Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.
33
At Christmas, it is traditional to exchange kisses beneath the mistletoe tree. In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship. That may account for the custom of "kissing beneath the mistletoe".
27
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
16
Gold-wrapped chocolate coins commemorate St Nicholas who gave bags of gold coins to the poor.
196
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was invented for a US firm's Christmas promotion in 1938.
113
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
26
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.
415
The world's tallest Xmas tree at 221ft high was erected in a Washington shopping mall in 1950.
82