Christmas curiosities: Fun festive facts from around the world

Maddie Moate: There are so many Christmas traditions around the world that feel quirky and curious to us but will be completely normal for others. For example, it might surprise you to learn that some families in central Europe choose to plop a fish in their bathtub in the run-up to Christmas Eve! The Christmas carp is usually caught fresh from a river or a carp farm. But before it can be fried in breadcrumbs and served with soup and potato salad, it needs to swim about in the family bathtub for a couple of days to give it a clean so it tastes less muddy.

Another favourite of mine is that in Catalonia, Spain, the Nativity scene has an extra character hidden among the traditional figures. If you look closely, you’ll spot a man crouching down to do a poo! This man is called the caganer, which means "defecator"! It might seem strange to have a pooping man in the Nativity scene, but for Catalonians the caganer is a bit of good fun and a tradition that has been around for years. 

I'm a big fan of the 13 Yule Lads from Iceland. The Yule Lads are a cheeky family of troll-like brothers who live in the mountains, but on the 13 nights leading up to Christmas, they come into town one by one to visit children while they sleep.

Every night, Icelandic children will place a shoe in their bedroom window. If they've been good that day, then one of the Yule Lads will fill their shoe with sweets and small gifts. However, if they’ve been naughty, the Yule Lad will leave them a rotten potato! The Yule Lads are a crazy bunch of characters and they each have their tricks, including the "Sausage Snatcher" and the "Yoghurt Gobbler". (Yep, you guessed it—they like to pinch sausages and yoghurt!) But Icelandic children know how to handle these mischief-makers. On the night the Yoghurt Gobbler is due to arrive, children might leave a yoghurt pot in their shoe to keep him happy—and make sure they don’t wake up to a rotten potato!

The story behind Christmas crackers is a great one. It all started in the Victorian times when Tom Smith, a London-based sweet shop owner, travelled to Paris in search of inspiration. Ooh, la la! Here, Tom discovered the French bon bon, a sugared almond wrapped in a twist of tissue paper. He started selling them in his London shop, and they soon became a popular Christmas treat.

Then one day, the story goes, Tom was sitting by a fire listening to the crackling logs and had a brilliant idea. He bought some tiny explosive "snaps" from a fireworks company and hid them inside his sweet wrappers. He renamed the sweets "Bangs of Expectation", and the first Christmas cracker was born! Tom Smith’s cracker business was (and still is) a huge success. The company even makes special crackers for the Royal Family. 

Nowadays pantomime is a very British tradition with lots of slapstick comedy, terrible puns, musical numbers and over-the-top costumes, but the art form was originally inspired by an Italian theatre style called "Commedia dell'Arte". It used a cast of mischievous commedia characters that became very popular and soon made their way onto London stages. It was these English comedy plays that became the early versions of panto.

But, it wasn’t until the Victorian times that audience participation and ridiculous comedy scenes became part of the show. Over the years, the productions became more and more over-the-top featuring stunning costumes, huge casts and special effects. I'm currently in a production of "The All New Adventures of Peter Pan", playing Tinkerbell. We have characters flying across the stage, a revolving pirate ship, a water fight, and an animatronic dinosaur!

I think it's interesting that not all holly leaves are spiky. Quite often holly leaves that grow high up are often smooth and completely prick-less! Scientists think it's because a holly tree only needs its spiky defence weapons on the leaves where wild animals like deer and goats might nibble them. Leaves that are high up are already out of harm's way, so they don’t need the same spiky tools. 

I love gifting books at Christmas and I couldn't find a non-fiction book for children that offered Christmas-themed experiments or wintery seasonal science. So, I decided to write one!

The book is a lot more than just experiments now though, I'm so glad I also had the opportunity to explore our traditions and find out why we do some of the curious things we do at Christmas time.

Christmas is a great time to be curious as we introduce lots of things into our lives that we can observe and question. The weather is colder, we decorate our homes differently, we eat new things and try unique activities, so it's a great time to ask why and be curious. But we can keep that childlike curiosity all year round. I think it helps us to stay present, appreciate the world we live in and ultimately understand our surroundings and each other better.

A Very Curious Christmas by Maddie Moate (Puffin, £14.99) is available to buy now