1. The first president to decorate the white house Christmas tree in the United States was Franklin Pierce. 2. Electric lights for trees were first used in 1895.
3. The poinsettia plant was brought into the United States from Mexico by Joel Poinsett in the early 1800's. And Contrary to common belief, poinsettia plants are non-toxic!
4. Jingle Bells" was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.
5. If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 gifts.
6. Holly berries are poisonous.
7. Christmas became a national holiday in America on June, 26, 1870.
8. There are approximately 25-30 million Real Christmas Trees sold in the U.S. every year.
9. Rudolph, "the most famous reindeer of all," was the product of Robert L. May's imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store.
10. More than three billion Christmas cards are sent annually in the United States.
11. An average household in America will mail out 28 Christmas cards each year and see 28 eight cards return in their place.
12. Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.
13. It is estimated that 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.
14. The abbreviation of Xmas for Christmas is not irreligious. The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is chi, which is identical to our X. Xmas was originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation that was used in tables and charts.
15. The tradition of Christmas lights dates back to when Christians were persecuted for saying Mass. A simple candle in the window meant that Mass would be celebrated there that night.
7 comments:
Interesting facts!!
Thanks for sharing :)
What great facts..kind of sad though about all those trees cut down..I do love a real tree though...and the leftover one has me a bit apprehensive.. never heard that one before..maybe its the natural order of things so as to purge all of the massive quantities of food we eat..be careful.. Merry Christmas..!
great post. I learned some many new things. I may use this today at my family gathering.. Thanks..
Again Happy Holidays..
Fun indeed! Merry Christmas to you!
#9 may not be completely true. It is my understanding that Mr. May told his daughter the story of Rudolph to help her at Christmas time the year her mom was dieing of cancer. He worked for Montgomery Wards and later it was used as a promotional item. When the poem was set to song, no one wanted to sing it - they tried to get all sorts of big names to do it and everyone refused. Gene Autry's wife talked him into singing it and well the rest is history. Merry Christmas!!!
very cool... #13 freaks me out a little.
Here's hoping you and your loved ones enjoy a wonderful holiday
Lots of new facts learned! Thanks for sharing. Merry Christmas!
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