You've been calling in and getting your teams in our Christmas Cracker Challenge and they will start appearing from this Monday and  then every single day throughout December.

Thanks to everyone for volunteering their teams and there's still a chance to get in on the action. So don't de-sleigh. Email  sana.mohiuddin@cht.nhs.uk

Cracker campaign organiser Sana Mohiuddin from Comms, said: " It's been really good fun seeing everyone getting in the spirit. You can just feel the fun shining through and I've loved meeting everyone."

Her visit will involve a cracker pulling and a pretend winner and loser. All will feature on a full size screensaver in December making this year's Christmas Countdown a cracker.

Did you know....

Christmas crackers are a British tradition dating back to Victorian times when in the early 1850s, London confectioner Tom Smith started adding a motto to his sugared almond bon-bons which he sold wrapped in a twisted paper package.The story goes that he was inspired to add 'bang' when he heard the crackle of a log he had just put on the fire.

He decided to make a log shaped package that would produce a surprise bang and inside would be an almond and a motto and soon the sugared almond was replaced with a small gift.

In the early 1900s that the paper crown was added. This is  thought to have originated from the Twelfth Night celebrations, when a King or Queen was appointed to overlook the proceedings.

Then, by the end of the 1930s, the love poems were replaced by jokes or limericks.

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