Sideswipe: December 22: Merry workplace Christmas

Very festive.

Very festive.

The first true influencer – Queen Victoria

She is the reason that brides wear white at their weddings, how anaesthesia became popular for childbirth and why we eat chicken for dinner. So it’s not that difficult to believe that she made family Christmas trees a thing. As with most of the secular parts of our Christmas celebrations, bringing evergreens inside was an ancient way to celebrate midwinter, specifically the solstice. The tree was incorporated into the Christian feast early, but not universally. German Protestants took it up as a backlash against Catholicism after the Reformation, and then Christmas trees were later rejected by Puritans. But the Christmas tree only really took off as a universal symbol of the holiday after illustrations of Queen Victoria’s tree were published in 1848.

How to mess with your sons at Christmas

Time-saver.

Bad fiction awards

The annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest calls for entrants to “compose opening sentences to the worst of all possible novels”. This was a runner-up in the Adventure category: “As he hacked through the dense undergrowth and tangled bushes in search of the marauding big cat, Desmond heard something rustling in the vegetation behind him, so he turned around, brandishing his machete, only to find Susan with a mug of tea telling him dinner would be in half an hour.” (Vivien Doyle, Buxton, Derbyshire, UK)

Did you know?

Sesame Street’s “Pinball Countdown” song (you know ... “One two three four five ... six seven eight nine ten ... eleven twelve” was sung by The Pointer Sisters.