HISTORY66 - Christmas

My last blog article was on the history of Thanksgiving.  As promised, this article will explore the history of our Christmas holiday.

 

After a short introduction, I will cover the non-religious forerunners of the Christmas celebration, and then talk about the origin and history of Christmas as a religious celebration, and its evolution to a combined religious/secular holiday.  Next, I will talk about Christmas traditions, and conclude with some interesting facts about Christmas.  I will recognize the international celebration of Christmas today, but will focus on the history of the holiday in the Western World, and particularly America.

My principal resources include “History of Christmas - Origins, Traditions, and Facts,” history.com; “Christmas,” Wikipedia; “Christmas - Origin, Definition, Traditions, History, & Facts,” britannica.com; “A Brief History of Christmas,” voiceandvisioninc.org; “What is The History of Christmas? Why we celebrate Christmas,” countryliving.com; and numerous other online sources.

Introduction

Christmas, celebrated annually on December 25, is both a sacred religious holiday and a worldwide cultural and commercial phenomenon.  For two millennia, people around the world have been observing it with traditions and practices that are both religious and secular in nature. Christians celebrate Christmas Day as the anniversary of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, a spiritual leader whose teachings form the basis of their religion.  Popular customs today include exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. December 25 - Christmas Day - has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870.

Most of the countries of the world (gray shading) celebrate Christmas as a public holiday.

 

Jesus of Nazareth was also known as Jesus Christ, the Messiah, as foretold by the prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures.  The English word "Christmas" is a shortened form of "Christ's Mass.” 

Forerunners of Christmas

The middle of winter has long been a time of celebration around the world.  Centuries before the arrival of the man called Jesus, many people rejoiced during the winter solstice, when the worst of the winter was behind them, and they could look forward to longer days and extended hours of sunlight.

Note:  The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year.  In the Northern Hemisphere, it takes place between December 20 and 23, depending on the year. 

Prior to and through the early Christian centuries, winter festivals were the most popular of the year in many European pagan (polytheistic) cultures.

In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated Yule from December 21, the winter solstice, through January.  In recognition of the return of the sun, fathers and sons would bring home large logs, which they would set on fire.  The people would feast until the log burned out, which could take as many as 12 days.  The Norse believed that each spark from the fire represented a new pig or calf that would be born during the coming year.

The end of December was a perfect time for celebration in most areas of Europe.  At that time of year, most cattle were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter.  For many, it was the only time of year when they had a supply of fresh meat.  In addition, most wine and beer made during the year was finally fermented and ready for drinking.

In Germany, people honored the pagan god Oden during the mid-winter holiday.  Germans were terrified of Oden, as they believed he made nocturnal flights through the sky to observe his people, and then decide who would prosper or perish.  Because of his presence, many people chose to stay inside.

In Rome, where winters were not as harsh as those in the far north, Saturnalia - a holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture - was celebrated.  Beginning in the week leading up to the winter solstice and continuing for a full month, Saturnalia was a hedonistic time, when food and drink were plentiful and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down.  For a month, enslaved people were given temporary freedom and treated as equals.  Business and schools were closed so that everyone could participate in the holiday's festivities.

Also, around the time of the winter solstice, Romans observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome.  In addition, members of the upper classes often celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25.  It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock.  For some Romans, Mithra’s birthday was the most sacred day of the year.

Early Christian Christmas 

Christians believe that God came into the world in the form of man to atone for the sins of humanity.

In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated.  In particular, during the first two centuries of Christianity, there was strong opposition to recognizing birthdays of martyrs, including Jesus.  Numerous Church Fathers offered sarcastic comments about the pagan custom of celebrating birthdays, when, in fact, saints and martyrs should be honored on the days of their martyrdom - their true “birthdays,” from the church’s perspective.

All of that changed in the fourth century when Pope Julius I selected December 25 as the official date when Christians would celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Why the change?  The reasons are still debated (the Bible provides no clue), but the generally accepted belief is that December 25 was chosen to adopt and absorb the traditions of Rome’s popular existing pagan Saturnalia festival, and other pagan festivals around the world that were celebrated at the time of the winter solstice.

In the fourth century, Pope Julius I set December 25 as the official date of birth of Jesus Christ.

