RELATED: 30 Amazing Christmas Trees Facts to Make the Holidays Extra Magical. In Scandinavian countries, the Yule goat figures into the Christmas decor of many homes. In Norse mythology, the two goats pulled Thor’s flying chariot the same way reindeer do for Santa’s sleigh. On top of that, there’s also a festive tale that focuses on an invisible Yule goat that checks in on holiday prep before the big day. That’s why, in 1966, the Gävle Goat was created in an effort to draw shoppers to the Swedish city where it resides. Standing 42.6 feet high and seven meters in length, it also weighs a whopping 3.6 tons. Back in 1983, a young Peter Billingsley starred in A Christmas Story as Ralphie, a typical suburban kid who celebrates a holiday filled with hilarious ups and downs with his family. In 2003, Billingsley then popped up in another seasonal classic, Elf, as Ming Ming the toy-making supervisor in Santa’s workshop. He’s also appeared in other festive and non-festive films, including Four Christmases, Iron Man, and Spider-Man: Far from Home. RELATED: This Is What Ralphie From A Christmas Story Looks Like Now. In the 1823 poem, A Visit from Saint Nicholas, which originally introduced the world to Santa’s reindeer, two of the flying creatures had slightly different names, according to Syracuse.com. Donner and Blitzen were instead Dunder and Blixem, which is a Dutch way to refer to “thunder and lightning.” Plenty of communities hold Santa Claus parades, and each one is special in its own way. However, the parade that happens each year in Peoria, Illinois, is the oldest parade of its kind in the U.S. It’s taken place every holiday season since 1888—that’s well over 100 years of festive fun! If you do a little shopping at the Christmas Market in Nuremberg, Germany, you’ll be taking part in a tradition that’s hundreds of years in the making. The proof of that can be found in a small box that the Germanisches Nationalmuseum keeps safe. The simple treasure holds an inscription that reads: “Sent to Regina Susanna Harßdörfferin by Miss Susanna Eleonora Erbsin (or Elbsin) on the occasion of the Christmas Market of 1628.” “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is a classic holiday song that was released back in 1958 with Brenda Lee singing the festive tune. Billboard notes that, when the song was recorded, Lee was only 13 years old. In the years since, it’s been re-recorded by stars including Kacey Musgraves, Justin Bieber, and Miley Cyrus. These days, artificial Christmas trees are made of materials that are meant to mimic real evergreens and last for as long as possible. But when these fake festive trees were first displayed in Germany around 1865, they were made of goose feathers that were dyed green. Some Hollywood movies take a month to shoot, others quite a bit more. On the other end of the spectrum, the super-popular holiday movies that Hallmark is able to put out at such an impressive pace only take two weeks to film, according to E! News. At a staggering 278 feet and 10 inches tall and glowing with almost three million lights, Brazil’s massive floating metal Christmas tree set a world record in December 2007. The tree continues to be brought out each year as a part of Rio De Janeiro’s Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon. A long time ago, Pope Julius I decided that Christmas should be celebrated on Dec. 25, however, History points out it wasn’t because that was the date that Jesus was born. Instead, many people believe it was to overshadow a pagan festival called Saturnalia which also happened on that day. In fact, Jesus may have actually been born during the spring! It’s hard to imagine what you’d want to rock out to if you were to ever float among the stars. But the crew of NASA’s Gemini 6A space flight got into the Christmas spirit and made history when they played “Jingle Bells” on December 16, 1965, earning the jolly jingle the Guinness World Record for being the first song ever played in space. Well, as far we know, at least… “Jingle Bells” may be one of the most well-known Christmas songs, but it was originally composed as a Thanksgiving tune. Written by Unitarian church organist James Lord Pierpont in the 1850s, in Savannah, Georgia, the song was “first performed during a Thanksgiving concert at [his] church,” Time explains. Have you ever wondered why we hang up stockings—which are basically fancy socks—during the holiday season only to wake up on Christmas morning to find them filled with tiny gifts? According to the Smithsonian, one of the most popular legends about the tradition’s origins is the tale of a poor widower who worried that he wouldn’t be able to marry off his three daughters because of his lack of wealth. Fortunately, Smithsonian explains, “St. Nicholas was wandering through the town where the man lived and heard villagers discussing that family’s plight. He wanted to help but knew the man would refuse any kind of charity directly. Instead, one night, he slid down the chimney of the family’s house and filled the girls’ recently laundered stockings, which happened to be drying by the fire, with gold coins. And then he disappeared.” In the morning, the family found the gifts, and the daughters became eligible to wed. ‘Twas a Christmas miracle! The North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, has been tracking