In a message dated Fri, 30 Sep 2005 09:35:25 +0100 GMT Daylight Time, Ian Miller _ian.r.n.miller@btopenworld.com_ (mailto:ian.r.n.miller@btopenworld.com) writes: Christmas Day this year falls on a Sunday. My wife tells me that she had heard such a co-incidence being referred to as a "Poor Man's Christmas". The reason, apparently, was that on Sundays and Christmas Days the less well off families had a roast dinner and, if the two days are the same the family only had one. Has anyone heard of this, or something similar? It's not an explanation I have heard, and a quick Google on the phrase gives several versions. It is mainly used by the Jews as a description of Hannakah<sp?> and this appears to be partly ironic - it means Christmas lasts for eight days in a Jewish household! Before Charles Dickens invented the present version of Christmas celebrations in Pickwick Papers, employees were only allowed Christmas Day off as a holiday as one of the feast days as well as, of course, Sundays. I would think the expression was more connected with the fact that when Christmas Day fell on a Sunday the employee only got one day off instead of one for each day. But I speculate. In most cases a poor person would only have a chicken at Christmas time - unless, of course they kept the birds to eke out the family budget with eggs and for stewing the odd old bird. With wages generally being low, it was unlikely a genuinely poor man would be able to afford two of them at the same time. In fact, Sundays would normally be much like any other day with the idea of a Sunday Roast being a concept known only to richer folk. DaveD