 

The first recorded Christmas celebration was in Rome on December 25, AD 336.  By 432, Christmas had spread to Egypt, by the sixth century to England, and from there to Europe and around the world, mostly replacing pagan festivities.    

In the early Middle Ages, on Christmas, believers attended church, then celebrated raucously in a drunken, carnival-like atmosphere similar to today’s Mardi Gras.  Each year, a beggar or student would be crowned the “lord of misrule” and eager celebrants played the part of his subjects. The poor would go to the houses of the rich and demand their best food and drink.  If owners failed to comply, their visitors would most likely terrorize them with mischief.  Christmas became the time of year when the upper classes could repay their real or imagined “debt” to society by entertaining less fortunate citizens.

The prominence of Christmas Day increased gradually after Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of Western Europe on Christmas Day in 800.  Other boosts to Christmas’ prominence occurred when King Edmund the Martyr was anointed King of East Anglia in England on Christmas in 855, and when King William I of England was crowned on Christmas Day 1066.

While Jesus’ birth was celebrated on December 25, January 6 became the date that people marked the Feast of the Epiphany, commemorating when the wise men arrived in Bethlehem and found Jesus in the manger.  The period of time between both dates would become known as the “12 days of Christmas.”

Note:  It is not known when Advent, the Christian season of preparation for the birth of Christ, began - it was certainly in place by about AD 480.  Its beginnings were associated with a period of penitence and fasting, transition to a time of reflections of personal sins.  Today, Advent commences on the fourth Sunday before Christmas (always falling between 27 November and 3 December), and ends on Christmas Eve on 24 December.

Later in the Middle Ages, Christmas became a public festival that incorporated ivy, holly, and other evergreens. Christmas gift-giving during the Middle Ages was usually between people with legal relationships, such as tenant and landlord. The annual indulgence in eating, dancing, singing, sporting, and card playing escalated in England, and by the 17^th century the Christmas season featured lavish dinners, elaborate masks, and pageants.

17^th and 18^th Centuries 

In the early 17^th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe.  When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas - because of its pagan origins and the raucous nature of the celebrations.  By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.

In Colonial America, in the pre-Revolutionary War era, people living in the original 13 colonies disagreed fiercely over the question of how to celebrate Christmas - and even whether to celebrate it at all.

The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than England’s Cromwell.  As a result, Christmas was not a holiday for them in early America.  From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston.  Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. 

Despite Puritan efforts, many colonists in New England did celebrate Christmas, importing English customs such as drinking, feasting, and dressing up in costume, and going from house to house, putting on plays and otherwise performing.  They also traveled between homes, drinking and singing while passing around bowls full of spiced ale or mulled wine.Bottom of Form

In the middle and southern colonies, where there was more religious diversity, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Moravians, and other groups introduced their own Christmas traditions to the New World, both religious and secular.

 

Reenactment of Christmas celebration in Colonial Williamsburg.

Far from the children-focused occasion it is today, the Christmas season was packed with adult activities such as parties, feasts, hunts, balls and - of course - church services. People decorated homes and churches with evergreen plants such as holly, ivy, mountain laurel, and mistletoe, a favorite of couples seeking a holiday kiss. 

Revelers in the southern colonies, like Virginia, enjoyed caroling, singing popular English favorites such as “The First Noel," "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen,” and "The Holly and the Ivy."

Though Christmas had become a relatively mainstream celebration by the mid-18^th century, it still wasn’t officially recognized as a holiday by the time of the Revolutionary War.  In 1789, the new United States Congress went so far as to hold its first session on Christmas Day. 

19^th Century to Present

Christmas fell out of favor in the United States after the American Revolution, when it was considered an English custom.

But, in 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house.  The sketches featured a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday.  In contrast to the problems then faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly.  In Irving’s mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday, bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status. 

Then, in 1822, American writer Clement Clark Moore wrote An Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas for his daughters.   It’s now famously known as The Night Before Christmas.  In it, the modern idea of Santa Claus as a jolly man flying through the sky on a sleigh took hold. 

And, in 1843, English author Charles Dickens created the classic holiday tale, A Christmas Carol.  The story’s message - the importance of charity and good will towards all humankind - struck a powerful chord in the United States and England and showed members of Victorian society the benefits of celebrating the holiday.

