100 Interesting Facts About Christmas

Australian businessman Sidney Myer provided Christmas dinner for 10,000 unemployed people including a gift for every child during the 1930's depression.

52. Criss Angel celebrated his 46th birthday by donating $100,000 to charity, visiting a children's hospital to do magic, and then threw a Christmas Party for the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

53. Britain's oldest Turkey is named "Dinner" despite dodging the Christmas roast for 16 years

54. We frequently abbreviate Christmas as X-mas because of ancient tradition. X is the Greek letter "chi" which is an abbreviation for the word "Christ" in Greek.

55. In 2009 a couple from the UK started a Facebook campaign to make Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" the #1 Christmas single. The song sold 500,000 copies beating the 4 year run of X-factor winners. All proceeds went to homeless charities.

In 2011 a Minnesota man was arrested and charged with converting a vibrator into an explosive device with the intention of giving it to his ex-girlfriend for Christmas.

57. In Iceland, books are exchanged on Christmas Eve & you spend the rest of the night reading. Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country; & new books are typically published only during the Christmas season. This frenzy is called Jólabókaflóð, or "Christmas Book Flood."

58. Before a game, Larry Bird told Chuck Person that he had Christmas present waiting for him. While Person was on the bench Bird shot a three-pointer right in front of him. Immediately after releasing the ball, Bird said to Person, "Merry f*%#ing Christmas!", and then the shot went in.

59. The tradition of opening gifts on Christmas morning is nearly exclusive to English-speaking countries. In most European and Latin American countries, it is done on Christmas Eve.

60. Two brothers re-gifted the same pair of pants for over 12 Xmases, in increasingly difficult 'wrapping' that included a crushed AMC Gremlin with a note saying: "Merry Christmas, the pants are in the glove box".

The episode of the Simpsons where the kids are snowed in the school at Christmas was based on a true story that happened to one of the writers

62. The Hershey Kiss bell-choir Christmas commercial first came out in 1989 and has been running ever since each holiday season.

63. Many of Denny's restaurants were built without locks, which was problematic when they decided to close for Christmas.

64. Aluminum Christmas trees dropped in popularity after their negative portrayal in A Charlie Brown Christmas

65. It takes roughly 12 years to grow an average Christmas tree. From seedling to the customer and all the hard work in between.

On Christmas Day in 1900, the first international phone call was made. John W. Atkins called to Cuba testing to see if it would be possible for the voice to be heard through the telegraph lines. After a long silence, Cuba answered with a simple “I don’t understand you.”

67. George Orwell wanted to experience being in jail over Christmas. He tried and failed, to get arrested.

68. Warren Buffett met his mistress Astrid Menks, while she was a waitress at a nightclub his wife was a singer at. The women 'shared' Buffett from the 1970's until his wife died in 2004. The three would send out Christmas cards signed "Warren, Susie, and Astrid." In 2006 Buffett married his mistress

69. Every Christmas from 1940, Boris Karloff would dress as FatherChristmas and hand out presents to physically disabled children in a Baltimore hospital.

70. On Christmas Day 1826, cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point including future Confederacy President Jefferson Davis threw a booze-fueled party and eventual mutiny that ended with twenty court martials. It was known as the "Eggnog Riot".

Hitler admired Disney cartoons. He was delighted when Joseph Goebbels gifted him eighteen Mickey Mouse films as a Christmas present in 1937.

72. FDR changed the date of Thanksgiving to make the Christmas shopping season longer.

73. On Christmas Day, 1942 during the Battle of Stalingrad, Radio Moscow broadcasted the message that “Every seven seconds a German soldier dies in Russia” to the besieged Nazi Army. The message was accompanied by the sound of a ticking clock. The ticking clock was broadcast all day.

74. The popular Christmas song "Fairytale of New York" by the Pogues was written after a wager that the band couldn't write a Christmas hit single.

75. 47 years ago today, December 18, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was first aired on CBS.