We hope you are ready for some festive record-breaking, because Joel Strasser has done it again!
The American record holder has broken another festive record, achieving the astounding total of 187 candy canes in a beard.
“I had to leave the candy canes in the wrapper because they are so brittle that they would just snap,” Joel said about his attempt.
"This is one I've had on my radar for a while but I wanted to wait until the right moment, this Christmas season," the The Amazing Race finalist declared. "And it feels awesome to know I'm the best in the world at holding candy canes in my beard."
Last year, Joel showcased once again his passion for Christmas: he smashed his own record for the most beard baubles in a beard by adorning his face with the incredible number of 710 Christmas baubles.
That surpassed his previous result as, back at the beginning of December 2022, he achieved the same record with a total of 686 baubles.
Colourful and jolly, Joel is a master of "beardaments": clip-on facial hair accessories to celebrate Christmas with a twist.
Baubles and fairy lights are the most common beardaments, but all the Christmas lovers out there can also experiment with temporary beard dyes and glitters.
Although Joel hones his beard-decorating skills with every passing year and every new attempt, the process of separating the beard's sections and attaching all the festive decorations is far from quick and painless.
Last year, in total, it took Joel two and a half hours to secure the over-700 baubles to his face.
Removing them took another painful hour.
The laborious process to break the record was enough for Joel, who decided to limit the Christmas decorations to his beard.
It’s tedious enough sticking over 700 of them in my beard. I don’t want to take the time to stick them all in the tree and remove them later! - Joel
The jolly facial decorations picked up traction and started becoming an internet trend in 2019: Joel has ornated his beard and smashed records ever since.
“December of 2019 was the first time I stuck an ornament in my beard and the first time I broke the record,” said Joel.
Ever since then, I’ve re-broken my own record every Christmas as I’ve improved my beard bauble technique. - Joel
In the past years, Joel has racked up multiple Guinness World Records titles thanks to his beard.
Some of his records include:
- most forks in a beard (126)
- most chopsticks in a beard (520)
- most paper straws in a beard (534)
"I also love Christmas cookies, but that sounds like a big crummy mess!" Joel said. "Maybe I could stick a string of popcorn in my beard!"
Largest gathering of Santas
A whopping amount of 18,112 people assembled for a festive record, achieving the largest gathering of Santa Claus EVER.
The massive gathering took place in India in 2014, and it was organized for the cultural festival Buon Natale.
To this day, almost a decade later, the record still remains unbeaten.
Over 18,000 people wearing Santa costumes joined the jolly event organized by Thrissur Citizenry & Thrissur Archdiocese (India) on the occasion of the annual Buon Natale festival, an occasion to celebrate Christmas and the holiday spirit which was then celebrating its second edition.
Buon Natale was first organized in 2013 in the premises of Thrissur city, in the state of Kerala, and reunites several people from different churches. It also features a procession starting from the local St. Thomas College.
In 2022, Buon Natale celebrated its 10th edition.
In 2015, gift retailer RedBalloon organised a one-of-a-kind festive gathering: the largest surfing lesson invited everyone to dress up as Santa Claus.
A total of 320 Aussie surfers got into the festive spirit and showed up with beards and Santa hats.
They all took part in a 30-minute masterclass on Bondi Beach, Australia, riding waves in place of the traditional Christmas sleigh.
Most tricks by a cow
On a snowy day, a very talented cow broke an adorable record.
Ghost, a four-year-old Charolais cow from Nebraska, USA, was rocking a festive Santa hat as she set the record for the most tricks performed by a cow in one minute: a total of 10 tricks in only 60 seconds.
“I knew Ghost was special from the very first moment,” her owner and trainer Megan Reimann told Guinness World Records.
Ghost is continuously learning new tricks, and other cows would “gather to help” as Ghost and Megan prepared to tackle the record.
However, on the day of their official attempt, snow got in the way of Ghost and Megan’s ambitious plan.
Nebraska had experienced one of its snowiest winters and Megan would later report that “there was no place to work that wasn’t brown and muddy.”
Ghost wasn’t discouraged by the cold and the snow on the day of the attempt – she was, however, a bit nervous due to the audience of unknown people present to witness and measure the record.
On the second try, Ghost performed all the tricks perfectly and earned herself the certificate and plenty of cuddles.
During her legen-dairy attempt, Ghost was asked to perform these tricks in 60 seconds:
- Stay in place
- Come when called
- Self-roping
- Spin
- Bow
- Stand on a pedestal
- Fist bump/leg lift
- Bell touch
- Kiss
- Head nod
Without a doubt, that marked a very a-moo-zing winter for Ghost and her proud owners!
Longest chain of sleds
In 2017, Austria’s Wildkogel Arena Neukirchen ski resort smashed the record for the longest chain of selds.
Oberpinzgauer Fremdenverkehrsförderungs (Bramberg Tourist Office) and Oberpinzgauer Fremdenverkehrsförderungs (Wildkogel Mountain Railways) organized a record-breaking day, with the attempt followed by other fun in-the-snow activities for the day.
Needless to say, they slayed (or perhaps sleigh-ed) the competition.
Thanks to the efforts of over 20 people working for months, the mass participation even racked up an impressive 508 sleds. That is over 400 toboggans over the minimum requirement to set the record: "only" 50 units.
The assemblage created a 750-metre-long single-file chain, which travelled down a slope covered in fresh snow.
The chain was ushered by Austrian luge double world champion Lea Geiger.
Among other enthusiastic participants sliding down the snow-covered mountain, Hannes Enzinger, Mayor of the city of Bramberg, was also in attendance.
"The organizational effort was worthwhile. We are proud and delighted,” reported the organizers.
The event took place at the resort in Bramberg, a true winter wonderland.
Everyone was thrilled with the result and excited about having conquered the coveted Guinness World Records certificate.
They surely know how to sleigh Christmas!
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