The reasons behind 5 popular Christmas traditions everyone takes part in

This Christmas it’s likely you’ll be adding some of these traditions into your day but do you know the reason behind them?

With this fun Christmas trivia, you can impress the guests at your dinner table this year.

From pulling Christmas crackers to why we eat turkey on Christmas, you might never have wondered where these traditions came from but it’s fascinating to find out.

Eating turkey

The price of turkeys has massively dropped since WWII due to better farming methods, which has also been a big reason as to why more and more families have adopted it as their meat of choice, reports Metro.

It has been claimed that Henry VIII was the first person in Britain to eat turkey for his Christmas meal.

Making gingerbread houses

Although Queen Elizabeth I gets credit for the early decorating of gingerbread cookies, once again, it’s the Germans who lay claim to starting the gingerbread house tradition.

And when the German Brothers Grimm wrote “Hansel and Gretel” a new holiday tradition was born.

Advent calendars

Different sources suggest the advent calendar tradition dates back to the 1850s.

Advent calendars were created by German Lutherans as a way to mark the days of the season leading up to Christmas.

Pulling Christmas crackers

Tom patented his first cracker device in 1847 – which enabled the iconic ‘pop’ sound which is meant to represent a crackling fire.

The mechanism used two narrow strips of paper layered together, with silver fulminate painted on one side and an abrasive surface on the other – when pulled, friction created a small explosion.

Elf on the shelf

The tradition of Elf on the Shelf stems from the 2005 novel of the same name by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell.

The book tells the story of how Santa Claus knows who is naughty and nice – Santa’s ‘scout elves’ hide in people’s homes to watch over events.