8 Facts About Eggnog You Didn't Know

It's that time of year when the world imbibes on the most jolly drink: eggnog. Here's what we bet you didn't nkow about the counterpart to your rum and brandy: 

1. The Huffington Post reports that more than 135 million pounds of eggnog are consumed each year. We do not want to calculate exactly how many calories come with that. 

2. Christmas Eve is National Eggnog Day. 

3. No one's exactly sure how eggnog originated, but reports say the drink is a descendent of the medeival drink "posset," a "a hot drink of sweetened and spiced milk curdled with ale or wine," as defined by Merriam-Webster. 

4. George Washington even had his own recipe for eggnog, using rye whiskey, rum, and sherry. As CNN wisely points out, "Nobody could tell a lie after having a few cups of that." 

5. Spiking eggnog was an idea born from colonial Americans, who brought the drink over from England. No surprise there. The most popular spirit to spike eggnog with was Carribean rum, because it wasn't as heavily taxed as other spirits. 

6. Eggnog was often recommended to treat diseases, such as malaria fever, from medical texts in the 1800s. Soon after, recipes began to appear in home economic texts — and even Good Housekeeping in 1893. The "colonel's recipe" published in 1893 calls for three dozen eggs, half a gallon of cream and brandy. One 1950 copy of Good Housekeeping even gives tips for an eggnog party!

7. The best eggnog quote in all cinematic history. From A Christmas Vacation, "Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?"

8. As ChicagoNow points out, there is literally eggnog everything: lip balm, saltwater taffy, and even eggnog-flavored gumballs.