Christmas facts to share

All Christmas facts

A scrollable list, in no particular order.

1. 1.The tradition of decorating evergreen trees indoors began in Germany in the 16th century.
2. 2.Jingle Bells was originally written for the American holiday of Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
3. 3.Christmas was banned in England between 1647 and 1660 under Oliver Cromwell.
4. 4.The first commercial Christmas card was sold in London in 1843, the same year Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol.
5. 5.Santa Claus is based on Saint Nicholas, a fourth century bishop from what is now Turkey, known for giving secret gifts.
6. 6.The world's tallest cut Christmas tree was a 67 metre Douglas fir, displayed in Seattle in 1950.
7. 7.In Norway, families traditionally hide their brooms on Christmas Eve so witches cannot steal them.
8. 8.The poinsettia plant is native to Mexico and was brought to the United States by diplomat Joel Roberts Poinsett in 1828.
9. 9.Around 30 to 35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States each year.
10. 10.The song Silent Night was first performed in a small church in Austria in 1818, accompanied by a guitar because the organ was broken.
11. 11.Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 as part of a Montgomery Ward department store promotion.
12. 12.The largest Christmas stocking on record measured over 51 metres long, made in Italy in 2011.
13. 13.Christmas trees grow for around 15 years before they are ready to be sold.
14. 14.In Japan, ordering fried chicken on Christmas Day became a national tradition after a marketing campaign in the 1970s.
15. 15.The word Christmas comes from the Old English Cristes maesse, meaning Christ's mass.
16. 16.The Christmas truce of 1914 saw British and German soldiers leave their trenches to share food and even play football.
17. 17.Wassailing, an old English tradition of singing to apple trees, is the ancestor of modern carol singing.
18. 18.An estimated 1.6 billion Christmas cards are sent in the United States each year.
19. 19.Mistletoe is a parasitic plant. Despite that, it has been a symbol of love and friendship for centuries.
20. 20.The first artificial Christmas trees were made in Germany using dyed goose feathers.
21. 21.In Iceland, children leave shoes on the windowsill for the thirteen Yule Lads, who leave small gifts or rotten potatoes.
22. 22.Eggnog originated in medieval Britain as a warm, spiced ale drink called posset.
23. 23.Reindeer noses really do glow pink in the cold, thanks to dense networks of blood vessels.
24. 24.The popular Christmas colours red and green come from medieval church traditions and Victorian printing.
25. 25.More than 350 million boxes of chocolates are sold in the United Kingdom each December.
26. 26.Christmas pudding was once called plum pudding, even though it has no plums in it.
27. 27.The world's largest gingerbread house was built in Texas in 2013 and covered more than 2,500 square feet.
28. 28.In Catalonia, the Caga Tió is a smiling log children feed during Advent and tap with a stick on Christmas Eve.
29. 29.King George V gave the first royal Christmas broadcast in 1932, written by author Rudyard Kipling.
30. 30.Boxing Day takes its name from the boxes of gifts and money given to servants and tradespeople the day after Christmas.
31. 31.Approximately one in three Christmas trees in Europe comes from Denmark.
32. 32.Hanging stockings began with a legend about Saint Nicholas dropping gold coins down a chimney, where they landed in stockings drying by the fire.