With Christmas just around the corner, there’s only one thing a typical British household will spend more on than gifts and that’s food. Mince pies, Christmas pudding and roast turkeys are as much a part of the festive season as Father Christmas and the Queen’s speech, so we thought we’d trawl the internet for some festive facts about food…

1. £23,500 is the cost of the world’s most expensive Christmas Pudding. The Most Precious Christmas Pudding, created by former Savoy Hotel pastry chef Martin Chiffers, contains a bottle of Duret 1810 Cognac worth £10,890 and a rare Henry VI Salut d’Or gold coin worth £7,500.
2. Although you’d be lucky to afford a bite out of the world’s most expensive Christmas pudding for £174, that’s the amount the average UK household will spend on food over the festive season.
3. With turkey still the most popular meat on the Christmas Day menu, we Brits get through 10 million turkeys over the Christmas period.
4. Turkeys originate from Mexico and are widely believed to have been introduced to the UK by Yorkshire navigator William Strickland in 1526. In fact, William Strickland eventually settled in Wintringham, just up the road from Bannisters’ Farm, and was buried there after he died in 1598!
5. When it comes to Christmas dinner accompaniments, the most popular vegetables are roast potatoes, featuring on 85% of UK plates, followed by carrots (81%) and Brussel sprouts (67%).
6. The UK produces 82,000 tonnes of sprouts each year, with most of them eaten in the UK!
7. Which makes this next figure seem odd. Apparently 50% of us carry a gene which makes us dislike the taste of sprouts…
8. Christmas certainly is the season of excess, with the average Brit consuming 6000 calories on the big day. That’s three times the recommended daily calorie intake for a woman (2000 Kcal) and almost two-and-a-half times the recommended daily calorie intake for a man (2500 Kcal). Apparently it’s the equivalent of eating 23 hamburgers!
9. But that doesn’t stop us from creating a lot of waste too. Over the Christmas period we Brits waste the equivalent of 2 million turkeys, 5 million Christmas puddings and 74 million mince pies. What would Father Christmas say?
10. Another popular sweet treat at Christmas is, of course, the Christmas pudding, but it hasn’t always been an entirely sweet dish. Apparently the fruity pud originated in the 14th Century as ‘porridge’ of beef, mutton, raisins, currants, prunes, wine and mixed spices.

Sources:

http://home.bt.com/lifestyle/christmas/the-worlds-most-expensive-christmas-8-trimmings-that-cost-thousands-11364028894609

http://www.britishturkey.co.uk/facts-and-figures/turkey-history-and-other-facts.html

http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/541830/7-shocking-facts-that-you-didnt-know-about-your-christmas-dinner

http://www.thefactsite.com/2014/12/christmas-food-facts-infographic.html

http://www.britishturkey.co.uk/facts-and-figures/christmas-infographic.pdf

https://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/12/03/british-households-plan-spend-821-christmas-2014/

http://primaryfacts.com/3173/brussels-sprouts-facts-and-information/