By TR Robertson
Christmas facts and trivia for this holiday season. These are some unusual behind the scenes Christmas and holiday season facts and trivia that puts a new twist on the holiday season.
• There are two conflicting stories on which U.S. President was the first to place a Christmas tree in the White House. Some say Pres. Franklin Pierce in 1856, others say Pres. Benjamin Harrison in 1889.
• The earliest known Christmas tree decorations were apples, nuts and dates.
• In the 18th century it was popular to decorate trees with candles.
• Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895.
• The first Christmas tree to be lit with electric lights outdoors were the pine trees at the Hotel Del Coronado in 1904.
• Pres. Calvin Coolidge started the White House tree lighting ceremony in 1923.
• Pres. Teddy Roosevelt, an environmentalist, banned White House Christmas trees in 1901.
• The Irving Berlin song, “White Christmas”, is the best-selling single of all time with an estimated 100 million sales worldwide.
• There are over 21,000 Christmas tree farms in the U.S.
• The first person said to have decorated a Christmas tree was the Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546). According to legend, he saw stars through the trees branches and tried to recreate this image.
• Approximately 30-35 million real trees are sold in the U.S. annually.
• Christmas is a contraction of Christ’s Mass, which is derived from the Old English “Cristes masse” (first recorded in 1038). The letter X in Greek is the first letter of Christ.
• The first Christmas stamp was issued in the U.S. in 1962.
• British illustrator John Callcott Horsley invented the first Christmas card in 1843.
• In 1836, Alabama became the first state in the U.S. to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
• Oklahoma became the last state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
• In June of 1970, Christmas became a federal holiday in the U.S.
• More than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent/received in the U.S.
• If you received all of the gifts from the song, “the Twelve Days of Christmas”, you would receive 364 presents.
• The song “Jingle Bells” was written by James Pierpont in 1857 and was first called “One Horse Open Sleigh”. It was originally written for Thanksgiving.
• Years ago, a traditional Christmas dinner in England included a pig head served with mustard.
• The tradition of naughty children getting a lump of coal originated in Italy.
• In Iceland, naughty children are told they will receive a rotten potato.
• In 1610, in Germany, tinsel was made of real silver.
• There are two islands named Christmas – Christmas Island in the Pacific and one in the Indian Ocean.
• There are 3 towns in the U.S. named Santa Claus – one in Georgia, one in Indiana and one in Arizona. Other Christmas themed towns are Christmas, Florida; North Pole, Alaska; and Rudolph, Wisconsin.
• In Santa Claus, Indiana, there is a Santa Claus Museum and Village, a Santa Claus Land of Lights, a Santa Claus Candy Castle and a Santa Claus Post Office.
• The Bedford Falls set for “It’s a Wonderful Life” covered 4 acres and included 75 stores and buildings, a three-block main street and 20 full grown oak trees.
• The first batch of eggnog in the U.S. was made by Capt. John Smith’s Jamestown settlement in 1607. It come from the word grog which refers to the rum used.
• “Silent Night” is the most recorded Christmas song in history with over 733 different versions copyrighted since 1978.
• The original lyrics to “Hark the Herald Angel Sings” were “Hark How the Welkin rings”. Welkin is an old English term for Heaven.
• Legend has it that “Silent Night” was written by Father Joseph Mohr in Austria who was determined to have music at his
Christmas service after his organ broke. In reality, a priest wrote it while stationed at a pilgrim church in Austria.
• “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” has a depressing back story. Songwriter James Gillespie was broke, jobless and his brother had just died. He was asked to write a Christmas song. He originally was too overcome with grief but eventually found inspiration and used the death of his brother to remember the Christmas memories they had together.
• Boston church leaders tried to have the song “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” banned in the 1950’s because they thought it promoted physical intimacy. Singer Jimmy Boyd flew to meet with them to convince them otherwise.
• The highest grossing Christmas movies of all time is Jim Carrey’s version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.
• Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You” is considered to be the most popular Christmas song at this time.
• Christmas purchases account for 1/6th of all retail sales in the U.S.
• According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are 2,106 million children under the age of 18 in the world.
If there are, on average, 2.5 children per household, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve, traveling 221 million miles. To reach all 842 million stops, Santa would need to travel between houses in 2/10,000 seconds, which means he would need to accelerate 12.19 million miles (20.5 billion meters) per second on each stop. Santa’s speed would make Flash look like he was standing still.
Hope you had fun reading these bits of fact, trivia, tall tales and folklore. From our Home to Yours – Have a great Holiday Season and a Safe and Happy New Year.
