Whether you love Christmas or hate it, celebrate it or not, you cannot deny that there is something magical about this time of year!

Christmas time provides us all with the perfect opportunity to visit family and friends, buy presents and gifts for the ones we love, eat a little too much festive food, and indulge in more Glühwein and Eggnog than would be acceptable at any other time of the year – and when you live in the northern hemisphere, small things like these make a big difference to winter!

While dreaming of being somewhere warm and exotic this Christmas time, I stumbled across a whole collection of fun and festive facts about Christmas, and as the world is going to end in just a few hours (If we are to believe in Doomsday), I thought I had better share them!

If you splashed out on some new Christmas decorations this year, you do not need to feel guilty about your spending splurge… A man from Tokyo, a Mr. Yves Piaget, spent a staggering £10.4 million on decorating his Christmas tree, with 83 pieces of jewellery.  Just imagine what’s in his Christmas crackers!

What with those mince pies, boxes of Quality Street, roasted chestnuts and mugs of sugar-laden Glühwein, it is easy to understand why we all think we put on weight over Christmas, but according to a US study, we do not put on as much as we think. Participants of the survey thought they put on at least 5lbs over the festive period, but in fact, they only gained an average of 0.8lb.  So pass the milk tray please!

It might be traditional to fill your Christmas stockings with oranges and tangerines, but if you want to get a real dose of Vitamin C this holiday season, you might want to look at your Christmas tree!  Apparently, the pine needles on our Christmas trees are a great source of Vitamin C, and if you dry and grind them, you can sprinkle them on your soup.  Not sure if this one will work so well with fake trees though…

Scientists have calculated that Santa Clause would need to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.  Well I’ve got two words for Santa – Felix Baumgartner!

If you are travelling somewhere nice to meet family and friends, we wish you safe and happy travels, and a very Merry Christmas!