YULETIDE BRIEFS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17223, 14 December 1923, Page 1 (Supplement)

YULETIDE BRIEFS.

Thirteen different sorts of holly are grown in Europe. England exports two hundred tons of plum-pudding every year. Christmas Day among Armenians is celebrated on January 18 Mince-pie was known originally as “ shred ” pie. and was a savoury rather than a sweetAt one time Gloucester used to make a Christmas present of a lam prev-pie to the Prince of - Wales. Wearing new shoes on Christmas Dav is considered unlucky m Herefordshire and Worcestershire. The Christmas of 1800 was the coldest ever experienced in Britain. Tn Hyde Park the thermometer was 17 degree.- below freezing point. At Nottingham there were forty-five degrees of frost. . Raisins are dried grapes. The best are sun-dried, but some are dried in

ovens. Spain. Turkey and Italy produce most raisins. AJuscate’ls are the very finest raisins-—actually being the - muscatel grape dried. W hetlier Queen Alexandra is at Sandringham.or in London, she sets up a tree at Christmas, in her gardens, Hnd hangs it with pieces of sugar, raisins, carrot, and suet for the birds to peck at. Also, she doesn’t forget the good old Danish custom of putting a wreath ot wheat above her garden door—again for the birds’ delight Her thoughtfulness for animals and birds is wonderful- - always. Cloves come from the French ” clou ” (a carpenter s nail) which, they resemble in shape. They are. however, the flower-buds of a small ever-green called the “ caryophilus Aroraaticus.” After twelve years, one of these trees will yield anything from five to sixty pounds of cloves yearly, and as a single stem may live for 150 years, the output in time becomes almost incredible.