Later, in 1881, the political artist Thomas Nast was hired to draw a depiction of Santa for a Coca Cola advertisement.  After this, the image of Santa as a cheerful, fat, white-bearded man in a red suit, became embedded in American culture.

Thomas Nash’s iconic depiction of Santa Claus, 1881.

 

 After the Civil War, the country was looking for ways to look past differences and become united as a country.   On June 26, 1870, President Ulysses S. Grant declared Christmas a federal holiday. 

Americans began to re-invent Christmas, and changed it from a raucous carnival holiday into a family-centered day of peace and nostalgia. 

The family was also becoming less disciplined, and more sensitive to the emotional needs of children.  Christmas provided families with a day when they could lavish attention - and gifts - on their children without appearing to “spoil” them.

As Americans began to embrace Christmas as a perfect family holiday, old customs were unearthed.  People looked toward recent immigrants, and Catholic and Episcopalian churches, to see how the day should be celebrated. 

Americans built a Christmas tradition all their own that today includes pieces of many other customs, including sending holiday cards, exchanging gifts, decorating Christmas trees, attending church, sharing meals with family and friends and, of course, waiting for Santa Claus to arrive. 

Modern family Christmas celebration.

 

Christmas Traditions

Over the years, many Christmas traditions have been born and are still part of the Christmas season.  Here are the histories of some of the most familiar ones, in the order that they were introduced, or became popular, in America:

Fruitcakes.  1700s.   Fruitcakes are cakes made with candied or dried fruit, nuts, and spices, and optionally soaked in spirits.  Long existing in Europe, starting in the 16^th century, sugar from the American Colonies (and the discovery that high concentrations of sugar could preserve fruits) created an excess of candied fruit, thus making fruitcakes more affordable and popular.  Fruitcakes are typically served in celebration of Christmas and weddings.

Christmas Carols.  1700s.  It’s generally accepted that one of the first Christmas carols was the 129 AD “Angels Hymn.”  Around this time, Christianity-themed hymns started taking over the previous pagan songs celebrating Winter Solstice.  By the 12^th century, songs referring to Nativity themes had emerged.  People in Colonial America sang Christmas carols.  Carols were being collected and printed widely by the 1800s, and began to include non-religious themes and Christmassy sounds.

Nativity Scenes.  1700s.  The earliest nativity scene, depicting the infant Jesus, his mother, Mary, and her husband Joseph, was found in the early Christian catacomb of Saint Valentine.  It traces to AD 380.  Distinctive nativity scenes and traditions have since been created around the world are displayed during the Christmas season in churches, homes, shopping, and other venues.  They are widely popular, and made in many versions, in various sizes, and made of materials, such as terracotta, paper, wood, wax, and ivory - often with a backdrop setting of a stable.

Santa Claus.  Late 1700s.  The legend of Santa Claus can be traced back to a monk named St. Nicholas who was born in Turkey around AD 280.  St. Nicholas gave away all of his inherited wealth, and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick, becoming known as the protector of children and sailors.  St. Nicholas first entered American popular culture in the late 18^th century in New York, when Dutch families gathered to honor the anniversary of the death of “Sint Nikolaas” (Dutch for Saint Nicholas), or “Sinter Klaas” for short.  “Santa Claus” draws his name from this abbreviation. 

Christmas Trees.  Early 1800s.  Long before the establishment of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter.  Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.  In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.  Decorated trees date back to Germany in the Middle Ages, with German and other European settlers popularizing Christmas trees in America by the early 1800s.  A New York woodsman named Mark Carr is credited with opening the first U.S. Christmas tree lot in 1851.

 

The tradition of decorated Christmas trees came to America from Germany in the early 1800s.

Door Wreaths.  Early 1800s.  Wreaths have been around since ancient Greek and Roman times, but the evergreen Christmas wreath, often adorned with boughs of holly, eventually took on Christian meaning, with the circular shape representing eternal life and the holly leaves, and berries symbolic of Christ’s crown of thorns and blood.  Today’s wreaths, which come in all varieties, from flowers and fruit, to glass balls and ribbon, to artificial and themed, are most often seen as a secular winter tradition.