Santa’s journey around the world since 1958. According to their website, the innovation was set into motion in 1955, when “a young child [accidentally] dialed the unlisted phone number of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, believing she was calling Santa Claus after seeing a promotion in a local newspaper.” The commander on duty, Colonel Harry Shoup, saw an opportunity to create a little Christmas magic, and assured the youngster that CONAD would guarantee Santa a safe journey from the North Pole, sparking the idea to track Santa’s travels each year to the delight of children all over the world. Sing along: “On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me / A partridge in a pear tree.” Let’s keep going! “On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me / Two turtle doves, and / A partridge in a pear tree.” If you continue to sing the famous festive tune and count up all of the gifts that are bestowed upon the lucky singer in the lyrics—French hens, turtle doves, calling birds, and so much more—you’d end up with 364 presents. For more seasonal trivia sent right to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. When you think about Christmas creatures, reindeer and polar bears probably jump to mind… but what about spiders? In Ukraine, families often add spider web ornaments to their trees as a nod to a lovely seasonal story about the critters once using their silky string to decorate the tree of a poor widow and her children. If you are in Canada and want to become pen pals with Santa Claus, you can send him a letter via the Canada Post mail system. The address? Santa Claus, North Pole, HOH OHO, Canada. And don’t be surprised when you get a letter back! He has some helpers who keep up with his correspondence. Most of us have Christmas decorations that we hold dear for sentimental reasons, but the ornaments that adorn the Christmas tree at the Kempinski Hotel Bahia, near Marbella, Spain, have a different type of value. According to CNN, the tree is festooned with red, white, pink, and black diamonds, as well as jewelry from Bulgari, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, and Chanel. And just for good measure, you’ll also find 3D-printed chocolate peacocks, feathers, ostrich eggs, and bottles of perfume on the tree, which is worth a whopping $15 million! According to Today, the Christmas pickle is more than just a common ornament, it’s a tradition. As the quirky tradition goes, the first child to find the glass pickle hidden in the tree on Christmas morning either wins a prize or the privilege of opening the first gift. The goal? To keep kids from rushing through the process of opening presents, and instead take the time to enjoy each one. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has been a popular holiday character for some time now, and one that many recognize from the beloved 1964 TV movie of the same name. However, according to the Smithsonian Insider, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939 when Montgomery Ward department store asked one of its copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to create a Christmas story the store could give away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick.” And thus Rudolph was born, with Montgomery Ward distributing 2.4 million copies of the story in the first year of its publication.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Eggnog is a signature beverage of the holiday season, and one that has a history dating all the way back to medieval times and a drink called “posset.” Made with sweetened and spiced milk curdled with ale or wine and served hot, according to Healthline, monks in the 13th century “enjoyed this mixture with the addition of eggs and figs.” Throwing some tinsel on your Christmas tree is a quick and inexpensive way to jazz up your holiday décor, and has been for years. However, it used to be a much pricier adornment. According to the BBC, tinsel has its origins in the early 1600s in Nuremberg, Germany, where people “used thin strands of real silver in their trees to reflect candlelight, as they used to put real candles in their trees.” And since silver was expensive, being able to use tinsel in your tree was something of a status symbol. In 2021, U.S. consumers on average are expected to spend $837 on gifts this holiday season, according to a Gallup poll. This shows that expected spending bounced back a bit from 2020 but still won’t be on par with the pre-pandemic average of $850. Despite intent to stick to a Christmas-gift budget that’s under $1,000, most Americans tend to go a little overboard. In an October 2019 study, Deloitte found that U.S. consumers spend around $1,496 during the giving season. Standing over 150 feet tall and weighing 225 tons, the Statue of Liberty is an impressive figure. And since it was considered a holiday gift when it was given to the U.S. by France in 1886, it’s officially the largest Christmas present in the world. That’s a lot of wrapping paper and ribbon! Thomas Edison has gone down in history as one of America’s greatest inventors. We can thank him for the light bulb, phonograph, and even the movie camera. But did you know he is also partly responsible, along with his friend Edward H. Johnson, for inventing Christmas lights? According to the Library of Congress, Edison