...It’s time to write your Christmas cards, but according to scientists you should have written AND sent them in September 

Scientists now believe the star of Bethlehem (that guided the wise men to Jesus) was actually Jupiter and Saturn coming together in the night sky. They can’t prove this but their theory adds to historical research, which states that Jesus was actually born in 7 BC – the year Emperor Augustus demanded a census.

Using astronomical data, scientists have worked out that Jupiter and Saturn also came together in 7 BC, so if Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem for the census that year, then those researching Jesus’ birth have pinpointed the date of Christmas as Tuesday 15^th September 7 BC!

Purple carrots, red Brussels sprouts, orange cauliflower – that’s the Christmas dinner almost sorted. It sounds like a dinner of the future but ‘eating your greens’ may be a thing of the past sooner than you think!

Last year, purple carrots were on sale in Sainsburys. They actually date back to more than 4000 years ago in Egyptian times! But if purple isn’t quite your colour then you can always look out for ‘rainbow’ carrots in red, yellow and white, in Tesco. They were last served hundreds of years ago until now, when American scientists have redeveloped them. While you’re at the supermarket you could also pick up an orange cauliflower or, for pudding, how about a red kiwi fruit (found growing in a remote region of China) or a red banana all the way from Ecuador?

In years to come, your Christmas dinner could be more colourful than your Christmas tree!

On the subject of food, make sure you remember to leave some out for the birds in your garden. By now, the migrating birds will be long gone but they haven’t got maps, so how do they know where they’re going?

They find their way through a combination of observing the stars, smell and sight, following other birds, using the sun for guidance and something called ‘magnetic navigation’. Birds have tiny grains of a mineral called magnetite in their heads. This mineral acts like a compass for using Earth’s magnetic field to find their way. But it must be quite complicated for migrating birds as magnetic north is actually 1600 km from the North Pole!