Luminarias.  Early 1800s.  Simple, folded brown bags filled with sand and lit by votive candles are particularly popular in the Southwest.  Dating back more than 300 years, they line sidewalks and churches in places such as Albuquerque and Santa Fe, New Mexico.  In Phoenix, the annual Las Noches de las Luminarias at the Desert Botanical Garden features more than 8,000 luminaria bags.  (In Tucson, Tohono Chul botanical garden, nature preserve, and cultural museum has a spectacular display of luminarias during the Christmas season.)

Twelve Days of Christmas.  Early 1800s.  Even though we mostly hear the song between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, the Christian 12 days of Christmas, which span the birth of Jesus and the visit of the Magi, actually take place from December 25 to January 6.  The earliest version of the poem-turned-song is thought to have been published in Mirth With-out Mischief, a children’s book from 1780, with the modern version credited to English composer Frederic Austin who set the poem to music.

Christmas Stockings.  Early 1800s.  The most popular legend for the origin of the Christmas stocking is related to the legend of Saint Nicholas. As the story goes, a poor widowed gentleman was worried that his three daughters would not be able to find husbands because he could not afford to provide them with dowries.  At that time, daughters who could not be married off, and whose parents could not afford to care for them, were often sold into slavery or prostitution.  On hearing this man’s plight, Saint Nicholas wished to help but knew that the man was too proud to accept any kind of charity.  So, one night, under the cover of darkness, he went to the man’s home, slid down his chimney, and filled the girls’ stockings - which were hung on the mantle so that they could be dried by the fire - with gold coins, then slipped away unseen.

Kissing Under Mistletoe.  Mid 1800s.  The custom of kissing under mistletoe comes from England; the earliest recorded date mentioning kissing under the mistletoe is in 1784 in a musical. There was kissing under the mistletoe in the illustrations in the first book version of A Christmas Carol published in 1843, and this might have helped to popularize the tradition.  The original custom was that a berry was picked from the sprig of mistletoe before the person could be kissed, and when all the berries had gone, there could be no more kissing!

Candy Canes.  1847.  Whether devoured as a treat, or hung on the tree as decoration, candy canes are the No. 1-selling non-chocolate candy during December, and date back to 1670 Germany.  The red and white peppermint sticks arrived stateside in 1847, when a German-Swedish immigrant in Wooster, Ohio placed them on a tree.  By the 1950s, an automated candy cane-making machine was invented, cementing their mass appeal.

Christmas Tree Lights.  1882.   Thomas Edison’s partner and friend, Edward Hibberd Johnson, had the bright idea of stringing bulbs around a Christmas tree in New York in 1882.  By 1914, the lights were being mass produced and now some 150 million sets of lights are sold in the U.S. each year.

Department Store Santa.  1890.   Lining up at the mall to snap a photo of the kids on Santa’s lap may seem like a modern Christmas tradition, but it dates back to 1890, when James Edgar of Brockton, Massachusetts had a Santa suit made for himself, and dressed as the jolly fellow at his dry goods store.  The gimmick caught on and a year later Santas could be found in many stores.  

Salvation Army Bell-Ringers.  1891.  Come December, bell-ringers span out to accept donations in their iconic red kettles.   Collecting money for the needy since 1891, the tradition started with San Francisco Salvation Army Capt. Joseph McFee, who wanted to raise money to offer a free Christmas dinner to 1,000 of the city’s most destitute.  Inspired by a kettle he had seen in England, in which people tossed in coins for the poor, he set up his own version, and the idea quickly spread across the country and the world.  Today, the Salvation Army helps more than 4.5 million people during the holiday season.

Christmas Cards.  1915.  The first official Christmas card debuted in 1843 England, with the simple message, “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”  The idea of a mailed winter holiday greeting gradually caught on in both Britain and the U.S., with the Kansas City-based Hall Brothers (now Hallmark) creating a folded card sold with an envelope in 1915.  Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, more than 1.6 billion holiday cards are sold annually.  And of course, nowadays, many people send annual Christmas letters instead of cards.

The first Christmas card.  England, 1915.

 

Poinsettias.  1920s.  America’s Christmas flower, these plants, native to Central America, were brought to the United States (and given their name) by the first U.S. ambassador to Mexico, botanist Joel Roberts Poinsett, in the 1820s.  California horticulturist Paul Ecke brought the traditionally red and green plants to the masses 100 years later.  He donated the plants to TV shows, and, according to the Los Angeles Times, the poinsettia became the best-selling potted plant in the nation by 1986.

