CHRISTMAS WEEK: SOME FACTS

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With Christmas approaching, this marks the beginning Bytes Christmas Week . . . some new items, some reposts, but hopefully all entertaining. Enjoy, readers.

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CHRISTMAS FACTS

The image of Santa Claus flying his sleigh began in 1819 and was created by Washington Irving, the same author who dreamt up the Headless Horseman.

The Montgomery Ward department store created Rudolph the Reindeer as a marketing gimmick to encourage children to buy their Christmas colouring books.

The original Rudolph did not have a red nose. In that day and age, red noses were seen as an indicator of chronic alcoholism and Montgomery Ward didn’t want him to look like a drunkard. To complete the original picture, he was almost named Reginald or Rollo.

Clement Moore’s poem introduced eight more reindeer for Santa’s sleigh and their names were Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Duner and Blixem (for the German words for thunder and lightning). These later evolved into Donner and Blitzen.

Most of these names are male-sounding names. Male reindeer shed their antlers in winter, however, so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are more than likely female or castrated.

Some leave food out for Santa Claus’ reindeer as Norse children did, leaving hay and treats for Odin’s eight-legged horse Sleipnir hoping they would stop by during their hunting adventures. Dutch children adopted this same tradition, leaving food in their wooden shoes for St. Nicholas’ horse.

Dutch children also left out food and drink for St. Nicholas himself to honour him on his feast day. Today we leave milk and cookies out for Santa, continuing this very old tradition.

America’s first batch of eggnog was made in the Jamestown settlement in 1607. Its name comes from the word “grog”, meaning any drink made with rum. Non-alcoholic eggnog is popular as well.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries global temperatures were significantly lower than normal in what was known as a “little ice age”. Charles Dickens grew up during this period and experienced snow for his first eight Christmases. This “White Christmas” experience influenced his writing and began a tradition of expectation for the holidays.

The Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square is donated to the people of London every year by the people of Oslo, Norway in thanks for their assistance during World War II.

Since 1918 the city of Boston has received a giant Christmas tree as a gift from the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Boston lent considerable support to the city of Halifax during their 1917 explosion and subsequent fire disaster.

In 1914 during World War I there was a now famous Christmas truce in the trenches between the British and the Germans. They exchanged gifts across a neutral no man’s land, played football together, and decorated their shelters.

In 2010 during the Christmas season, the Colombian government decorated jungle trees with lights. The trees lit up when the guerrillas (terrorists) walked by and banners appeared asking them to surrender their arms. The campaign convinced 331 guerillas to re-enter society and also won an award for strategic marketing excellence.

Bicycle, the U.S. playing card company, manufactured cards to give all the POWS in Germany during World War II as Christmas presents. These cards, when soaked in water, revealed an escape route for POWs. The Nazis never knew.

The Christmas wreath was originally hung as a symbol of Jesus. The holly represents his crown of thorns and the red berries the blood he shed.

The three traditional colors of most Christmas decorations are red, green and gold. Red symbolizes the blood of Christ, green symbolized life and rebirth, and gold represents light, royalty and wealth.

The tradition of hanging stockings comes from a Dutch legend. A poor man had three daughters for whom he could not afford to provide a dowry. St. Nicholas dropped a bag of gold down his chimney and gold coins fell out and into the stockings drying by the fireplace. The daughters now had dowries and could be married, avoiding a life on the streets.

The old English custom of wassailing was to toast to someone’s long life at Christmastide and was the forerunner for the tradition of Christmas caroling. In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi began the custom of singing carols in church.

Paul McCartney’s Christmas song is widely regarded as the worst of all the songs he ever recorded yet he earns $400,000 a year off of it.

NORAD’s “Santa Tracker” was born from a misprint in the newspaper. A 1955 Sears ad was supposed to print the number of a store where children could call and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. The number printed was to the hotline of the Director of Operations for the U.S. Continental Air Defense. Colonel Shoup ordered his staff to give the children updates on the flight coordinates of Santa.

The oldest artificial Christmas trees date back to the late 1800s and were made of green raffia (think grass hula skirts) or dyed goose feathers. Next the Addis Brush Company used their machinery that wove toilet brushes to create pine-like branches for artificial Christmas trees that were less flammable and could hold heavier decorations.

‘Jingle Bells’ – the popular Christmas song was composed by James Pierpont in Massachusetts, America. It was, however, written for thanksgiving and not Christmas.

‘Jingle Bells’ – was the first song sung by astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra in space, on December 16, 1965.

Christmas might be a public holiday; however, it is not a biblical holy day. The Bible does not say anywhere to keep Christmas as a holy day.

Coca-Cola was the first company that used Santa Claus during the winter season for promotion.

The Statue of Liberty was gifted to the US by the French on Christmas day in 1886. It weighs 225 tons and thus you could consider it as the biggest Christmas gift in the world.

The first Christmas was celebrated on December 25, AD 336 in Rome.

Other names of Christmas from the old times include – ‘Midwinter’, ‘Nativity’ and ‘Yule’.

The other name of ‘Christmas Tree’ is Yule-tree.

Hallmark introduced their first Christmas cards in 1915.

Christmas tree decoration is believed to have originated in the 16th century in Germany.

Christmas trees were first decorated with fruits (mainly apples), and then later on people started using candles, and then electric lights (1895) to decorate these trees.

Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition.

Christmas trees were banned–due to environmental concerns–in the White House in 1901–by the then President Teddy Roosevelt.

In Italy, Christmas dinner can last for more than 4 hours. Most of the Italian families have more than 7 courses for the dinner.

Japanese spend their Christmas Eve eating in KFCs. This is a popular tradition in Japan so much that customers have to book their seats 2 months in advance.

In 1843, one thousand copies of the first Christmas cards were sold. A civil servant Sir Henry Cole in London is credited with making the initial sales of the cards.

‘White Christmas’ by Bing Crosby is the best-selling Christmas song ever. It has sold more than 50 million copies around the world.

December 25 – January 5 is referred to as ‘Christmastide’ or ‘Twelve Holy Days’.

King William I of England was crowned on Christmas Day 1066.

Between 1640 and 1958, the Parliament of Scotland officially abolished the observance of Christmas.

Before turkey, the traditional Christmas meal in England was a pig’s head and mustard.

Visa cards are used 5-6 thousand times every minute during the Christmas season.

The first Christmas was celebrated in America in 1539 and a bunch of people gathered for the celebration devoid of any gifts or trees.

Gifts are shared during the Christmas season to symbolize the gifts given to Jesus by the three wise men.