created the first strand of electric lights in 1880, which he hung outside his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, during Christmastime that year. However, it was Johnson, his partner at Edison Illumination Company, who, in 1882, became the first to wrap a strand of hand-wired red, white, and blue bulbs around a Christmas tree. And the rest, as they say, is history! The first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York City went up in 1931. However, it was hardly the big spectacle it is today. Instead, it was a 20-foot tree with no ornaments that was set up by construction workers who were laboring at the center’s construction site. A second tree went up two years later, this time a 50-footer with lights, sparking the annual tradition. Today, if you visit Rockefeller Center during the Christmas season, you’ll surely be blown away by the sight of the sparkling tree. The towering tree is decorated each year with over 25,000 lights, according to Time. Can you imagine checking every bulb to see if it works?! On Nov. 24, 2001, a Christmas card was sold at auction in Devizes, Wiltshire, U.K., for £20,000, or $28,158, making it the most valuable Christmas card in the world. That’s because it was “considered the world’s first Christmas card,” according to Guinness World Records, which notes that it “was sent by Sir Henry Cole, a Bath-born businessman, to his grandmother in 1843 and is hand-colored by the London illustrator John Calcott Horsley.” The lithographed illustration depicts a multigenerational family enjoying a Christmas party and there are only 12 of the original 1,000 cards still in existence. These days, around 1.6 billion people in the U.S. still manage to send out the old-fashioned greetings each year. According to data from Hallmark via The Atlantic, “Millennials represent nearly 20 percent of the dollars spent on greeting cards, and their spending is growing faster than that of any other generation.” Most Christmas cards are big enough for a seasonal illustration or photo as well as space inside for a heartfelt message. But in 2010, nanotechnologists at the University of Glasgow created a teeny-tiny Christmas card that could fit onto the surface of a postage stamp 8,276 times or onto a regular-sized Christmas card around half a million times. While the card is invisible to the human eye, Professor David Cumming discussed producing the microscopic greeting card with Time, saying, “The process to manufacture the card only took 30 minutes. It was very straightforward to produce as the process is highly repeatable. The design of the card took far longer than the production.” The holidays aren’t always easy on romantic relationships, but if you and your significant other make it to Christmas Day, you can probably take the day off from worrying that you’re going to break up. A 2010 study conducted by Facebook found that Dec. 25 had the fewest number of breakups. The weeks leading up to Christmas on the other hand? Yikes! According to The Washington Post, wedding experts and social media data indicate that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are the two most popular days of the year to propose. In addition, the wedding app Bridebook also estimated that around 100,000 proposals were likely to take place during the Christmas season in 2018, as Harper’s Bazaar reported. Studies have shown that September is the most popular time for babies to be born in the U.S. Check the calendar and that means that those little ones were conceived around the holiday season when couples are feeling rather, er, cozy. If you think that putting together a regular-sized gingerbread house is tricky, try making one that’s big enough to walk into. In November 2013, a group from Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, constructed a gingerbread house that was 160 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 10.1 feet tall. Made with a wood base, it reportedly took 1,800 pounds of butter, 7,200 eggs, 3,000 pounds of sugar, 7,200 pounds of flour, and over 22,000 pieces of candy to cover the record-breaking structure! RELATED: 15 Royal Christmas Traditions That You Need to Know About. According to Guinness World Records, the largest Christmas snowflake ornament ever was created by Universal Studios Japan in October 2019. It stood an incredible 10 feet and five inches tall, truly a tree topper to top all tree toppers. The tree it was placed upon also earned a Guinness title for the most lights on an artificial Christmas tree: a whopping 591,840. It used to be just candy canes and gingerbread. But these days, the Christmas sweets industry is booming. “It’s candy-cane ice cream, candy-cane lattes, candy-cane marshmallows,” Christine Couvelier, president of the food development firm Culinary Concierge, explained to USA Today in 2017. And boy, do we buy into it: Americans spend an estimated $1.93 billion on holiday treats, according to the National Confectioners Association. “Silent Night” has long been a staple of the holiday season, when the hauntingly beautiful carol can be heard almost everywhere you go. So it makes sense that it is, in fact, the most recorded Christmas song in history. According to Time, as of 2014, there had been over 733 different versions of “Silent Night” copyrighted since 1978—and more continue to pop up