Advent Calendars.  1920s.  Early versions of this tradition, started in Germany in 1903 by publisher Gerhard Land, offered a way for children to count down to Christmas by opening one “door” or “window” a day to reveal a Bible passage, poem, or small gift.  Since gaining mass popularity by 1920, the calendars have evolved to secular calendars that include daily gifts from mini bottles of wine, to nail polish, to chocolates, to action figures.

Advent calendars count down days until Christmas.

Cookies and Milk for Santa.  1930s.  Dutch children practiced this custom on St. Nicholas’ feast day.  Americans began to leave treats for Santa and his reindeer during the Great Depression in the 1930s, as a sign of showing gratitude during a time of struggle.

White Christmas.  1942.  White Christmas is an Irving Berlin song, reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas, written for the musical film Holiday Inn, released in 1942.  The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15^th Academy Awards.  Bing Crosby’s recording is the best-selling (over 50 million copies) Christmas song of all time; it is also the best-selling single ever.

Decorating Houses with Christmas Lights.  1940s.  As Christmas lights became affordable to more people in the 1940s and 1950s, people decorated their houses to symbolize the Christmas star that was supposed to have led the Three Wise Men to the manger where Jesus was born on Christmas Day. The outdoor displays have become a symbol of the Christmas season and have grown more and more elaborate to include representations of many Christmas symbols including Santa and his sleigh and reindeer, snowmen, candy canes, angels, and others.  (In Tucson, besides individual houses, the entire Winter Haven neighborhood is decorated with Christmas lights and displays - and offers hayride tours.  Also, the Tucson Zoo has an annual display of spectacular Christmas lights.)

This beautiful, elaborate Christmas display decorates a house in our Tucson neighborhood.

 

Frosty the Snowman.  1950.   "Frosty the Snowman" is a popular Christmas song written by Walter "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson, and first recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950.  “Frosty” appeared in a television special in 1969, and has since become an iconic symbol of Christmas.

A Charlie Brown Christmas.  1965.  It may be hard to imagine that this beloved TV special, inspired by Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip, was first rejected by CBS executives.  But when it finally aired on December 9, 1965, almost half of all U.S. TV sets were tuned to the broadcast, and the show went on to win an Emmy, a Peabody, an enduring following, and even a trend of “Charlie Brown” Christmas trees.  “I never thought it was such a bad little tree,” Linus says in the special.  “It's not bad at all, really.  Maybe it just needs a little love.”

Charlie Brown’s Christmas TV special debuted in 1965.

Ugly Christmas Sweaters.  1980s.  You can blame our neighbors to the north for this silly, ironic tradition that really gained steam in the 1980s.  According to the Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book, the sweaters became a party trend in Vancouver, Canada in 2001.  And the trend is seemingly here to stay. The ugly sweater industry is a multi-million business, with websites such as Tipsy Elves, retailers including Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Target, and even food chains jumping on the ugly bandwagon.  Other imaginative Christmas wear now includes Santa stocking caps, reindeer antlers and, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer red “noses.”

Christmas Facts

Here are some facts about Christmas that you might not be aware of:

1.       The Word "Xmas" means Christmas.  Many people believe that the word “Xmas” is, at the very least, disrespectful and, at the worst, blasphemous.  This is not, however, the case.  The origin of this term goes back to the early days of the Christian church, when it was necessary for Christians to use secret symbols to identify one another.  X (chi) is actually the first letter in the Greek word for Christ, and was used by early Christians to indicate their membership in the church.  So, Xmas and Christmas mean exactly the same thing: Christ-mass.

2.    Christmas is typically the peak selling season for retailers in many nations around the world.  Sales increase dramatically as people purchase gifts, decorations, and supplies to celebrate.  In the United States, the "Christmas shopping season" starts as early as October, and it has been calculated that a quarter of all personal spending takes place during the Christmas/holiday shopping season.

3.     The majority of Americans celebrate Christmas.  About 85% of us.  Not all of those celebrate the religious basis of the holiday, though.

4.    Americans spend nearly $1,000 on gifts.  According to the National Retail Federation, consumers spend an average of $967.13 on the holidays, although individual spending can range widely.  Many shoppers will really go all out, but just as many cherish homemade gifts that are generally more meaningful than flashy.

