Written by Linda Austin
Clarksville, TN – Ah, the Christmas tree, that evergreen beacon of holiday cheer! Did you know the first adorned tree made its festive debut in Riga, Latvia, in 1510? Talk about setting the yuletide trend!
Whether it’s Rudolph’s red nose or the mesmerizing glow of your neighbor’s over-the-top light display, Christmas is full of quirky and delightful facts that make the season all the more magical!
The Christmas Tree
1. The first decorated Christmas tree was set up in the town of Riga, Latvia, in 1510.
2. Apples were the earliest known decorations for Christmas trees. The shape of apples inspired the round glass Christmas ornaments popular today.
3. As the original Christmas ornaments, people place apples on the trees to signify the Garden of Eden.
4. Ukrainian and Poland’s common Christmas tree décor is a spider and spider webs due to the legend of a spider weaving a blanket for Baby Jesus.
5. Decorated Christmas trees indoors at home didn’t become popular until the early 19th century.
6. The first artificial tree was created and sold by a toilet brush company, Addis Brush Company, in the 1930s, using the same equipment they used to create their signature product.
7. There are approximately 15,000 decoration-related emergency room visits each holiday season.
Christmas Music
8. “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” was originally heard from servants demanding alcoholic drinks from their masters. One line says, “We won’t go until we get some, so bring some out here.”
9. The song “Jingle Bells” was originally written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
10. “Jingle Bells” was also the first song ever played in outer space on December 16th, 1965.
11. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” runs from December 25th to January 5th. They are called “Christmastide”. People used to sing the song all year long.
12. In the 12 Days song, “true love” means God, “partridge in a pear tree” is Christ, and “two turtledoves” symbolize the Old and New Testaments.
13. If you add up all the gifts from the 12 Days song, it equals 365 gifts.
14. Jewish composers have penned about half of the top 25 bestselling Christmas songs of all time, including “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Winter Wonderland,”, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire.”, “Let It Snow!”, “Silver Bells,” “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” and “White Christmas.” It’s ironic because Jewish people don’t celebrate Christmas.
15. “White Christmas,” sung by Bing Crosby, holds the record for the best-selling Christmas song. It sold over 50 million copies around the world.
Christmas Symbols
16. The first Christmas gifts ever given were gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Frankincense and Myrrh were for Mother Mary to help her heal after giving birth.
17. The Christmas colors of red and green come from the holly tree, considered a sacred plant in many ancient cultures. Green represents everlasting life, and red represents the blood of Christ.
18. The Montgomery Ward department store created Red-Nosed Reindeer as an ad campaign.
19. Santa’s classic red costume was made popular by Coca-Cola. He had an elf named “Sprite Boy” in the 1940’s ad campaign. Coca-Cola started selling Sprite in the 1960s.
20. Donner and Blitzen’s original names were Dunder and Blixem, German for Thunder and Lightning.
Christmas Traditions
21. The first Christmas happened in 336 AD in Rome. It came from a mix of Christian and pagan traditions, and people made their own traditions as Christianity spread across the globe.
22. The word Christmas means “Christ’s Message”
23. The Christmas is never mentioned in the Bible. December 25th as the official day of Christmas and all the associated customs and symbols stemmed from pagan festivals and winter solstice rituals.
24. Since the 1970s, millions of Japanese families have celebrated Christmas Day with a “Party Barrel” from Kentucky Fried Chicken each year.
25. The Ugly Christmas Sweater is a new holiday tradition, gaining popularity as a Christmas party theme. 80% of all Americans proudly own an ugly Christmas sweater. 25 to 35-year-olds are the most shameless collectors.
Christmas History
26. Stanley Weintraubin wrote in his book, “Silent Night: The Story of the World War I Christmas Truce”, told a true story about how in 1914, British and German troops stopped fighting on Christmas day, sang Christmas songs together, exchanged gifts, shared meals, and played football.
27. The majority of American Christmas traditions were adapted from German immigrants. 6 million Germans immigrated to the U.S. between 1820 to the start of World War I.
28. The Statue of Liberty was an early Christmas gift from France to the United States of America in late October 1886.
Christmas Gifts
29. The world’s largest and oldest Christmas market is the Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg, Germany. It started in 1570.
30. Three-quarters of Americans didn’t like their holiday gifts. One-third chose to re-gift, 27 percent donated to charity, and 14 percent cut their losses and selling while the item still had value.
31. It’s estimated the average American will spend $983 (2017) on holiday gifts. Applying the previous finding that 75 percent of people hate their holiday gifts, that means around $737.25 will be wasted on unwanted gifts.
Christmas Movies
32. The first Santa Claus movie was in 1898.
33. A Christmas Carol by Dickens is the most adapted story in film history, with 135 versions and……!
34. The Grinch is the highest-grossing Christmas movie ever.
35. Elf is the most popular Christmas movie, #2 Home Alone, #3 A Christmas Story and #4 It’s a Wonderful Life.
36. “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a flop at the box office and was also investigated by the FBI for promoting communist ideology.
37. The movie “A Christmas Story” is based on the book “In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash.” The book was originally one of the first short-story series published in Playboy Magazine in the 1960s.
38. DIE HARD is a Christmas Movie!!!!
Santa Claus
39. Santa Claus is 1,752 years old as of 2023, and March 15th is Santa’s birthday.
40. Santa Claus would have to travel an average speed of 5.083 million miles per hour within 24 hours to hit every household on Christmas Eve. The math is based on 2.67 children per household, with 75 million households worldwide visiting 822 homes per second…The speed of light is 671 million mph.
41. Forbes calculated Santa Claus’s net worth and concluded he would have to be worth infinity, making him the richest person in the world, fictional or otherwise.
42. There are more Santa horror films than all other famous boogeymen, like Jason Voorhees (Friday the 13th, 12 films), Freddy Krueger (A Nightmare on Elm Street, 9), and Michael Myers (Halloween, 9).
43. North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) started Santa Tracker by accident in December 1955. A typo in a local newspaper ad misdirecting children to call NORAD’s phone number. The organization has a dedicated staff to answer calls from concerned children and an official Santa tracker on its website for families to pinpoint Santa’s exact global position on Christmas Eve.
44. There is a Santa Collage, The Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School. The school has operated since 1937, teaching Santa history, proper dress, Santa sign language, toy making, and live reindeer habits.
45. 85% of American kids under 8 Years old believe in Santa.
Other Christmas Stuff
46. The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the busiest shopping days of the year, not Black Friday.
47. Christmas Dinner has three times more calories than the average dinner, and we usually eat three times more than we need to.
48. Carolers have been hated since medieval times. The original Christmas carolers were groups of drunk men going house to house, singing and waking up children. Most had rocks thrown at them.
49. Cranberry sauce is rarely eaten except on Thanksgiving and Christmas. 85% of all sales is during these holidays.
50. Poinsettias are traditional Mexican Christmas flowers.
