I enjoy the Christmas season for several reasons, but one of my favorite traditions is sitting and staring at the Christmas Tree decorated with all the ornaments we’ve collected through the years. I like it even better with a cup of hot wassail, which reminds me that I need to add the ingredients to my grocery list.
Plugging in the Christmas Tree is the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning and unplugging it is the last thing I do each night before heading to bed. Now, I’d be lying if I said I enjoyed putting the Christmas tree up; well, I love adorning it with ornaments, but stringing the lights is the pits. Still, it’s all worth it when I get to enjoy it for weeks on end–especially when I conveniently forget to take it down until mid-January.
There are other traditions in my extended family that are questionable, like eating oyster stew on Christmas Eve. I do NOT partake in that “delicacy” but opt for the potato soup made especially for the kids. I also do not like Egg Nog; seriously, Christmas could go down as the holiday with the best and worst food choices ever.
It is always interesting to search the internet for “Twenty Interesting Things About…” posts, and Christmas was no different.
Enjoy!
Here are 20 interesting things you may, or may not know, about Christmas.
1. Christmas Day, December 25 was declared a federal holiday in the United States in 1870.
2. Americans purchase approximately 6.5 billion greeting cards each year. Annual retail sales of greeting cards are estimated between $7 and $8 billion.
3. Oyster Stew is one of the many traditional meals eaten on Christmas Eve. Did you know that Catholic Irish Settlers introduced this tradition to the United States? Following religious dietary customs to abstain from eating meat on Christmas Eve, they turned to a source rich in protein, oysters.
4. Since 1984, a group of economists have figured the actual cost to purchase everything on the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song list. In 2013, if you were to buy everything, you’d be out $114,651.17.
5. In a random sampling of 1100 adults nationwide conducted November 17-20, 2014, the average shopper planned to spend $861 on Christmas gifts (up nearly 8% from the planned spending survey in 2013).
6. While many of Santa’s reindeer seem to have male names, it appears Rudolph and HER gang are likely all gals. Why? Male reindeer shed their antlers at the end of mating season (early December) while females have theirs throughout the winter.
7. According to the 2014 Santa Index, Santa Clause would earn about $140,000 annually if he was paid for all the jobs he handles.
8. Christmas Trees began to be sold commercially in the United States in 1851 and were taken at random from the forests. Today, 25-30 million real (live) Christmas Trees are sold each year with nearly all of them coming from Christmas Tree plantations.
9. Franklin Pierce is credited with bringing the first Christmas Tree to the White House in 1853.
10. The tallest living Christmas Tree in America is the Couer D’Alene in Idaho. She stands 162 feet and as of 2013, requires 40,000 LED lights and a ten-foot star to decorate it.
11. The world’s largest Christmas stocking, measuring 106 ft 9 in long and 49 ft 1 in wide (heel to toe) was made on December 14, 2007 by the Children’s Society (UK) in London.
12. The first Christmas-theme U.S. postage stamp was issued on November 1, 1962 and featured a wreath and candles. It was released in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
13. The winter holidays (Christmas, Kwanza, and Hanukah) are the largest gift-giving holidays of all, accounting for nearly 20 percent of total annual retail sales for retailers. In 2013, buyers spent $602 billion.
14. Birds play a major role in the propagation of mistletoe by dining on the white berries in one location and then excreting or regurgitating them in another. In fact, Mistletoe (Viscum album) is from the Anglo-Saxon word misteltan, which means “little dung twig.”
15. The first artificial Christmas trees came from Germany in the 19th century. The earliest were wooden, tree-shaped pyramids or feather trees made using goose feathers that were dyed green.
16. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby is not only the best-selling Christmas/holiday single in the United States, but also the best-selling single of all time, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide.
17. Alabama was the first state in the United States to officially recognize Christmas in 1836.
18. In 1907, Oklahoma was the last state in the United States to officially recognize Christmas.
19. Christmas Trees are grown in all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska.
20. The most popular (wonderfully far-fetched) legend of the Christmas Stocking involves a widowed man and his three beautiful girls. He was having a rough time making ends meet and he worried he could provide no dowry for his girls. St. Nicholas, while wandering through the town, overheard the family’s difficulties and snuck down the chimney, placing gold coins in the girls’ recently laundered stockings that were hanging to dry.
What are your most favorite Christmas Traditions? Singing Christmas Carols? Shopping for friends and family? Decorating sugar cookies? Reading the Christmas passages in the Bible?
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families to live, love and learn. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods where she currently home schools two of her three kids.