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Christmas Advent Calendar: December 1, 2009

How many days until Christmas - or how many sleeps? What's the difference?

"How many sleeps" sounds a bit childish but it's far less confusing than how many days.
Why?  It's the old fencepost problem - so popular in maths questions and quizzes.

Look at the timeline below for the 21st to the 25th of December.

The "sleeps" are the fenceposts; the days are the spaces in between.

Imagine it's the 21st of December...

If you are looking at the fenceposts or sleeps, then all day on the 21st of December, you can see quite clearly that there are 4 fenceposts or sleeps to pass and then it will be Christmas Day.

If you are looking at the days, it's not so clear. If you are looking at days, there are 3 full days (midnight to midnight or fencepost to fencepost) between now and Christmas Day. If it's morning, should you count the 21st as well, making 4 days until Christmas? What do you do in the afternoon? Or evening?

It's the same diagram, same problem, we're just changing the way we look at it - the fenceposts or the spaces in between.

If it doesn't fit your image to say "5 sleeps till Christmas" when you're at the office or down the pub, or if you're a shiftworker, call your fenceposts "midnights" because that's even more precise and keeps the focus firmly on the posts.

So, we changing this website today to say "sleeps" instead of "days" until Christmas. We hope that makes it clearer for you, and it will save us thinking "is that really right" every time we look at it.

or go back to the Christmas Countdown Advent Calendar 1st December - Days or Sleeps? 2nd December - Gifts - where and when? 3rd December - A Snowman and Igloo in the Hot Summer Sun! 4th December - Giving Mixed Messages for Christmas 7th December - Have your tree and eat it too! 8th December - Jigsaws - Simple Toys or Lessons in Life? 9th December - Silly Gifts for Christmas 10th December - Are Letters to Santa a Good Idea? 11th December - Getting what you ask for 12th December - No peeking 13th December - No peeking 14th December - No peeking 15th December - No peeking 16th December - No peeking 17th December - No peeking 18th December - No peeking 19th December - No peeking 20th December - No peeking 21st December - No peeking 22nd December - No peeking 23rd December - No peeking 24th December - No peeking 25th December - No peeking