every year! When Macaulay Culkin starred as a young boy accidentally abandoned by his family during the holidays in 1990’s Home Alone, the child actor became an instant star and the film an instant Christmas classic. According to Forbes, Home Alone remains the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time in the U.S., earning $285.76 million at the domestic box office. It’s followed by 2000’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas ($260.04 million), 2018’s Dr. Seuss’ The Grinch ($189.67 million), and 2004’s The Polar Express ($183.37 million). While many people head to Disney World in the summer, others like to visit the most magical place on Earth during the most magical time of year. And to prepare for the festivities, Disney embarks upon a remarkable setup. According to Trip Savvy, preparing for the holidays Disney-style involves “unloading 150 semi-trailer truckloads of decorations, stringing 15 miles of garland and 8.5 million lights, hanging 1,314 wreaths, and trimming some 1,300 trees with 300,000 yards of ribbon and bows across Disney World’s four theme parks, two water parks, and over two dozen Disney World resort hotels.” Putting up a Christmas tree has been a part of American holidays for years. However, it’s a tradition that can be traced back to Germany. According to History, “Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.” The custom didn’t come to the U.S. until the late 1700s or early 1800s, via German settlers in Pennsylvania. Christmas trees weren’t an immediate hit in America when they were first introduced to the U.S. by German settlers due to the fact that they weren’t seen as Christian. “As late as the 1840s, Christmas trees were seen as pagan symbols and not accepted by most Americans,” according to History. When you go with a real Christmas tree over an artificial one, you have more than a few different options to choose from. For example, there are about 630 species of conifer trees alone, including popular choices like balsam fir, Douglas fir, and Fraser fir. According to History, more than 1 million acres of American soil have been planted with Christmas trees. And at about 2,000 trees per acre, that adds up to around 77 million Christmas trees planted in the U.S. each year! No matter where you live in the U.S., you can find a homegrown Christmas tree, likely from a nearby farm. That’s because Christmas trees are grown in all 50 states, including Hawaii and Alaska, according to History. You might think that Santa’s little helpers would be busy making toys for children all year long. But on Nov. 25, 2014, 1,762 elves came together in Bangkok, Thailand, to set the record for the largest gathering of Santa’s elves ever. The people of Mobile, Alabama, are apparently determined to beat the record for the largest gathering of Santa’s elves. That’s why American elves meet up at the annual Elfapalooza event, which includes karaoke, best elf contests, and an elf march! The picturesque town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, becomes even more picturesque during the holidays when it transforms into a Norman Rockwell painting. Each December, according to the town’s website, Stockbridge recreates the Sunday scene depicted in Rockwell’s 1967 work, Stockbridge Main Street at Christmas (Home for Christmas), complete with vintage automobiles parked in the spots occupied in the painting. It’s pretty much the most wholesome, dare we say Rockwellian, example of American culture we could ever imagine! There are real Christmas trees, artificial Christmas trees, and in Chandler, Arizona, there’s a 30-foot Christmas tree made out of tumbleweeds. It takes 1,200 tumbleweeds to create the structure, which is then covered in glitter as well as 20 gallons of flame retardant, according to Fodor’s Travel. When the holidays are over and it’s time to get rid of your Christmas tree, you could drag it to the curb to be picked up by garbage collectors or you could donate it to a zoo so that it can be fed to a hungry elephant. Zoos around the world, including The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, accept evergreens, which are enjoyed by the giant herbivores as a seasonal snack. When you find yourself standing under a sprig of mistletoe, it’s time for a Christmas kiss. But, while mistletoe was once considered an aphrodisiac by the Druids, it also happens to mean “dung on a stick.” According to Interflora, the original name for mistletoe was mistaltan—mistal comes from the Anglo Saxon word for “dung” and tan means “stick.” How utterly unromantic! These beautiful red and green flowering plants have been associated with Christmas for over 100 years. Back in 1828, the American minister to Mexico, Joel R. Poinsett, brought a poinsettia home to America from his post down south. Getting their name from Poinsett, the plants gained popularity in the U.S. after stores in New York began to sell them at Christmas in 1870 and by the 20th century, “they were a universal symbol of the holiday,” according to History. Did you know that Santa Claus is known by a number of festive names around the world? In Hungary, for instance, he goes by Mikulás, while those in Brazil refer to him as Papai Noel. He’ll also answer to Hoteiosho in Japan, Julenisse in Norway, and Père Noël in France. And those are just a few of Kris Kringle’s 