5.    We ship a ton of packages at the holidays.  Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, the U.S. Postal Service delivered an estimated 910 million packages in 2019 - in addition to almost 15 billion pieces of mail.  That includes gifts for loved ones, cards and Christmas letters, missives to Santa, and those dreaded holiday credit card bills.  And that huge total doesn’t even include what UPS, Fed-ex, and Amazon deliver.

6.       If you gave all the gifts listed in the "Twelve Days of Christmas," it would equal 364 presents.  The song goes:  "On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me / A partridge in a pear tree.  On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me / Two turtle doves, and / A partridge in a pear tree."  If you continue to sing the famous festive tune and count up all of the gifts that are bestowed upon the lucky singer in the lyrics - French hens, turtle doves, calling birds, and so much more - you'd end up with 364 presents.

7.       Ham ranks as the festive favorite.  One of the showstoppers of Christmas dinner is carving the roast beast, whatever species it comes from.  Spiral-cut ham edges out turkey as the most popular choice for a Christmas table. 

Charlie Brown’s Christmas TV special debuted in 1965.

 

8.       Americans spend nearly $2 billion on holiday treats every year.  It used to be just candy canes and gingerbread.  But these days, the Christmas sweets industry is booming.  Americans spend an estimated $1.93 billion on holiday treats, according to the National Confectioners Association.

9.    Settlers created the first American eggnog.  The Jamestown settlers in 1607 created the first American batch of eggnog, although it likely bore little resemblance to today's comforting tipple. The word nog comes from the word grog; or any drink made with rum.  An early nog didn't have the rich, milky base we now ladle out of grandma's cut-crystal punch bowl.

10.   Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States. There are about 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States, and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold.

11.   Your Christmas tree likely traveled a bit.  Unless you cut it down yourself, your "fresh" Christmas tree probably spent weeks out of the ground before appearing at your local retailer.  And there's likely not much hiking into the woods involved, either: 98% of American trees today grow on farms, mostly in California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina.

12.   Dry Christmas trees spark more than joy.  Neglected, dried-out Christmas trees spark about a hundred fires in the United States each year, cause an average of 10 deaths, and result in $15.7 million in property damage, the Consumer Product Safety Commission reports.

13.   Tinsel has a storied history.  It was originally spun from real silver, making it far from the chintzy decoration it is now.  The U.S. government also once banned tinsel because it used to contain poisonous lead.  But now it's just plastic.

 

Modern Christmas tree tinsel is made of plastic.

14.   Christmas decorating sends nearly 15,000 people to the ER.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates that 14,700 people visit hospital emergency rooms each November and December, from holiday-related decorating accidents.

15.   Rudolph, “the most famous reindeer of all,” was the product of Robert L. May’s imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store.

16. The NORAD Santa Tracker was created due to a child's misunderstanding.  The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been tracking Santa's journey around the world since 1958.  According to their website, the innovation was set into motion in 1955, when "a young child [accidentally] dialed the unlisted phone number of the Continental Air Defense Command Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, believing she was calling Santa Claus after seeing a promotion in a local newspaper." The commander on duty saw an opportunity to create a little Christmas magic, and assured the youngster that they would guarantee Santa a safe journey from the North Pole, sparking the idea to track Santa's travels each year to the delight of children all over the world.

17.   Christmas is the most popular time of year to propose.  According to The Washington Post, wedding experts and social media data indicate that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are the two most popular days of the year to propose.  In addition, the wedding app Bridebook also estimated that around 100,000 proposal were likely to take place during the Christmas season in 2018.

18. The largest gingerbread house ever made was as big as a real house.  If you think that putting together a regular-sized gingerbread house is tricky, try making one that's big enough to walk into.  In November 2013, a group from Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas, constructed a gingerbread house that was 160 feet long, 42 feet wide, and 10.1 feet tall.  Made with a wood base, it reportedly took 1,800 pounds of butter, 7,200 eggs, 3,000 pounds of sugar, 7,200 pounds of flour, and over 22,000 pieces of candy to cover the record-breaking structure!

19.   In the U.S. there has been a tendency to replace the greeting Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays. This is considered inclusive of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and HumanLight.  In the U.S. and Canada, where the use of the term "Holidays" is most prevalent, opponents have denounced its usage and avoidance of using the term "Christmas" as being unreasonably politically correct.