Have you got tickets for a panto this year? No?  After three – one, two, three…ah! Never mind, you could be in with a chance of winning yourself enough tickets to take yourself and your family and/or friends. How popular will you be over the festive season?  It’s the December Quiz. Oh no it isn’t! Oh yes it is! Oh no it isn’t! etc. etc. Enough of all that! Save yourself for the performance. Get festive with ten questions about some of our favourite pantos. With a science twist naturally. Get them all right and you’ll go into the draw for 1 of 3 £50 theatre tokens.

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Five Festive Facts

1. Santa Claus has many different names around the world including Father Christmas in the UK, Pere Noel in France, Kriss Kringle in Germany, La Befana in Italy, Julinesse in Denmark, Dedushka Moroz (meaning Grandfather Frost) in Russia and the Three Kings in Spain and Mexico.
   
   
2. The typical image we have of Santa Claus dressed in red clothes with white fur trim is thought to be from Coca-cola advertising. However, the standard Santa garb was well established by the 1920s and it wasn't until the 1930s that Coca-cola first used the Santa Claus design in their advertising. So there!
   
   
3. The 26th of December is traditionally known as St Stephen's Day, but is more commonly known as Boxing Day. The reason it was called this is either alms boxes in church were opened and the money distributed to the poor, or alternatively it was named from the practice of servants receiving boxes of gifts from their employers on this day. Boxing day is NOT named after the practice of throwing out large numbers of boxes after Christmas! Or for punching your brother because he got the best gifts!
   
   
4. English Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas between 1647 and 1660 because he believed such celebrations were immoral for the holiest day of the year. Bah humbug!
   
   
5. Christmas trees become popular in the UK from 1841 when Prince Albert erected a tree in Windsor Castle following a German tradition. Fir trees have been decorated at Christmas time in Germany since the 8th century.

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Musical fun around the dinner table and all for the price of a packet of drinking straws!

You will need:

• Drinking straws
• Scissors
• Plenty of breath
• Willing volunteers

What to do:

1. Take a drinking straw and snip off the bendy bit to make a straight straw.
2. Place your finger over the bottom end of it to prevent the air escaping. A good way is the put the straw vertically between your first and second fingers and then put your thumb up to close off the end of the straw.
3. Now here’s the tricky bit. You need to blow across the top of the straw to make a whistling sound.
4. The best way is to put the top of the straw against your bottom lip and then blow across the top of the straw.
5. When you get it right you hear a loud whistle.
6. Now cut the straw in half.
7. Repeat your whistle.
8. Did you hear that? The sound is lot higher.
9. Now make lots of straws of different lengths.
10. Give them out to your ‘orchestra’. Now it’s time to practise your party piece.  Try ‘Jingle Bells’.
11. You can be the conductor.  Use another straw as your baton. Tap tapetty tap! And take it away!

What’s going on?

When you blow across the top of the straw, you cause the air inside the straw to vibrate. This vibration causes the sound that you hear. By changing the length of the column of vibrating air, you change the sound. The longer the column of air, the lower the pitch. The shorter the column of air, the higher the pitch.

So what are you having for your Christmas dinner? Not that keen on turkey?  Let’s see what they do around the rest of the world:

• The Swedes celebrate with a smorgasbord of caviar, shellfish, cooked and raw fish.
• In Jamaica the traditional Christmas dinner is curried goat – I’ll have a leg please.
• In Italy Christmas dinner often includes 7 or more courses. No wonder Santa is so round…
• The Poles rustle up 12 vegetarian dishes on Christmas Eve for each month of the year!

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For all things Santa-ry, where else would you go but the North Pole? Have a tour round Santa’s Secret Village and visit the Reindeer Barn and the Elf’s Clubhouse. Watch out for the Disco Dancing Santa though! As seen as Strictly Come Dancing (not).

Why not take part in The Great Christmas Cracker Experiment? We can find out the best (and worst) Christmas cracker jokes.

Did you know that crackers were invented by London confectioner Tom Smith, in 1847, as a development of his bon-bon sweets, which he sold in a twist of paper?

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Remember issue no. 62?  We were giving away a pair of tickets for ‘The Polar Express 3D’ at the IMAX.   The lucky winner is Cairo Piggott of Croydon.

Well done!

So keep entering – you never know! Next time - it could be YOU...

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It was Christmas Eve at Aintree.

Conditions were good to firm, and the 2.30 race was going well. When suddenly, the leading jockey noticed a Christmas pudding flying through the air, straight at him. He ducked out the way and managed to avoid it, give or take a few specks of custard. He regained his posture and continued the race. But 30 seconds later, his head was almost knocked off by an airborne ovenready turkey. Cursing slightly under his breath, he swerved out the way, and it sailed by. He got back on track, but moments later a volley of mince pies flew towards him.
What a race. Despite being bookies favourite the jockey came in last, and stormed off to talk to the steward about it.
"I demand you do something about this," he fumed, "I was severely hampered."

How many chimneys does Father Christmas go down?
Stacks!

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