General Historical Facts, Figures and Trivia

Historical Facts about Christmas

• According to historical accounts, the first Christmas in the Philippines was celebrated 200 years before Ferdinand Magellan discovered the country for the western world, likely between the years 1280 and 1320 AD.
• According to legend, King Arthur made merry in York in 521 surrounded by "minstrels, gleemen, harpers, pipe-players, jugglers, and dancers."
• Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday. This tradition began in 1836.
• American billionaire Ross Perot tried to airlift 28 tons of medicine and Christmas gifts to American POW's in North Vietnam in 1969.
• An evergreen, the Paradise tree, was decorated with apples as a symbol of the feast of Adam and Eve held on December 24th during the middle ages.
• Austria issued the first Christmas stamp in 1937.
• Boxing day - The day after Christmas Day was traditionally when churches opened their collection boxes to distribute the cash to the poor.
• Charles II revived the Christmas festival, but it wasn't until Victorian times that people became interested in singing carols again. Around 1822 onwards carols were taught in churches in England and gradually spread elsewhere in the United Kingdom. The tradition has continued ever since. It is also customary to give money to carollers who wander the streets singing outside people's homes.
• Christmas cards - The first Christmas card was sent in 1840, in Britain.
• Christmas was once a moveable feast celebrated at many different times during the year. The choice of December 25, was made by Pope Julius I, in the 4th century A.D., because this coincided with the pagan rituals of Winter Solstice, or Return of the Sun. The intent was to replace the pagan celebration with the Christian one.
• During the ancient 12-day Christmas celebration, the log burned was called the "Yule log." Sometimes a piece of the Yule log would be kept to kindle the fire the following winter, to ensure that the good luck carried on from year to year. The Yule log custom was handed down from the Druids.
• Every year since 1947, the people of Oslo, Norway have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster, England. The gift is an expression of good will and gratitude for Britain's help to Norway during World War II.
• Franklin Pierce was the first United States' president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree .
• George Washington spent Christmas night 1776 crossing the Delaware River in dreadful conditions. Christmas 1777 fared little better - at Valley Forge, Washington and his men had a miserable Christmas dinner of Fowl cooked in a broth of Turnips, cabbage and potatoes.
• Having fun - Anyone caught having fun at Christmas between 1647 and 1660 was in trouble. Celebrating the holiday had been banned by the rather strict Puritans who were in power at the time.
• Historians have traced some of the current traditions surrounding Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, back to ancient Celtic roots. Father Christmas's elves are the modernization of the "Nature folk" of the Pagan religions; his reindeer are associated with the "Horned God," which was one of the Pagan deities.
• Holly - The Romans started using holly in winter - they gave it to each other as a seasonal gift.
• In 1551, playing sport on Christmas Day was made illegal. This law was later ignored.
• In 1647, the English parliament passed a law that made Christmas illegal. Festivities were banned by Puritan leader, Oliver Cromwell, who considered feasting and revelry, on what was supposed to be a holy day, to be immoral. The ban was lifted only when the Puritans lost power in 1660.
• In 1752, 11 days were dropped from the year when the switch from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar was made. The December 25, date was effectively moved 11 days backwards. Some Christian church sects, called old calendarists, still celebrate Christmas on January 7 (previously December 25 of the Julian calendar).
• In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, was credited with bringing the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal Family. Some historians state that in actuality Queen Charlotte, Victoria's grandmother, recalled that a Christmas tree was in the Queen's lodge at Windsor on Christmas Day in 1800.
• In 1907, Oklahoma became the last US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
• In the 1800s, when Queen Victoria was on the throne, Boxing Day was also the day that some rich people would hand over boxes of gifts to the poor.
• In the 19th century people still received Christmas cards through the post on Christmas morning
• In the Ammerschweier in Alsace there was an ordinance that stated no person "shall have for Christmas more than one bush of more than eight shoe lengths."
• Mark Carr brought trees from the Catskills to the streets of New York in 1851, and opened the first retail Christmas tree lot in the United States.
• Other types of trees such as cherry and hawthorns were used as Christmas trees in the past.
• Postmen in Victorian England were popularly called 'robins'. This was because their uniforms were red. Victorian Christmas cards often showed a robin delivering Christmas mail.
• Sixteenth century folklore credited Martin Luther as being the first to decorate an indoor tree. After a walk through a forest of evergreens with shining stars overhead, Luther tried to describe the experience to his amily and showed them by bringing a tree into their home and decorating it with candles. Some historians state that the first evidence of a lighted tree appeared more than a century after Martin Luther's death in 1546.
• The custom of the Christmas tree was introduced in the United States during the War of Independence by Hessian troops. An early account tells of a Christmas tree set up by American soldiers at Fort Dearborn, Illinois, the site of Chicago, in 1804. Most other early accounts in the United States were among the German settlers in eastern Pennsylvania.
• The decorated Christmas tree can be traced back to the ancient Romans who during their winter festival decorated trees with small pieces of metal during Saturnalia, a winter festival in honor of Saturnus, the god of agriculture.
• The first Christmas card was designed by a man named John Calcott Horsely for Sir Henry Cole, the friend who had given him the idea. A thousand copies of the card were printed and sold for one shilling. This is reportedly the first Christmas card to be produced and sold to the public. Now, the average person in Britain sends 50 Christmas cards each year.
• The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510.
• The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.
• The first record of Christmas trees in America was for children in the German Moravian Church's settlement in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Christmas 1747. Actual trees were not decorated, but wooden pyramids covered with evergreen branches were decorated with candles.
• The first United States President, Franklin Pierce, was the first in 1856 to decorate a Christmas tree in the White House.
• The modern Christmas custom of displaying a wreath on the front door of one's house, is borrowed from ancient Rome's New Year's celebrations. Romans wished each other "good health" by exchanging branches of evergreens. They called these gifts strenae after Strenia, the goddess of health. It became the custom to bend these branches into a ring and display them on doorways.
• The use of evergreen trees to celebrate the winter season occurred before the birth of Christ.
• Using small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back to the middle of the 17th century.
• While working for inventor Thomas Edison, Edward Johnson had lights crafted especially for his Christmas tree leading to the popularization of Christmas tree light.

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