Fun fact #1
The traditional three colours of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth, red symbolises the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
Fun fact #2
Christmas trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.
Fun fact #3
It is estimated that the single “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin is the best-selling single of all time, with over 100 million sales worldwide.
Fun fact #4
US scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world’s presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
Fun fact #5
The abbreviation Xmas isn’t irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.
Fun fact #6
The highest-grossing festive movie is 2000’s How The Grinch Stole Christmas, which has raked in $175m so far.
Fun fact #7
The Beatles hold the record for most Xmas number 1 singles, topping the charts in 1963, 1965 and 1967.
Fun fact #8
The word “Christmas” comes from the Old English name “Christes Maesse,” which means “Christs’ Mass”
Fun fact #9
Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra, the world’s most popular non-biblical saint.
Fun fact #10
Santa Claus has different names in different countries: Sheng Dan Lao Ren in China, Father Christmas in England, Papa Noel in Brazil and Peru, and Pere Noel in France.
Fun fact #11
There are 364 gifts in the popular holiday carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”
Fun fact #12
The French gave the biggest Christmas present ever in 1886. It was the Statue of Liberty, and they gave it to the United States of America. (The French have one too, a smaller one, in Paris.)
Fun fact #13
The Candy Cane is one of the most familiar symbols of Christmas. It dates back to 1670 in Europe but didn’t appear in the U.S. until the 1800s. The treat we see today, where the shape is Jesus’s hook to shepherd his lambs and the colour and stripes hold significance for purity and Christ’s sacrifice, became common in the mid-1900s.