The humble turkey…

It’s officially December which means that it’s that time of year again – yes, Christmas is nearly here!! I love Christmas, I really do, and the day itself always is, and always has been, the best day of the year (and my word is final, ok?).

What’s the best part of Christmas Day I hear you ask? Well, controversially it’s not opening presents from loved ones, it’s actually cooking Christmas dinner for everyone! No really, cooking the Xmas lunch is the highlight of my day (ok, maybe second only to Dr Who – obviously) but I really do enjoy slaving over a hot stove on this one very special day – and this is where my pal, the turkey, comes in to play.

What do we really know about our turkey Xmas lunch? It might be a little-known fact, but the humble turkey is a relative newcomer to the Christmas luncheon. Up until the 1950’s, around the time when turkeys became more readily available in the UK, goose was the Great British publics bird of choice on Christmas day.

In fact, up until this point, turkey was a luxury enjoyed only by royalty, Henry VIII being the first English King to enjoy eating the bird at Christmas. Prior to this, Christmas fare included roast swan, pheasant and even peacock!

Well fast forward a few hundred years and the UK is now officially turkey mad. Last year alone we consumed approximately 10 million turkeys with around 76% of families serving it up as their bird of choice on Christmas day.

And if you thought that was a lot of turkey, then check out where America stands in the festive bird eating-stakes – the Thanksgiving holiday sees 46 million turkeys being eaten in the US and 22 million more eaten at Christmas – now that is A LOT of turkey!

So what does this have to do with a creative design agency such as Pistachio? Well, located where we are in the quaint setting of Marlow, we are just down the road from the famed, and recent stars of Saturday Morning Kitchen, Copas Turkeys.

*disclaimer – other well-known turkey providers are available.

Our dear neighbours Copas got us thinking about how us Brits choose our turkey- there are of course a plethora of places to go to buy one; supermarkets, butchers, farms, amazon (probably). Plus, there are so many different variations of bird; frozen, crowned, free-range, organic, gender-fluid – the list goes on and on. But the main decision is – how big should your bird be? Will it be big enough to feed you, the kids and Aunt Bertha’s dachshund? Will there be waste that could have gone to those more in need? Will Jesus be mad at you if there is?

This choice alone can add so much extra stress to your Christmas day preparations – which is not what we want over the festive break, ‘tis the season after all!

So, with this in mind, I have taken it upon myself to let our blog readers in on a little secret… the TURKEY CALCULATOR!

Having worked with Copas for a few years, helping them to develop their website and online sales, we recently developed a feature on the site so named: the turkey calculator. This superb feat of engineering 😉 takes the hassle out of shopping for your Christmas bird by calculating the exact size and type of bird that works best for your requirements. Don’t believe us? Try it out for yourself here here.

You can thank me later – happy roasting!

Want to see what else we can whip up when we’re not calculating turkeys? Take a look at some of the design, digital and strategic campaigns we’ve been creating for our lovely clients throughout Berkshire and beyond!