Christmas Facts

  • The commom abbreviation for Christmas to Xmas is derived from the Greek alaphabet. X is letter Chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name in the Greek alphabet.
  • Christmas Carols were banned by Oliver Cromwell, in England between 1649 and 1660. Cromwell thought that Christmas should be a very solemn day so he banned carols and parties. The only celebration was by a sermon and a prayer service.
  • In 1643, the British Parliament officially abolished the celebration of Christmas.
  • The Puritans in America tried to make Thanksgiving Day the most important annual festival instead of Christmas.
  • Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest; Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.
  • St Francis of Assisi introduced Christmas Carols to formal church services.
  • Telesphorus, the second Bishop of Rome (125-136 AD) declared that public Church services should be held to celebrate "The Nativity of our Lord and Savior." In 320 AD, Pope Julius I and other religious leaders specified the 25th of December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.
  • The 26th of December was traditionally known as St Stephen's Day, but is more commonly known as Boxing Day. This expression came about because money was collected in alms-boxes placed in churches during the festive season. This money was then distributed during to the poor and needy after Christmas.
  • The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.
  • In 1836, Alabama was the first state in the USA to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
  • In 1856, President Franklin Pierce decorated the first White House Christmas tree.
  • In 1907, Oklahoma became the last USA state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.
  • At midnight on Christmas Eve 1914 firing from the German trenches suddenly stopped. A German brass band began playing Christmas carols. Early, Christmas morning, the German soldiers came out of their trenches, approaching the allied lines, calling "Merry Christmas". At first the allied soldiers thought it was a trick, but they soon climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers. The truce lasted a few days, and the men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings, sang carols and songs. They even played a game of Soccer.
  • In 1834, Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert brought the first Christmas tree to Windsor Castle for the Royal family.
  • Some priests in Australia advise you to say "Happy Christmas" not "Merry Christmas", because Merry has connotations of getting drunk - which brings its own problems. One should say "Happy" instead.
  • Every year since 1947 the people in Oslo have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster. The gift is an expression of goodwill and gratitude for Britain's help to Norway in the 1939-1945 war.
  • The first American Christmas carol was written in 1649 by a minister named John de Brebeur and is called "Jesus is Born".
  • Mexicans call the pointsettia "Flower of the Holy Night" - the Holy Night is the Mexican way of saying "Christmas Eve".
  • Births on December 25th:
    W C Field (1946)
    Alice Cooper (1945)
    Pricess Alexandra (1936)
    Paul Borget (1935)
    Charles Spencer Chaplin (1889)
  • The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby's White Christmas.
  • Tinsel on the Christmas Tree is attributed to a woman whose husband died. She was left to bring up a large family of children herself. She was left to do everything working so hard and she was determined to make a happy time for them at Christmas. She prepared a Christmas Tree to surprise them on Christmas Day. Unfortunately spiders visited the tree, and crawled from branch to branch, making webs all over it. The Christ Child saw the tree and knew she would be devestated to find this on Christmas morning. He changed the spiders' webs to shining silver.
  • The first church the Dutch built in New York City was named in St Nicholas' honour -St Nicholas Church.

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