30-plus international monikers. Santa’s Village is a festive theme park that’s open 365 days a year in Canada, so you can visit during the winter months or camp there during the summer. Many movies have also been filmed at the seasonal location, including Hallmark’s Christmas in Grand Valley and Netflix’s The Knight Before Christmas starring Vanessa Hudgens. Santa Claus may be a one-of-a-kind Christmas character, but plenty of performers dress up as the festive figure each year to make extra money. During the holidays, mall Santas earn around $30 an hour but can make up to $100 per hour for their work. However, Dan Greenleaf, a professional freelance Santa who runs his own booking agency, told CNBC that when he’s hired to visit parties, homes, or other events, the “typical hourly mid-range is about $150.” And if you’re really good at delivering a jolly “ho, ho, ho,” then you can potentially make $500 an hour. Greenleaf even says one of the Santas who works for him was offered $1,200 by a Manhattan client for just one hour on Christmas Day! If there’s a child in your life, then there’s a good chance that they’ve asked for at least one Lego set as a gift over the years. In fact, they probably ask for one each year. That’s why, during the Christmas season, almost 28 Lego sets are sold each and every second, according to National Geographic Kids. Dec. 26 isn’t just Boxing Day—it’s also National Candy Cane Day, “and while that doesn’t mean it’ll keep us from munching on the sugary sticks as early as Thanksgiving, it does give us a chance to indulge as much as we can before New Year’s,” notes National Today. In America, families who celebrate Christmas might enjoy a turkey or ham for their holiday dinner. But over in Japan, modern holiday festivities often involve eating KFC at Christmas. According to the BBC, it’s estimated that 3.6 million Japanese families enjoy the fast-food chicken on Dec. 25. The credit goes to Takeshi Okawara, the manager of the first KFC in the country, who overhead a couple of foreigners talking in his store after it opened in 1970 about missing turkey on Christmas. “Okawara woke up at midnight and jotted down an idea that came to him in a dream: a ‘party barrel’ to be sold on Christmas,” according to the BBC. He “hoped a Christmas dinner of fried chicken could be a fine substitute, and so he began marketing his party barrel as a way to celebrate the holiday.” While he is most famously associated with Halloween thanks to his creepy classic, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving was actually partially responsible for shaping the Christmas traditions we know and love today. “Among Irving’s biggest contributions to Christmas in America was his promotion of St. Nicholas as a beloved character, laying the groundwork for the figure we’d eventually embrace as Santa Claus,” the National Endowment for the Humanities notes. According to History, that log-shaped, chocolate-y dessert that you present to your guests every year has its roots in Gaelic and Celtic Winter Solstice traditions. “To cleanse the air of the previous year’s events and to usher in the spring, families would burn logs decorated with holly, pinecones or ivy,” the site states. “Wine and salt were also often used to anoint the logs. Once burned, the log’s ashes were valuable treasures said to have medicinal benefits and to guard against evil.” Over the centuries, the good-luck ritual developed into this tasty holiday treat. In 2006, an unnamed business executive purchased one of four known handwritten copies of Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, A Visit From Saint Nicholas, which is better known now as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, at auction. The 1860 poem, also signed by the author, went for $280,000 and was reportedly read out loud by the buyer at a holiday party. Yep, that’s right. It took Mariah Carey less than half an hour to co-write her now-ubiquitous Christmas pop song. Her collaborator Walter Afanasieff told Billboard, “That’s why it’s so popular—because it’s so simple and palatable!” No one knows exactly why it’s now customary to leave out cookies and milk for Santa Claus, but, per NPR, the first recorded reference to the tradition is from a Santa-themed magazine for children that was published in the late 19th century. A young girl wrote to St. Nicholas: An Illustrated Magazine for Young Folks that she and her brother were planning to leave the snack out for their Christmas visitor in case he was hungry. Make sure you have a spot when you’re stringing those lights! According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, in 2018, 17,500 people sought treatment at a hospital for injuries sustained while decorating for the holiday. These days, Santa is almost always depicted as a jolly, bearded man in a bright red suit with furry white trim. But this color scheme is a surprisingly recent development. Prior to the 1870s, Santa was shown wearing a range of colors, including brown, white, green, tan, and blue. Per The Guardian, Thomas Nast, a Harpers Bazaar caricaturist, is credited for originating the red-suited version of Santa we know so well today. Even though he himself had also drawn him in other hues, this is the one that stuck. RELATED: The Real Reason Harry & Meghan Won’t Be at the Royal Christmas, Sources Say.
