I, as I’m sure are other visitors to the site, am really curious to know what people have for breakfast on Christmas day. So, please consider sending me a little note or leaving a comment below, telling what you or your family have at breakfast on Christmas morning. Whether it is as simple as coffee and toast, or a festive recipe passed down the generations of your family, I’m interested to hear it! Stating your country of origin/residence would also be nice, so that we can see if there are regional differences. Any photos you’ve taken are also most welcome. I’ll post all of your replies here, so that others might be inspired to do something new for breakfast! (If you don’t want your name shown, please let me know.)

I am from Ottawa, Canada. A tradition that I had since childhood, and my wife and I still observe to date with our children is to open the Christmas stockings first, then sit down to a big Christmas breakfast. Often we sit for close to an hour, so there is a lot of excitement building as the Stocking is really a bit of a tease knowing that many more gifts await under the tree.

Usually, our breakfast is an oven omelette, bacon, hash browns, toast, muffins, coffee, and juice. The oven omelette is made from eggs, ham, onions, green peppers, and cheese.

As with all of our holiday meals, from Turkey on Christmas Eve to a buffet for Christmas dinner (meatballs, seafood, etc), Breakfast is an important part of our celebration and is centred around a social family gathering and involves lots of food (and calories).

- Jeffery Barrett

Practicing tongue twisters at parties can be lots of fun. See who makes the fewest mistakes!

• Blitzer bobbles a billion brilliant bells.
• Bobby brings bright bells.
• Candy cane cookies keep kids coming.
• Chilly chipper children cheerfully chant.
• Comet cuddles cute Christmas kittens carefully.
• Crazy kids clamor for candy canes and Christmas cookies.
• Eleven elves licked eleven little licorice lollipops.
• Hal had happy holiday holly.
• How many deer would a reindeer reign if a reindeer could reign deer?
• Kris Kringle clapped crisply.
• Kris Kringle crunches candy canes.
• Prancer presents pumpkin pies and presents.
• Pretty packages perfectly packed in paper.
• Santa’s sack sags slightly.
• Santa secretly sips sugary syrup.
• Santa’s sleigh slides on slick snow.
• Santa stuffs Stephie’s striped stocking.
• Santa’s super sleigh slips so swiftly through the snow.
• Seven Santas sang silly songs.
• Ten tiny tin trains toot ten times.
• Ten tiny toy soldiers tinker with twenty toy trains.
• There’s chimney soot on Santa’s suit.
• Tiny Timmy trims the tall tree with tinsel.
• Two trains travel together to Toyland.

Christmas bazaars mainly consist of stalls that sell items such as homemade Christmas crafts and cards, homemade cakes and cookies, second-hand toys, charity Christmas cards, homemade jams/chutneys, used books, and antiques or bric-a-brac.

St. Mary’s, an English-speaking church that I am associated with in Rotterdam (The Netherlands), always has a Christmas bazaar in early November. I have helped on various stalls over the years, including the “Beautiful Britain”, second-hand toys, and gift jar raffle stalls. A stall that attracts a lot of visitors to this bazaar is the grocery stall, as it sells imported British goods that are not available in the shops in The Netherlands. Another stall that is always present due to the church’s connections is the “Mission to Seafarers” stall, whose proceeds support the charity of the same name.

The 2009 Christmas bazaar organised by St. Mary’s.

Another annual Christmas bazaar that I have visited several times is one held in a Norwegian church (de Noorse Kerk), also located in Rotterdam. There they always sell beautifully knitted woollen Norwegian winter wear, such as sweaters, scarves, hats, and gloves. Textile-based crafts and Norwegian groceries are amongst the other things you can buy there.

Christmas bazaars normally host a raffle, where through buying a ticket, you have the chance to win one of a selection of pretty valuable prizes. Prizes are often donated by the organisers or sponsors of the event. Example prizes are food hampers, electrical goods, dinner-for-two vouchers, and even pre-paid vacations! At the Norwegian church I mentioned above, the raffle prize was once a Norwegian fjord cruise for two! Raffles are normally drawn at the end of the event. Since participants give their name and phone number when buying a ticket, they do not have to be present at the draw in order to win.

