for the berries. It is proving a much-loved local landmark in the front garden of their home in Yeovil, Somerset.

Grandfather-of-two Roger, 60, said: “We’re so proud of our Christmas pudding. It’s taken a lot of work to make it look this good, but the effort was worth it. “The tree is a real favourite with the neighbours, and the local schoolchildren just love it.

“It’s become something of a local phenomenon among residents, who say it looks good enough to eat.”

The incredible pudding is made up of two 25-year-old conifers which Roger merged together to make a ’single’ tree. Roger and Valerie, both keen gardeners, began pruning the tree into its round shape five years ago. They spent hours every summer intertwining its boughs and trimming its tips to give it the cylindrical shape.

Retired Roger, said he was given the idea to transform it by his granddaughter. “She took one look at the tree and said ‘That looks like a massive Christmas pudding!” he said.

Source: The Telegraph

Tags: 2008, Blog, Christmas, christmas decorations, Christmas Hedge, christmas landmarks, Christmas Pudding, Decorations, Win

Selfridges Santa Sacked

Lap lands Selfridges Santa landed with the sack despite his chief elf warning him on plenty of occassions. Claus was kicked out of Selfridges’ grotto for inviting a grandmother to sit on his lap

Andrew Mondia, 32, had been hired by Selfridges as one of their troupe of Santas dishing out Christmas cheer and presents in the London store’s grotto. But he claims he was sacked after only three days on Monday after a grandmother complained that he had invited her to sit on his lap.

Mondia, who splits his time between acting and promotional work, said he was sad that he offended one of his clients. “I had no intention of offending her, I just wanted to include her in the moment. Christmas is for adults too,” he said.

The company said it is made clear to potential Santas during their training that no one should sit on Santa’s lap and Santas must certainly not “promote or proactively seek” anyone to do so.

Brings a new meaning to Santas Sack!!

Tags: Christmas, New, presents, Sacked, Santa Claus, Selfridges