Fun Facts About Christmas!

 

With Christmas just round the corner, it's time to be in a festive mood and think things the Christmas-way. It is that time of the year, again, when everything turns sweet and nostalgic, a time to remember loved ones, a time when wishes could come true, and yes, a time that holds something special for everyone.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find these cool Christmas facts from author Margaret Brownley's December newsletter and I'd love to share it with you guys and hope you enjoy it.

Oh no!  Scientists think that Rudolph's red nose might be caused by a parasitic infection of the respiratory system.

Speaking of Rudolph:The story of Santa's 9th reindeer was created by Robert L. May in 1939 as a giveaway coloring booklet for Montgomery Ward.

Some historians say that the new trend of hanging Christmas trees upside-down is really more traditional.  In the 1500s trees were hung upside-down to represent the Holy Trinity.

 

During World War II, the Bicycle playing card company secretly made  special decks for the U.S. government.  The decks were sent to American POWs in German camps as Christmas gifts. When the cards were moistened, they peeled apart revealing a map of escape routes. 

 

For a "green" Christmas put up a real tree. A fake tree would have to be reused for 20 years to be "greener" than a real tree.   Even then, there's all that plastic or metal ending up in landfills.   Oh, my... 

 

When Denny's decided to close its restaurants for the first time ever during the Christmas of 1986 they ran across some unexpected problems.  Designed to stay open twenty-four hours a day, some restaurants were built without  locks.  Others couldn't find the keys. 

The tradition of writing to Santa started in 1871 when Harper's Weekly published a cartoon by Thomas Nest showing Santa sitting at his desk reading letters. 

The most requested gift last year was an Apple iPad.  One of the most requested items during the 1800s was an....apple.

Jingle Bells was the first song to be performed in outer space.

Blame it on the war: The long shopping spree before Christmas began when relatives of soldiers posted overseas during the Second World War were encouraged to mail gifts early.

The 3 stages of man

He believes in Santa Claus.  

He doesn't believe in Santa Claus.

He IS Santa Claus!

Holiday Struggles

"But our family always celebrates on Christmas Eve," Ann insisted. "That’s the way we’ve always done it." She explained that her three siblings, who lived in different cities, had already made travel plans. "And Christmas is the only time I get to see my baby brother because he lives so far away from us."

Curtis shook his head. "That’s the problem. Christmas Eve is when my family does our big celebration. Our tradition goes back to the time when my grandfather was a boy during the Great Depression. . ." For perhaps a minute he explained the plans his side of the family had already made to come together.

"We don’t know what to do," Ann said. The couple had married six months earlier when Christmas was far from their thoughts. "Everything else in our lives seems settled except this."  

At the time, I was their pastor and I had heard the story before. How could they possibly please both sides of the family? Neither of them thought about the family conflict until the middle of November.

"Now what are we going to do?" Curtis said. "I don’t want to hurt my parents and Ann doesn’t want to disappoint hers." As he explained, both families planned a big meal and celebration on Christmas Eve. The one factor that differed was that Ann’s family met at 5:30 and Curtis’s didn’t start until 7:00.

They resolved the immediate crisis by going to Ann’s family, eating a big dinner and leaving a few minutes after seven. They arrived late for Curtis’s family gathering. They groaned over having to eat two huge meals.

"We’ve got to do something different next year," Ann said.

"Yeah, I wish we’d thought about it before." They decided to talk to both families to see if they could figure out something so they wouldn’t get caught in such a bind the next year.

Just before they left, Curtis asked me, "Did you ever have that problem in your family?"

I smiled because we hadn’t encountered that problem. By the time our children reached the marriage stage, I figured out that the holy season was a time of good cheer and happiness but it could also become a time of stress, especially when it came to family traditions.

After our oldest child, Wanda, married, we told her and her siblings that we had made one decision about observing the holiday period. "Go to your in-laws first. Honor their tradition. We’ll take the left-over time."

By the time all three of our children married, it gave them hassle-free permission to take care of their in-law obligations first. For us, it meant that some years we’ve celebrated Christmas three days early or two days late.

A few times I felt lonely on Christmas Day, wishing we had gotten together as we had when they were children. I reminded myself, "Nobody knows exactly when Jesus was born. So does a specific day on the calendar make a difference?" Even without that reminder, I knew we had done the right thing because it avoided forcing our children to decide which side of the family to please. That decision has worked for thirty plus years.

Sometimes I do things right. That was one of those times.

by Cecil Murphey

TAKEN FROM CECIL MURPHEY'S NEWSLETTER | DEC 2009