A smaller scale raffle, where you can win something immediately, is known as a “tombola”. The tickets are normally cheaper and the prizes are therefore usually of lower value. It works like this: Prizes with numbers attached to them are laid out on a table. A player takes out a number from a large rotating drum. If their number matches that on one of the prizes, they win it! While normally there are numbers in the drum that have no corresponding prizes, sometimes the game is arranged in a way so that everyone wins something with each ticket that they buy. This encourages people to keep playing!

A “lucky dip” is very popular with children, and is therefore often seen at bazaars. Basically, a barrel or box is filled with sawdust or shredded/scrunched up paper. Mixed in are a few toys or sweets, normally wrapped with Christmas paper. For a small fee, the player shuts their eyes and uses one hand to find and grab a gift from the barrel.

There is often a Santa Claus at a Christmas bazaar. He might be roaming around ringing a bell or may be sat in a large seat so that he can have children on his lap. He may even be in a semi-closed off “grotto”. If you are lucky, he might give your child a piece of candy or present!

There is usually a refreshment area or as the British say a “tea room”, where you can sit and have a drink and some snacks. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, cakes, biscuits, scones, and mince pies are typical at British Christmas bazaars.

There might also be some music at the bazaar. At my church’s bazaar, there are normally men playing Scottish bagpipes. They stand next to the church hall’s entrance to attract and welcome customers. There are also organ recitals inside the church itself.

I think visiting a Christmas bazaar is a perfect way to start the festive season. It is a great place to meet old friends and an ideal location to start your Christmas shopping! Maybe there is one local to you that you can visit this year! Check your local newspapers and church programmes.

These stations are ideal for playing during Christmas parties because you won’t have to keep changing your tapes or CDs! Also, they provide very mixed selections of music.

Click the logos or links to listen to the radio stations.

Sky Radio – The Christmas Station

Sky Radio – The Christmas Station is one of my favorite Christmas radio stations. It is provided by one of the most popular radio stations of the Netherlands, “Sky Radio 101 FM”. This Christmas radio station is available online every year from around the beginning of October until just after Christmas.

This station plays a mixture of traditional and contemporary Christmas songs by famous international artists of the last few decades. The vast majority of the songs are in the English language. Once you have the player open, if you click “Bekijk de playlist” you will see the current playlist. Music is played non-stop apart from the odd radio jingle and a brief, approximately 1 minute long, summary (in Dutch) of the main news every hour on the hour.

Chroma Radio XMAS

Chroma Radio XMAS is an online Greek Christmas radio station. There seem to be no breaks whatsoever. There is an amazing mix of Christmas music here. While there are songs sung by famous international artists (e.g., Cliff Richard, Eric Johnson, and Barbra Streisand), there are also instrumental (e.g., Celtic) Christmas tracks.

Big R Radio Network

Big R Radio Network (based near Seattle, U.S.A.) hosts several Christmas radio stations. Click the logo on the right to go to their website or click one of the links below to listen to one of their Christmas stations.

• Rockin Christmas
• Top 40 Christmas
• Christmas Classics
• Christmas Country

AccuHolidays

AccuHolidays is part of the website AccuRadio, a multichannel Internet radio station. AccuHolidays itself features a wide selection of channels that all play Christmas music. Each channel plays a different style of Christmas music so there will definitely be something for everyone. Moreover, the site adds a new Christmas channel every day during its “Countdown to Christmastime”!

Click the logo (above right) to go to their website or click here to listen to their main Christmas channel.

In the box below, you can see the eight most recent Google News stories concerning Christmas. Note that the selection of news stories is generated automatically (using the keyword “Christmas”), and so we have no control over the content!

The news stories will appear one at a time, and will cycle every few seconds. However, you can also navigate through the news stories manually by clicking on the “Previous” and “Next” buttons. Click on the headline of a news story to read it on the website where it was originally published.

Categories include Christmas trees, Christmas stockings, nativity sets, advent calendars, holiday dinnerware, and festive attire. It is a perfect place to start your Christmas preparations!

Why not start shopping at the Christmas Corner today so that you’ll be ready in plenty of time?

