Fun and Interesting Things about Christmas!

• Christmas is an annual Christian holiday held on December 25th celebrating the birth of Jesus.




• Christmas trees are also known as the Yule-tree.




• Christmas trees are evergreen trees, usually either a fir tree, pine tree or spruce tree.




• It is believed that decorating Christmas trees originated in 16th century Germany when Christians would bring decorated trees into their homes.




• Some people say the Christmas season officially begins when Santa arrives at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade.




• Did you ever wonder where X-Mas came from? X means Christ in Greek so to shorten the word Christmas we sometimes use X-Mas.




• In 1836 Alabama became the first state in the US to declare Christmas a legal holiday.




• Oklahoma became the last state to declare Christmas a legal holiday in 1907.




• In June of 1870 Christmas became a federal holiday in the US.




• Christmas trees were first decorated with foods such as apples, nuts and dates.

• In the 18th century Christmas trees began being decorated with candles.

• Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in 1895.




• Did you know that giving presents were once banned by the Catholic Church. It was believed that gift giving was connected to paganism.




• If you received all the gifts from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you would have 364 presents.




• Do you know why we say the Twelve Days of Christmas? It is believed that it took the 3 kings 12 days to find baby Jesus.




• The song Jingle Bells was written by James Pierpont in 1857. It was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh” and was made for Thanksgiving.




• Many years ago in England a traditional Christmas dinner included a pig head served with mustard.




• The tradition of naughty children getting a lump of coal in their stocking comes from Italy.




• Did you know that tinsel was once made of real silver! It was invented in Germany in 1610.




• There are two islands named Christmas. Christmas Island (formerly Kiritimati) in the Pacific Ocean and Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.




• The tallest Christmas tree ever displayed was in Seattle Washington in 1950. The Christmas tree was 221 feet tall!




• It is said that candy canes were invented by a candy maker in Indiana. He wanted to use them to spread the name Jesus around the world.




• Santa Claus is also known as St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost and Kris Kringle.




• Santa is believed to bring gifts to good girls and boys on the night before Christmas (December 24th).




• There are 3 towns in the Us that are named Santa Claus. One in Georgia, one in Arizona and one in Indiana.




• Santa Claus 8 eight reindeer are named: Comet, Cupid, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Donder Blitzen.

reference: http://www.kidsplayandcreate.com/fun-interesting-christmas-facts-for-kids/