Happy Christmas and New Year 2024
Our offices are closed from 1pm on 22 December 2023 and shall re-open at 9am on 2 January 2024. The Partners and staff wish you a happy and peaceful Christmas and New Year 2024.
Some interesting, perhaps lesser known ‘facts’ of Christmas:
Evergreens: The tradition of Christmas trees goes all the way back to the ancient Egyptians and Romans, who decorated with evergreens during the winter solstice to signify that spring would return. Evergreens reminded them of all the green plants that were to grow once the sun returned.
The Tree itself: Brew a steaming cup of tea when trimming your tree this year to pay homage to its origins. When Prince Albert of Germany got a tree for his new wife, Queen Victoria of England, the tradition really took off across the pond. A drawing of the couple in front of a Christmas tree first appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848. After that, more and more folks starting following suit.
Presents under the tree: You probably already knew that the idea of Santa Claus came from St. Nicholas. The saint wasn't really a bearded man who wore a red suit; that look came much later. In the fourth century, the Christian bishop gave away his large inheritance to the poor and rescued women from servitude. In Dutch, his name is Sinter Klaas, which later morphed into Santa Claus.
The original ‘Coke’ ad: Before Coca-Cola decided to use his image for advertising, Santa looked more spooky than jolly. Then, in 1931, the beverage company hired an illustrator named Haddon Sundblom to depict the jolly old man for magazine ads. Now, kids see visions of sugarplums instead of having Santa-themed nightmares.
Red-nosed commercials: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939 when the Montgomery Ward department store asked one of its copywriters to create a Christmas story for kids that the store could distribute as a promotion. In the first year alone 2.4 million copies were distributed and late in 1949 Gene Autry recorded the song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". The adorable movie featuring the island of misfit toys and Herbie the elf hit the airwaves (and our hearts) in 1964.
illegal Christmas!: In Amercia, from 1659 to 1681, anyone caught making merry in the colonies would face a fine for celebrating. The Massachusetts Bay Colony created the Penalty for Keeping Christmas. It was thought that "such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries" and were "a great dishonor of God and offense of others. The penalty for breaking the law was five shillings. By the Revolutionary War, the day had so little significance that Congress even held their first session on December 25, 1789. Christmas wasn't even proclaimed a federal holiday for almost another century, proving that the Grinch's attitude toward the holiday was alive and well long before he was.
The ‘festive’ Buckfast: Although there's no official confirmation on who invented eggnog, most historians agree that eggnog originated in medieval Britain. Eggnog was an upper class luxury since they were the only ones who had access to the milk, sherry and eggs required to create the original version. Monks in the Middle Ages added figs and eggs and called the drink ‘posset’ while the wealthy kept with the simple recipe and used it for toasts or big events.