As shown by the selected Amazon.com products below, there are various Christmas music CDs/DVDs and several books with the title “The Wonder of Christmas”. These products are in no way linked to this website; they just share the same name! Consider purchasing one of these as a Christmas gift.

Music

Books

To make a change from the usual printed messages in store-bought Christmas cards, consider purchasing blank Christmas cards and writing a fitting Christmas quote inside (remember to include the source of the quote). Your recipients will be touched that you have put more effort into their cards!

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.

- Laura Ingalls Wilder

At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.

- Thomas Tusser

Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.

- Calvin Coolidge

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

- Charles Dickens

My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that?

- Bob Hope

When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things – not the great occasions – give off the greatest glow of happiness.

- Bob Hope

Nothing’s as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.

- Kin Hubbard

May the spirit of Christmas bring you peace,
The gladness of Christmas give you hope,
The warmth of Christmas grant you love.

- Author Unknown

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.

- Shirley Temple

Peace on earth will come to stay,
When we live Christmas every day.

- Helen Steiner Rice

Christmas is the season when you buy this year’s gifts with next year’s money.

- Author Unknown

Please contact me if you think any of these records have since been broken or if you know of any other Christmassy records!

Largest artificial Christmas tree (Brazil)

The world’s tallest artificial Christmas tree, named the ‘Peace Tree’, measured 52 m (170.6 ft) and was covered in green PVC artificial foliage. The tree was on display in Moinhos de Vento Park, Porto Alegre, Brazil between December 1^st 2001 and January 6^th 2002. It was designed by Grupo Sonae Distribuição Brasil.

Largest Christmas tree structure (Brazil)

The world’s tallest Christmas tree structure was made entirely of lights and measured 110.11 m (361 ft 3 in). It was made up of 37,000 red-hot lights and 2,000 strobe lights. The tree was created by Energipe – Empresa Energética de Sergipe S.A, Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil on December 26^th 2007.

Largest collection of snow globes (China)

The largest collection of snow globes is owned by Wendy Suen (China). She has over 2,050 different snow globes (counted at the end of 2008), which she has been collecting since 2000. For updates, visit Wendy Suen’s Collectors’ Quest profile and Wendy Suen’s Windows Live space.

Fastest time to carve a turkey (England)

The fastest time to carve a turkey is 3 minutes and 19 seconds. This record was achieved on June 3^rd 2009 by Paul Kelly, managing director of a turkey farm near Chelmsford, Essex, UK. Paul Kelly and local butcher David Harrison competed against each other to achieve the record. The rules were as follows: Each carver had to produce at least 14 portions of turkey, 10 of which had to be breast and dark meat, two of which had to be wings and two of which had to be drumsticks. Each portion had to weigh at least 150 g (5.3 oz) and the carcass had to be left “clean”. To ensure this, Guinness World Records stated that the carcass had to weigh less than 30% of the original cooked weight.

Tallest snowman (USA)

The record for the tallest snowman is 122 feet and one inch. The snowman, which was actually a snowwoman named “Olympia”, was made in February 2008 by the residents of the ski town of Bethel in Maine, USA. Olympia weighed 13,000,000 lbs. and featured eyelashes created from discarded skis, bright red lips made from painted car tires, and arms made of 30-foot-tall spruce trees. She wore a giant red hat and a 130-foot-long scarf. She took several months (until July 2008) to completely melt away. The previous record for the tallest snowman was 113 feet and 7 inches. This snowman, named “Angus, King of the Mountain”, was built in 1999, also by the residents of Bethel, Maine! For more information visit the official Bethel Maine snowwoman website.

2009: Friday
2010: Saturday
2011: Sunday
2012 (Leap year): Tuesday
2013: Wednesday
2014: Thursday
2015: Friday
2016 (Leap year): Sunday
2017: Monday
2018: Tuesday
2019: Wednesday
2020 (Leap year): Friday
2021: Saturday
2022: Sunday
2023: Monday
2024 (Leap year): Wednesday
2025: Thursday

When Christmas Day happens to be on the weekend, a different day may be officially allocated as a public holiday, depending on where in the world you live.