The Turkey is of course a native of North America, where it was discovered by a European (as opposed to Native Americans who must have noticed them somewhere along the way as they are hard to miss). This someone, (probably Spanish, with an iron hat) found the strange but wonderfully tasty bird circa 1520. It was brought to Europe where it became popular and was traded by Turkish merchants (hence the English noun for the big gobblers). The English then bred turkeys up round Norfolk/Suffolk way, and used to march loads of them down to London at Christmas in little leather boots. The 2 most popular breeds became the Norfolk Black and the Holland White.
Then a bit later on, the pilgrim father/mayflower people got kicked out of England for being all religious in a way that was disturbing or something, and when they got on their ships they brought these English-bred Turkeys with them, which is what they had for thanks-giving {whenever it was that this happened probably the first winter they survived I am supposing (it sounds right)}. So the Turkey has been popular in Europe since the 16th century and was re-introduced into a continent where it was already native by religious immigrants who used it to celebrate surviving a harsh winter in a foreign continent. How it ended up as the Christmas bird I have no idea, but on the subject of Christmas.
They also talked about the Roman god Mithridates, a sun god, by legend born in a stable of a virgin, attended by 3 wise men on December 25th, who was worshiped on a Sunday and it was said died to save mens souls from sin, and advocated peace, his head priest was called "Papa" and his main sanctuary was on the Vatican hill in Rome. Sound familiar?
