12 Facts About Christmas Everyone Should Know
From Santa Claus’s real name, Christmas trees’ origin, and what’s the meaning of lights, decorations, mistletoe, food, and presents
The United States has been a multicultural melting pot of various immigrant groups through the centuries. Hence, our different family Christmas rituals.
Whether it is Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Navidad, or Natividad, at this moment, your family and friends are ready to celebrate and exchange gifts and memories, surrounded by lighted trees, decorations, music, presents, and lots and lots of food.
Since the December 25 event was formerly a pagan rite celebration associated with the winter solstice, calling it a ritual makes perfect sense.
Therefore, I say, “Happy Holidays,” “Hyvää Joulua!” to my Finnish readers, “Gledelig Jul!” to those in Norway, or “Feliz Navidad!” to my Latin and Spanish friends.
Let the festivities begin, and prepare to binge on food while watching the classics Miracle on 34th Street, Home Alone, and A Christmas Carol. Or, if you are not into those movies, there is always The Grinch, Die Hard, and Krampus.
Meanwhile, here are twelve facts to test your Christmas knowledge and play some trivia or tequila shot game.
1 — Do you know the origin of the Jingle Bells song?
Although this song may seem associated with Christmas, James Lord Pierpont composed and released it in 1857 with the intention of having people sing it during Thanksgiving. Its original title was “One Horse Open Sleigh.” When the song was reissued in 1859, the title was altered to “Jingle Bells.” On December 16, 1965, it was the first song to be played in space, and it now holds the Guinness World Record.
2 — Why did people hang stockings?
According to the Smithsonian, one of the most well-known stories about hanging stockings is that St. Nicholas, while traveling through a village, heard a tale about a poor widower who was short on cash and couldn’t afford to marry off his three daughters. St. Nick wanted to assist but was worried they would reject any charity, so he crawled down the chimney of the man’s home and put gold coins in the daughters’ stockings left hanging by the fire.
3 — Where does the Mistletoe tradition come from?
Remember this the next time you’re hoping for a Christmas kiss beneath one: Druids saw it as a fertility emblem and an aphrodisiac. Mistletoe was utilized by the Greeks to treat a wide range of ailments, from spleen problems to menstrual pains, and by the Romans to treat epilepsy, poisoning, and ulcers.
Frigg, the Scandinavian mythology’s goddess of love, declared it a symbol of love and vowed to plant a kiss on all those who passed beneath it.
But before kissing, consider that the word mistletoe comes from the Anglo-Saxon words “mistel” and “tel,” which translate into “dung and stick.”
4 — What is the origin of Poinsettias?
Nowadays, the use of poinsettias in your home could be considered a cultural appropriation unless you have a Mexican background. Poinsettias are native to southern Mexico. In 1828, a botanist and the first U.S. Minister to Mexico, Joel R. Poinsett, brought a “Noche Buena” flower to America from the town of Taxco down south and gave his name to the green and red plants.
They began selling them in 1870, and today, they rank among the most popular flowers in the United States, along with daisies, orchids, and roses. Millions of plants are grown of poinsettias every year, and they have come to represent Christmas everywhere.
5 — Did you know you can follow Santa’s journey worldwide on Christmas?
In 1955, a small child tried to contact Santa Claus. However, it unintentionally reached the unlisted number of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center.
The commander on duty, Colonel Harry Shoup, decided to work a little Christmas magic, telling the youngster that CONAD would ensure his safety returning from the North Pole. Today, every youngster can follow Santa’s sled at the Official NORAD Tracks Santa webpage.
6 — How did the Christmas Tree tradition start?
Did you know that Christmas trees were rejected by most Americans as early as the 1840s because they were viewed as pagan symbols? Every year, thousands of fake and real trees are purchased globally.
In the sixteenth century, Germans began bringing decorated trees into their homes. Germans migrated to Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and made this custom to the United States. Christmas trees are grown on over 350,000 acres of American land in all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska.
These days, you can find one in practically every house. Still, the most well-known ones are located at the White House, Lafayette Galleries (FRA), La Porte de Brandebourg (GER), La Puerta del Sol (SPA), Trafalgar Square (G.B.), and, of course, Rockefeller Center (N.Y.). But did you know that in 1931, 30 Rock hosted its very first Christmas tree? At the center’s building site, workers set up a 20-foot tree full of decorations at the construction’s site.
This year, after the holidays, before throwing your Christmas tree, consider donating it to a zoo or the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald so that they can feed it to a hungry elephant as a seasonal snack.
