Christmas is a special time of the year to celebrate. Here are some fun facts you can share with your family and friends:
- The United Nations Children’s Fund says there are 2,106 million children under the age of 18 in the world. If the average household has 2.5 children, that means Santa Clause would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve and travel 221 million miles.
- The first artificial Christmas trees were made by the Germans, using dyed goose feathers.
- The first US Christmas postage stamp was issued in 1962.
- Pope Julius 1, bishop of Rome, proclaimed December 25 as the official celebration date for the birth of Christ in 350 A.D.
- Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names but did you know male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas? So, that means the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely to be female or castrati.
- Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
- President Teddy Roosevelt was an environmentalist and he banned Christmas trees from the White House in 1912.
- Add up all of the gifts in the Twelve Days of Christmas and you’d have to buy 364 gifts at a total cost of over $114,000.00!
- Green, red and gold are the three traditional colors of Christmas. Green is a symbol of life and rebirth. Red symbolizes the blood of Christ and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
- Spiders or spider webs are common Christmas tree decorations in Poland. Legend has it that a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus.
- They estimate that the single of “White Christmas”, by Irving Berlin, is the best selling single of all time with over 100 million sales worldwide.
