Millions of turkeys will be prepped, cooked and eaten today as much of the UK celebrates Christmas Day.
With the big day finally here, many of us are likely looking forward to sinking our teeth into a Christmas dinner with all the trimmings, and the turkey is often the main event. It's not a proper Christmas dinner without turkey, unless you're a vegetarian.
More than ten million turkeys are consumed each Christmas, but it hasn't always been the festive staple we know and love today.
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Here's why we eat turkey at Christmas, and when and where the tradition came from.
Before the first turkey arrived in the UK, in the mid 1500s, traditional Christmas dinners featured beef and goose. However many farmers realised eating turkey would be more practical, as cows and chickens could then be used to produce milk and eggs.
Some people think we in the UK copied the idea of eating turkey from people in North America who celebrate Thanksgiving, but this is not the case.
Henry VIII made turkeys popular, as it was after seeing the King eat it at Christmas that many other people followed suit. Henry switched his usual goose for a Norfolk Black bird, and by 1573, turkey was commonly served, before gaining even more popularity throughout England in the 17th century.
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