7 — What do people hang on their trees?
Almost every Christmas tree is different since every home has a different ornament.
Perhaps you’ll put a glass pickle on your Christmas tree if you are German by birth. People hang Mango trees in India, heart-shaped baskets full of fruits and nuts in Norway, ships in Greece, and sculpted radishes in Oaxaca, or traditional clay ornaments in Mexico.
The most outrageous is “El Caganer,” or “The Pooper.” which symbolizes fertility and good fortune for the upcoming year and features a tiny figurine of a boy taking a dump. But the Guinness World Record’s largest Christmas snowflake ornament is a 10 feet and 5 inch tall Christmas snowflake ornament from Universal Studios Japan.
If you support Ukraine this time, perhaps add a little spiderweb and a spider from your Halloween decorations, remembering Ukranine’s story about the critters decorating the tree of a poor widow and her children.
8 — How well do you know Santa Claus?
Either Mikulás In Hungary, Papai Noel in Brazil, Hoteiosho in Japan, and Père Noël in France. This jolly old man has different festive names around the world.
Santa Claus goes by several names in the U.S.: Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, or just plain Santa. Without the pen of Washington Irving, the creator of Sleepy Hollow, these names would signify absolutely nothing.
Aside from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the author’s Christmas essays are among his most important contributions to American folklore. We owe them for introducing readers to customs like caroling on doorsteps, mistletoe, and the Yule log, but especially for his advocacy of St. Nicholas, the cherished figure who is now known as Santa Claus.
Santa wore a variety of colors before the 1870s, including brown, white, green, tan, and blue. Thomas Nast, a caricaturist for Harper’s Bazaar, is credited for publishing the red-suited Santa, and Coca-Cola is responsible for the color red we are all familiar with today.
9 — Where do the Christmas tree lights originate?
During the 17th century in Germany, people attached candles as Christmas lights. It was not until 1880 that Thomas Edison and his friend Edward H. Johnson invented the first strand of electric lights.
According to the Library of Congress, Johnson wrapped a strand of hand-wired red, white, and blue bulbs around a Christmas tree at Edison Illumination Company in 1882. Nothing compared with the 50,000 lights around Rockefeller Center’s Christmas tree or the 8.5 million lights hanging across Disney World’s theme parks and hotels.
10 — Here are some facts about presents.
People adore presents; the average American family spends thousands of dollars on Christmas gifts each year, and users slip their Visa cards more than 6,000 times per minute. Bicycle, a playing card firm, created playing cards with secret escape routes during World War II.
There are also the three billion Christmas cards that are sent annually. The twenty-eight sets of LEGOS sold every second throughout the holiday season, or even part of the 1.76 billion candy canes made. According to a projection released by the National Retail Federation, Christmas spending is predicted to hit record highs in November and December and increase by 3% to 4% in 2022, reaching $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion.
11 —What are some curious facts about Christmas food?
Can you picture a six- or seven-hour Christmas feast that included seven different courses? At least, that’s what some Italian families do. I suppose they would rather eat than talk politics.
Millions of people consume 5,000 to 7,000 calories around Christmas if you add up the calories from turkey, dressing, mashed and sweet potatoes, various sides, pies, buns, and drinks. On the other hand, Japanese families spend Christmas Eve dining at KFC, where sometimes they reserve their seats two months in advance.
12 — Here are other random facts about Christmas.
- Millions of children worldwide write letters to Santa Claus, and if the zip code is HOH OHO (“Ho, Ho, Ho”), the letters travel to a Canadian Post Office.
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens was composed in about six weeks, and now over 300 different A Christmas Carol movies, theater, cartoons, television, books, and radio adaptations are listed on the internet, some of which have unconventional plots, including one with Batman.
- The American department retailer Montgomery Ward made Rudolph the Reindeer in 1939 to entice kids to purchase Christmas coloring books. However, they didn’t want him to seem like a reformed alcoholic, so they made sure his nose wasn’t red.
Take Away
No matter what your family traditions, background, religion, or special plans are, I hope you have a happy holiday, and may peace come to those parts of the world in war at this moment.
Also, if you are a Maria Carey fan, don’t forget to hear her “All I Want for Christmas is You” song since it is now the second most-played Christmas hit, according to Spotify, trailing Brenda Lee’s “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
“Christmas is a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, and the genial flame of charity in the heart.” — Washington Irvin
© Copyright Jose Luis Ontanon, 2023