Coca Cola was the first beverage company to use Santa for a winter promotion.
251
Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.
33
Louis Prang, a Bavarian-born lithographer who came to the USA from Germany in the 19th century, popularized the sending of printed Christmas cards. He invented a way of reproducing color oil paintings
, the "chromolithograph technique", and created a car
, the "chromolithograph technique", and created a car
1
The tradition of putting tangerines in stockings comes from 12th-century French nuns who left socks full of fruit, nuts and tangerines at the houses of the poor.
42
Although now mostly vegetarian, in Victorian times, mince pies were made with beef and spices.
14
Robins on cards were a joke 150 years ago when postmen wore red tunics and were named after them.
20
US scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all the world's presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
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