Christmas Facts & Trivia

You wait the entire year patiently for the arrival of Christmas. But, do you know about the interesting facts related to this beautiful festival? Here are incredible Christmas facts for you to explore.

Santa Claus Facts

• • Father Christmas has two addresses, Edinburgh and the North Pole. Letters addressed to ‘TOYLAND’ or ‘SNOWLAND’ go to Edinburgh, but letters addressed to ‘THE NORTH POLE’ have to be sent there because there really is such a place.

• • Santa Claus is also known as Father Christmas.

• • The eight reindeers of Santa are named – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner/Donder, Blitzen, and Rudolph.

Facts on Christmas Day

• • 25th December was not celebrated as the birthday of Christ until the year AD 440.

• • The Queen’s Christmas speech was televised for the first time in 1957.

• • Christmas crackers were invented by Thomas Smith. He had imported some French novelties to sell as Christmas gifts, but these were not popular until he gift wrapped them up using color papers and added a snapper.

• • Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are more likely to have a white Christmas than England.

• • England has only known seven white Christmases in the entire twentieth century. According to the records of the Meteorological Office in London, snow fell on Christmas Day only in 1938 and 1976.

Christmas Decor Trivia

• • Each year more than 35 million Christmas trees are produced.

• • Electric tree lights were first used just 3 years after Thomas Edison has his first mass public demonstration of electric lights back in 1879. Thomas Edison’s assistant, Edward Johnson, came up with the idea of electric lights for Christmas trees in 1882.

• • In 1895 Ralph Morris, an American telephone operator, invented the string of electric Christmas lights similar to the ones you use today. The actual strings of lights had already been manufactured for use in telephone switchboards. Morris looked at the tiny bulbs and had the idea of using them on his tree.

Food Facts on Christmas

You would be simple astounded by the Christmas day food facts. Do you know that the holy berries are poisonous? You would be shocked to some more info on the Christmas facts.

• • The Christmas turkey was imported to France by the Jesuits and it is still known in some French dialects as a ‘Jesuit’.

• • Christmas pudding was first made as a kind of thick soup with raisins and wine in it. It originates from an old, Celtic dish known as ‘frumenty’.

• • In the 19th century, the Christmas cake was eaten on Christmas Eve. It was consider unlucky to cut a Christmas cake before dawn on Christmas Eve.

• • Mince pies should only be eaten between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night and one should be eaten on every day of the twelve days of Christmas to bring good luck.

Interesting Christmas facts

• • The word Christmas is Old English, a contraction of Christ’s Mass.

• • ‘The Nutcracker’ is the most famous Christmas ballet.

• • The famous ‘Jingle Bells’ song was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.

• • Do you know – 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.

• • 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.

• • Clearing up a common misconception, in Greek, X means Christ. That is where the word “X-Mas” comes from.

• • Traditionally, Christmas trees are taken down after Epiphany.