20 Fun Facts About Christmas That We Bet You Never Knew
We love a good fun fact, so here are some Christmas based trivia we think you will love. Use them at your Christmas parties and impress your family and friends! Make sure to bookmark this post, as you'll need it on Christmas Day to impress your family.
1. The first ever Christmas tree wasn’t a tree at all, it was in fact made of dyed goose feathers and came from Germany
2. The term ‘Xmas’ comes from Greece, X is the Greek symbol for Christ
3. Riga in Latvia was the home to the first decorated Christmas tree in 1510
4. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was created by the US store Montgomery Ward as part of their Christmas promotion. The song that accompanies the story was recorded in 1949
5. The first use of lights on a Christmas tree was in 1882 by Edward H Johnson, a close friend of Thomas Edison (who first invented the incandescent bulb)
6. The tradition of putting tangerines in stockings on Christmas Eve came from 12th century French nuns who left socks filled with tangerines, nuts and fruit at the houses of the poor.
7. The world’s tallest Christmas tree was 221ft high and was displayed in a Washington shopping mall in 1950
8. 2.1 billion Christmas cards will be sent this festive season
9.£700 million pounds is the approximate amount spent on unwanted Christmas gifts
10. Every Christmas 10 million turkeys are cooked and consumed in the UK alone
11. Santa Claus was first used by the company ‘Coca Cola’ as a winter promotion
12. ‘White Christmas’ by Bing Crosby is the bestselling Christmas song of all time
13. On Christmas Day in Japan, fried chicken is the most commonly eaten food, making it the busiest time for restaurants such as KFC (where they can make orders in advance!)
14. The earliest known Christmas decorations were apples which represented Adam and Eve, and were used by medieval actors
15. Turkey was not always the favourite food on Christmas Day, traditionally it used to be a pig head served with mustard!
16. The most lights lit at the same time on one Christmas was 194,672 in Belgium in 2010
17. In 1843 the first Christmas card was produced and sent by Sir Henry Cole
18. Rudolph should be portrayed without antlers, as male reindeers shed them in the winter
19. The amount of wrapping paper used in the UK alone each Christmas is enough to cover the island of Guernsey!
20. You can send a ‘postcard’ on the internet to the crew on the International Space Station sending a Christmas message.