100 Interesting Facts About Christmas

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76Angus Wielkopolski

Angus Wielkopolski

English farmer Angus Wielkopolski discovered that goats produce more milk listening to Mariah Carrey's all I want for Christmas tune than any other song. They found that the goats produced up to half a pint more when Carey's famous Christmas track was played.


77. The Nazi party tried to turn Christmas into a nonreligious holiday celebrating the coming of Hitler, with Saint Nicholas replaced by Odin the "Solstice Man" and swastikas on top of Christmas trees.


78. Charles Dickens grew up during a 'Little Ice Age' and hence it snowed for each of his first 8 Christmases influencing his writing and hence today's tradition of a 'White Christmas'.


79. There is a traditional British army drink called gunfire made of black tea and rum. Officers serve it to lower ranks on Christmas. During the Korean War, British soldiers once gave gunfire to some American MPs, causing them to drive an ARV and some Jeeps into a fence.


80. In 1919 after becoming an officially secular country, Uruguay renamed the holidays of Christmas Day to "Family Day", Holy Easter Week to "Tourism Week", and Epiphany to "Children's Day"


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81Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey

Mariah Carey's single "All I want for Christmas is you" has amassed over 50 Million in royalties since 2013.


82. Mattel made an Earring Magic Ken doll in 1993, complete with frosted hair, a purple mesh shirt, lavender vest and an earring in his left ear. Dubbed the "Alternative Lifestyle" Ken, the doll was almost completely sold out of stores by Christmas, due to the gay community's interest.


83. Brenda Lee was 13 years old when she recorded Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree


84. About half of Sweden's population watches Donald Duck every Christmas Eve since 1960


85. Telling "scary ghost stories" is an old Christmas Eve tradition that has died out in the past century


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86Gary Gygax

Gary Gygax

Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax was a devout Christian who refused to celebrate Christmas because he thought it was a pagan holiday


87. On Christmas 1066, when William the Conqueror was crowned king of England, people cheered so loudly that the guards outside attacked people and houses near to Westminster Abbey were burned down in a riot.


88. President Bill Clinton said he would personally pay the bill to keep the National Christmas Tree lit during the government shutdown resulting from disagreements on the 1996 federal budget


89. The majority of popular Christmas songs were written by Jews


90. In Spain, employees get 14 monthly paychecks a year (a double pay in Christmas and summer)


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91Gayla Peevey

Gayla Peevey

The 10-year-old singer of "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" got her wish and donated it to the local zoo


92. The charging bull sculpture on Wall Street was itself installed as an act of guerrilla art - as a "Christmas gift to the people of New York" by the artists in 1989.


93. Christmas trees can be recycled. Louisiana uses them to build shoreline fences to reduce erosion and form new marshes.


94. A Finnish Christmas film called Rare Export in which Santa Claus is a killer monster


95. Up to 3% of Switzerland's population of 8 million (240,000 people) eat dog and/or cat meat. It is most popular during the Christmas holidays.


96Mummers

Mummers

During Christmas time in Newfoundland, people called mummers dress up in crude disguises and go from house to house. At each house they visit, they start dancing, playing music, and get wasted drunk while the hosts try to discover their true identities.


97. Ellen and William Craft were slaves from Macon, Georgia who escaped to the North in 1848 by traveling openly by train and steamboat, arriving in Philadelphia on Christmas Day. She posed as a white male planter and him as her personal servant


98. Mormon missionaries (The ones in the suits and backpacks) can only call home twice a year: once on Mother's Day and again on Christmas.


99. Puritans started a "War on Christmas" in the 17th Century, considering it hedonistic and heretical.


100. In 1913, 73 people (59 of which were children) were trampled at a crowded Christmas party when someone falsely yelled "Fire!", for striking mine workers. 8 people swore under oath it was an anti-union organizer who yelled it.

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