Christmas Facts

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.

The abbreviation Xmas isn't irreligious. The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.

There are 13 Santas in Iceland, each leaving a gift for children. They come down from the mountain one by one, starting on December 12 and have names like Spoon Licker, Door Sniffer and Meat Hook.

Gold-wrapped chocolate coins commemorate St Nicholas who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.

On Christmas Eve in London, the sun sets at around 3:53pm and doesn't rise again until approximately 8:06am on Christmas Day, giving Britons over 16 hours of darkness for their festive celebrations.

Boxing Day is named so because it was the day that "Christmas boxes" were given to the more needy.

One town in Indiana is called Santa Claus. There is also a Santa, Idaho.

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

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was invented for Montgomery Ward's Christmas promotion in 1939.

Identity crisis? About 10% of Jewish households have Christmas Trees.

Electric lights for Christmas trees were first used in 1882, when Thomas Edison's business partner Edward H. Johnson hand-wired 80 red, white, and blue bulbs and strung them around a rotating tree in his New York City home.

Many theologians estimate that Jesus wasn't born on December 25 but sometime in September between 6BC and 30AD.

In 1659, it was illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts.

The typical image we have of Santa Claus dressed in red clothes with white fur trim, is an amalgamation of cultural input over many years. Some people claim the image of Santa we know today is from Coca-cola advertising, but this simply isn't true. The st

In the Ukraine, if you find a spider web in the house on Christmas morning, it is believed to be a harbinger of good luck! There once lived a woman so poor, says a Ukrainian folk tale, that she could not afford Christmas decorations for her family. One Ch

Christmas carols evolved from wassailing, an old English custom where people went door-to-door singing and toasting neighbours to good health and prosperity.

The tradition of putting tangerines in stockings traces back to legends of St. Nicholas and 16th-century French nuns who left socks filled with fruit, nuts, and coins at the homes of the poor, symbolizing the gold that Bishop Nicholas reportedly tossed through a window to save three sisters from poverty.

The twelve days of Christmas run from December 25 (Christmas Day) to January 6 (Epiphany) and commemorate the period between Jesus's birth and the arrival of the Magi (wise men from the East) who came to honor the newborn king.

Santa Claus has many different names around the world including Father Christmas in the UK, Père Noël in France, Weihnachtsmann in Germany, Julenisse in Denmark, Ded Moroz (meaning Grandfather Frost) in Russia, Babbo Natale in Italy, and Papai Noel in Brazil.

The first Christmas card was designed in 1843 by J.C. Horsley.

Although now mostly vegetarian, in Victorian times, mince pies were made with beef and spices.

In many households, part of the fun of eating Christmas pudding is finding a trinket that predicts your fortune for the coming year. For instance, finding a coin means you will become wealthy. A ring means you will get married; while a bachelor's button or thimble predicts a year of single blessedness.

The English Parliament banned Christmas between 1647 and 1660, with Puritan leaders believing such celebrations were immoral and too secular for the holiest day of the year.

The Queen's Christmas speech was first televised in 1957.