Christmas Holiday Trivia

Christmas trivia.  How many of these are new to you? 

• The custom of singing Christmas carols is very old - the earliest English collection was published in 1521.
• The word Christmas is Old English, a contraction of Christ's Mass.
• The first president to decorate the white house Christmas tree in the United States was Franklin Pierce.
• Germany made the first artificial Christmas trees. They were made of goose feathers and dyed green.
• Electric lights for trees were first used in 1895.
• The first Christmas cards were vintage and invented in 1843, the Victorian Era.
• Rudolph" was actually created by Montgomery Ward in the late 1930's for a holiday promotion. The rest is history.
• Jingle Bells" was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.
• If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 gifts.
• The poinsettia plant was brought into the United States from Mexico by Joel Poinsett in the early 1800's.
• Holly berries are poisonous.
• Contrary to common belief, poinsettia plants are non-toxic.
• In 1843, "A Christmas Carol" was written by Charles Dickens in just six weeks.
• The first state to recognize the Christmas holiday officially was Alabama.
• Christmas became a national holiday in America on June, 26, 1870.
• An angel told Mary she was going to have a baby.
• Clearing up a common misconception, in Greek, X means Christ. That is where the word "X-Mas" comes from. Not because someone took the "Christ" out of Christmas.
• Traditionally, Christmas trees are taken down after Epiphany.
• More diamonds are sold around Christmas than any other time of the year.
• "White Christmas" (1954), starring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, was the first movie to be made in Vista Vision, a deep-focus process.
• "The Nutcracker" is the name for the ballet performed around Christmas time each year. "The Nutcracker Suite" is the title of the music Tchaikovsky wrote.
• "Wassail" comes from the Old Norse "ves heill"--to be of good health. This evolved into the tradition of visiting neighbors on Christmas Eve and drinking to their health.
• A Christmas club, a savings account in which a person deposits a fixed amount of money regularly to be used at Christmas for shopping, came about around 1905.
• Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.
•  In 1947, Toys for Tots started making the holidays a little happier for children by organizing its first Christmas toy drive for needy youngsters.
• The traditional flaming Christmas pudding dates back to 1670 in England, and was derived from an earlier form of stiffened plum porridge.
• There are twelve courses in the Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper. According to the Christian tradition, each course is dedicated to one of Christ's apostles.

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