CHRISTMAS FACTS anyone know any interesting ones?

Question

FACTS, FIGURES STATISTICS WELCOME

Answer 1

In the mid 17th century, Puritans banned the celebration of Christmas as an example of idol worship.

Roman Emperor Constantine "declared", in the 4th century, that Dec. 25 was to be the date that the birth of Christ is celebrated. No one actually knows what day or month Jesus was born.

Clement Clark Moore's 1822 poem is the first to describe Santa Claus as a jolly, old fat dude driving a sleigh. No one thought of him in those terms prior to that.

Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer was invented by a Montgomery Ward employee as part of a commercial advertising campaign.

Answer 2

The real reason for the season...

Christmas was originally celebrated as the winter solstice. It was a time that people looked to life enduring the cold. That's why green plants like pine trees, mistletoe, and holly are used.

It was a popular holiday that several religions piggybacked on, including Mithras and Jesus. Though, the Bible says that Jesus was not born in winter. Of course, it's all myth anyway.

In recent years, Christmas has become much more secular, embracing some more universal ideals. These including spending time with family, helping the poor, giving to others, peace on Earth, and goodwill toward your fellow man.

It has also become very commercial, mainly because of its popularity. Corporations piggybacked on the holiday like the religions did. The modern version of Santa Claus was popularized by Coca Cola.

Answer 3

Sure. I'll give you some facts on the origins of Christmas.

The Christmas tree was introduced by the Germans. Before it came to America, the evergreen tree was worshipped around the time of the winter solstice. It was involved in pagan worship because, since it was evergreen, it symbolized to pagans eternal life, and the tree was always green, even through a time of desolation (winter). Because the celebration the tree was involved in also had to do with fertility, the tree was decked with balls to represent the viability of men, if you know what I mean. As for leaving gifts under the tree, that came from the worship of the tree itself. The wreath also ties into sun worship. Since the wreath is circular, it represented eternal life. The worshippers thought that the sun was eternal, that it died during the winter and was resurrected after that.

Santa Claus was introduced to America by the Dutch. They talked about a person clothed in red named Sinterklass. The idea of Santa Claus was also influenced by St. Nicholas, a priest who would, around Christmastime, hand out gifts to children. Santa ultimately came from a pagan god.

The celebration of certain aspects of Christmas is almost universal culturally. The Egyptians worshipped the sun so, because of that, they used the same symbols. The Romans had a Feast of Saturnalia, December 17th to December 25th, in which they exchanged idols to worship, which partly explains where we get the gift-giving part of Christmas from. As for Jesus' birthday being December 25th, that myth was created by Emperor Constantine in the 300s, in Rome, so he could compromise between Christian and pagan worship.

Answer 4

This is my fave Christmas fact...

"Xmas" and "X-mas" are common abbreviations of the word "Christmas". They are sometimes pronounced "eksmas", but they, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the pronunciation "Christmas". The "-mas" part came from the Anglo-Saxon for "festival", "religious event": Crīstesmæsse or Crīstemæsse. This abbreviation is widely but not universally accepted; some view it as demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it a helpful abbreviation.


This 1922 Ladies' Home Journal advertisement uses "Xmas".The word "Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as 1021 AD. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ), used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for "Christ") (see Labarum), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ.

Many people believe that the term is part of an effort to "take Christ out of Christmas" or to literally "cross out Christ";[citation needed] it is also seen as evidence of the secularization of Christmas or a vehicle for pushing political correctness, or as a symptom of the commercialization of the holiday (as the abbreviation has long been used by retailers).

Answer 5

The first Christmas Tree was in Germany

Answer 6

Dec 25 as the official day for Jesus birth was determined by Pope Julius I in the 4th century.

Answer 7

I was born exactly four days before Christmas

Answer 8

I don't like Christmas but I guess that isn't very interesting.