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In keeping with an annual tradition on this blog (ie I did it last year), I humbly offer readers a Christmas quiz. It is unusual in that no-one is expected to know the answers. Instead, the idea is simply to see who gets closest. All the solutions are numbers.

The beauty of this kind of puzzle is that everyone has a chance to win, whatever age or festive state.

The way I do it with my family is to divide the players into two or four teams depending on the size of the party. There are 20 questions and, to make it fair, each player/team should have equal numbers of questions to answer first and last.

Good luck and Merry Christmas!

Questions:

1) We are told 10 million votes were cast in this year's X factor final. If that is right, to the nearest 10,000, how many votes did Joe McElderry receive?
2) We were warned this year that swine flu could kill as many as 65,000 people in the UK. Figures published this month on swine-related deaths across the UK totalled how many people?
3) How much has the prime minister agreed to pay back in claimed expenses?
4) Last month in London, security consultant Manjit Singh - aka Ironman - attempted to make up for his disappointment of 2007, when he failed to break the world record for pulling a double-decker bus with his ears. This time he did manage to set a new record for pulling an eight-ton double-decker with his hair. How far, in metres, did he pull it?
5) While England (brilliantly) won the Ashes series against Australia this summer, the Aussies actually scored more runs than the home side. How many more?
6) Suddenly everyone was twittering in 2009. Among the most popular twitterers was the wife of the PM, Sarah Brown. How many people had signed up to follow her tweets by mid-December?
7) While Sir Fred Goodwin was running the Royal Bank of Scotland it lost quite a lot of money. In February this year, RBS put the total losses under his stewardship at what?
8) How much did Michael Jackson's "moon walk" rhinestone glove fetch at auction last month (in dollars)?
9) The Staffordshire Hoard was found in July. How much did the British Museum say the treasure was worth?
10) Jade Goody lost her battle with cancer in February. How many extra women did the NHS say came forward for cervical screening as a result of the "Goody effect"?
11) Comedian Eddie Izzard raised £200,000 by running approximately 43 marathons in 51 days this summer. Exactly how many miles did he run altogether?
12) The US investment bank Goldman Sachs, which last year only survived with a $10bn dollar loan from US taxpayers, has put aside money for bonuses this year. How much, in dollars, does the FT think will be in the bonus pot?
13) The model and businesswoman Katie Price hoped the jungle would rehabilitate her image this winter. But when she arrived in the "I'm a Celebrity" camp, she discovered the viewing public were unforgiving. Out of 10 celebrities up for a painful Bushtucker Trial on her first show, what proportion of the votes went to Katie?
14) If Usain Bolt had been able to maintain his new world record 100m speed for a marathon, how long would it have taken him to run the distance?
15) Among the more controversial MPs' expenses claims exposed this year were those for a duck house and moat-cleaning. Adding together the cost of both, how much did the honourable members expect the taxpayer to stump up for these items?
16) This year John Terry became the highest paid Premier League footballer ever. How much does he get paid every day?
17) This year, the village of Seathwaite in the Lake District saw more rain in 24 hours than any other place in the UK since records began. In millimetres, how much rain fell?
18) This year, Google's Street View arrived in Britain. When it was launched in March, how many miles of road did the company claim the service covered?
19) Rage Against the Machine beat Joe McElderry to the Christmas number one. How many more sales did Killing in the Name achieve over The Climb?
20) Mexico City this year set a new world record for the tallest artificial Christmas tree. It is covered in 1.2 million light bulbs and 80 kilometres of cable. But, in metres, just how tall is it?

Answers:

1) 6,130,000
2) 300 exactly
3) £12,415
4) 21.2
5) 17 (Aus 2886 / Eng 2869)
6) 1,034,006
7) £24.1²ú²Ô
8) $350,000
9) £3,285,000
10) 400,000
11) 1105.62
12) $29bn
13) 84.29%
14) One hour seven minutes and 37 seconds
15) £3760 (duck house £1,645 and moat £2,115)
16) £24,286
17) 316.4
18) 22,369
19) 51,834
20) 110.35

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