Want to know some fun and interesting things about Christmas? Check out the facts below!
§ Christmas is an annual Christian holiday held on December 25th celebrating the birth of Jesus.
Christmas trees are also known as the Yule-tree.
§ Christmas trees are evergreen trees, usually either a fir tree, pine tree or spruce tree.
§ It is believed that decorating Christmas trees originated in 16th century Germany when Christians would bring decorated trees into their homes.
§ Some people say the Christmas season officially begins when Santa arrives at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. § Did you ever wonder where X-Mas came from? X means Christ in Greek so to shorten the word Christmas we sometimes use X-Mas.
§ In 1836 Alabama became the first state in the US to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
§ Oklahoma became the last state to declare Christmas a legal holiday in 1907.
§ In June of 1970 Christmas became a federal holiday in the US.
§ Christmas trees were first decorated with foods such as apples, nuts and dates.
§ In the 18th century Christmas trees began being decorated with candles.
§ Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895.§ Did you know that giving presents were once banned by the Catholic Church? It was believed that gift giving was connected to paganism.
§ If you received all the gifts from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you would have 364 presents.
§ Do you know why we say the Twelve Days of Christmas? It is believed that it took the 3 kings 12 days to find baby Jesus.
§ The song Jingle Bells was written by James Pierpont in 1857. It was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh” and was made for Thanksgiving.
§ Many years ago in England a traditional Christmas dinner included a pig head served with mustard.
§ The tradition of naughty children getting a lump of coal in their stocking comes from Italy.
§ Did you know that tinsel was once made of real silver! It was invented in Germany in 1610.
§ There are two islands named Christmas. Christmas Island (formerly Kiritimati) in the Pacific Ocean and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.
§ The tallest Christmas tree ever displayed was in Seattle Washington in 1950. The Christmas tree was 221 feet tall!
§ It is said that candy canes were invented by a candy maker in Indiana. He wanted to use them to spread the name Jesus around the world.
§ Santa Claus is also known as St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost and Kris Kringle.
§ Santa is believed to bring gifts to good girls and boys on the night before Christmas (December 24th).
§ There are three towns in the Us that are named Santa Claus. One in Georgia, one in Arizona, and one in Indiana.
§ Santa Claus eight reindeer are named: Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donder, Blitzen.
