The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, or "Christ's Mass." There is no set date for his birth in scripture and it wasn't celebrated on any particular day. However Christmas was first celebrated on the 25th of December in Rome in 336AD with an aim t
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7.6 million Christmas trees are sold each year.
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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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Popular belief holds that 3 wise men visited Bethlehem from the east bearing gifts. However there is no mention in the bible about the number of wise men who visited. Three gifts were brought - gold, frankincense and myrrh, but names commonly attributed t
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In 1999, residents of the state of Maine in America built the world's biggest ever snowman. He stood at 113ft tall.
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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 sun sets on 24 December at 3.55pm in the UK, and rises the following morning at 8.05am.
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