15 Things You Didn’t Know About Me: Christmas
- The popular Christmas song “Jingle Bells” was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh”.
- When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore has it that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Claus anyway.
- Christmas has different meanings around the world; Christmas Eve in Japan is a good day to eat fried chicken and strawberry shortcake.
- Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday, and the tradition began in 1836.
- Oklahoma became the last state to declare Christmas a legal holiday in 1907.
- Franklin Pierce was the first president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree.
- The holiday Boxing Day was originally celebrated in England, for the servants to the rich people. After Christmas, the servants “boxed up” all the left-overs from the rich people and bring them home.
- Christmas trees are also known as the Yule-tree.
- Christmas trees were first decorated with foods such as apples, nuts and dates.
- If you received all the gifts from the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” you would have 364 presents.
- Santa Claus is also known as St. Nicholas, Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost and Kris Kringle.
- Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.
- Chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil, commemorates St. Nicholas / Santa Claus who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.
- Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names, such as Blitzer, Comet, and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely not male, but female or castrati.
- The traditional three colors of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolizes the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.
