# A Christmas Cornucopia

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![A Christmas Cornucopia](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin/mark-forsyth/a-christmas-cornucopia_978-02-4197-755-2.jpg?v=2026-04-25%2016%3A48%3A16)

- Book: [A Christmas Cornucopia](https://www.bookquiver.com/mark-forsyth/a-christmas-cornucopia) ([A Christmas Cornucopia.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/mark-forsyth/a-christmas-cornucopia.md))
- Authors: [Mark Forsyth](https://www.bookquiver.com/mark-forsyth)
- Publisher: Penguin
- Medium: ebook
- ISBN: 978-02-4197-755-2
- Published: 2016-11-03
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: E-book

## Description

For something that happens every year of our lives, we really don't know much about Christmas. We don't know that the date we celebrate was chosen by a madman, or that Christmas was first celebrated on 28 March in 243 AD - and only moved to 25 December in 354 AD. We're oblivious to the fact that the advent calendar was actually invented by a Munich housewife to stop her children pestering her for a Christmas countdown. We're unaware of the recipe that inspired the Twelve Days of Christmas. And we would never have guessed that the invention of crackers was merely a way of popularizing sweet wrappers. Luckily, like a gift from Santa himself, Mark Forsyth is here to unwrap this fundamentally funny gallimaufry of traditions and oddities, making it all finally make sense - in his wonderfully entertaining wordy way.