The poinsettia is a traditional Christmas flower. In Mexico (its original birthplace), the poinsettia is known as the "Flower of the Holy Night".
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In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of straw. Scandinavian Christmas festivities feature a variety of straw decorations in the form of stars, angels, hearts and other shapes, as well as t
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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
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The sun sets on 24 December at 3.55pm in the UK, and rises the following morning at 8.05am.
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Although now mostly vegetarian, in Victorian times, mince pies were made with beef and spices.
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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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The abbreviation Xmas isn't irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.
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The world's tallest Xmas tree at 221ft high was erected in a Washington shopping mall in 1950.
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