Did You Know??
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.
According to a 1995
survey, 7 out of 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from
their doting owners.
According to a 1997
Gallup poll, 29 percent of Americans found the Christmas
holidays more stressful than enjoyable. Those with the lowest
incomes were most likely to find the season stressful, perhaps
reflecting their inability to participate fully in the commercial,
gift-giving aspects of the holiday.
America's official
national Christmas tree is located in King's Canyon National
Park in California. The tree, a giant sequoia called the
"General Grant Tree," is over 90 meters (300 feet) high.
It was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.
As early as 1822,
the postmaster in Washington, D.C. was worried by the amount
of extra mail at Christmas time. His preferred solution
to the problem was to limit by law the number of cards a
person could send. Even though commercial cards were not
available at that time, people were already sending so many
home-made cards that sixteen extra postmen had to be hired
in the city.
Christmas caroling
began as an old English custom called Wassailing — toasting
neighbors to a long and healthy life.
During the ancient
12-day Christmas celebration, the log burned was called
the "Yule log." Sometimes a piece of the Yule log would
be kept to kindle the fire the following winter, to ensure
that the good luck carried on from year to year. The Yule
log custom was handed down from the Druids.
Electric Christmas
tree lights were first used in 1895. The idea for using
electric Christmas lights came from an American, Ralph E.
Morris. The new lights proved safer than the traditional
candles.
Theodore Roosevelt,
a staunch conservationist, banned Christmas trees in his
home, even when he lived in the White House. His children,
however, smuggled them into their bedrooms.
In 1647, the English
parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Festivities
were banned by Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, who considered
feasting and revelry, on what was supposed to be a holy
day, to be immoral. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans
lost power in 1660.
Jesus Christ, son
of Mary, was born in a cave, not in a wooden stable. Caves
were used to keep animals in because of the intense heat.
A large church is now built over the cave, and people can
go down inside the cave. The carpenters of Jesus' day were
really stone cutters. Wood was not used as widely as it
is today. So whenever you see a Christmas nativity scene
with a wooden stable -- that's the “American” version, not
the Biblical one.
Only 9 minutes are
spent by the average parent playing with his or her children
on Christmas morning.
The “ Twelve Days
of Christmas” was originally written to help Catholic children,
in England, remember different articles of faith during
the persecution by Protestant Monarchs. The “true love”
represented God, and the gifts all different ideas, the
“Partridge in a pear tree” was Christ.
The classic animal
crackers box is designed with a string handle because the
animal-shaped cookie treats, introduced in 1902 as a Christmas
novelty, were packaged so they could be hung from Christmas
trees.