1. Even though Santa’s reindeer have prominently male-sounding names, they shed their antlers around Christmas.This would result in reindeer being of the female gender.
2.The first artificial Christmas tree was made out of goose feathers by the Germans.
3. Every year in the United States, about three billion Christmas cards are sent out.
4. If all of the gifts in the song “Twelve days of Christmas” were added up, 364 gifts would be counted.
5. December 25th was claimed as the official birthday of Christ, by Pope Julius, although there is no evidence that Christ was born on this day.
6. The tallest Christmas tree ever cut was located at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington in the Christmas of 1950. According to the Guinness world records, the tree stood 221 feet tall.
7. Red, gold, and green have been the three traditional Christmas colors.
Red – blood of Christ
Gold – life, wealth and royalty
Green – rebirth and life of Christ.
8. The largest Christmas stocking in the world was created by the Children’s Society in London on December 14, 2007. It was equivalent to the weight of five reindeer, and held nearly 1,000 presents.
9. In the U.S., the selling of Christmas trees has existed since 1850. They grow for about fifteen years before they’re sold.
10. Common Christmas tree decorations in Poland consist of spiders or their webs. Polish legend claims that a spider once wove a blanket for baby Jesus, symbolizing goodness and prosperity.
11. 1836 is the year in which the state of Alabama was the first to treat Christmas as a holiday. On the other hand, Oklahoma was the last state to declare it a national holiday in 1907.
12. The symbol of eternal life and rebirth comes from the Evergreens, which has evolved into the Christmas tree.
13. St. Nikolas of Myra, more commonly known as Santa Claus, lived during the fourth century. He is the most relevant non-christian saint and is a patron saint of banking, pawnbroking, pirating, butchery, sailing, thievery, orphans, and royalty.
14. The Christmas stocking evolved from the tale of three sisters being too poor to afford dowry for marriage, resulting in a life of prostitution. The predecessor of Santa Claus, Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna, crept down their chimney and filled their stockings with gold coins.
15. According to legend, protestant reformer Martin Luther, not to be mistaken with Martin Luther King Jr of the civil rights movement, was moved by the stars shining between the branches of a fir tree, thus he brought it home and decorated it with candles to share it with his children. Luther was the first person to decorate a Christmas tree.
16. The first reference to a modern day Christmas tree was in Germany, 1531. Around 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the U.S. every year.
17. The abbreviation of “Xmas” comes from the Greek letter, “X,” meaning Christ. It has been around since the 1500s.
18. British illustrator John Callcott Horsley invented the first Christmas card in 1843.
19. There are 2,106,000 children under 18 in the world, averaging out to 2.5 per household. Santa would have to make a two hundred twenty one million mile trip over one night. Eight hundred forty two million stops would be made.
20. The retail sales of Christmas accounts for sixteen percent of all sales.
21.The Statue of Liberty is the world’s largest Christmas present, given to the U.S. by the French in 1886. Lady Liberty weighs 225 tons and is 152 feet tall.
22. Seven out of ten dogs will receive Christmas presents from their owners.
23. In 2010, the United Arab Emirates decorated the most expensive Christmas tree at the cost of over 11 million dollars.
24. In the U.S., there is one town by the name of North Pole, and two by the name of Santa Claus.
25. Along with Easter, Christmas day has the highest rate of Church attendance.
Sources:
http://facts.randomhistory.com/christmas-facts.html
http://www.venere.com/blog/infographics/christmas-in-the-world-2010/
http://www.christmasfacts.org/
