The first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria in 1937.
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Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.
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Although now mostly vegetarian, in Victorian times, mince pies were made with beef and spices.
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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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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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7.6 million Christmas trees are sold each year.
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Frumenty was a spiced porridge, enjoyed by both rich and poor. It was a forerunner of modern Christmas puddings. It is linked in legend to the Celtic god Dagda, who stirred a porridge made up of all the good things of the earth.
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Santa Claus has many different names around the world including Father Christmas in the UK, Pere Noel in France, Kriss Kringle in Germany, La Befana in Italy, Julinesse in Denmark, Dedushka Moroz (meaning Grandfather Frost) in Russia and the Three Kings i
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