1Ellen and William Craft
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
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. A Finnish Christmas film called Rare Export in which Santa Claus is a killer monster
5. Christmas trees can be recycled. Louisiana uses them to build shoreline fences to reduce erosion and form new marshes.
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6Charging Bull
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.
7. The 10-year-old singer of "I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas" got her wish and donated it to the local zoo
8. In Spain, employees get 14 monthly paychecks a year (a double pay in Christmas and summer)
9. The majority of popular Christmas songs were written by Jews
10. 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
11William the Conqueror
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.
12. Dungeons & Dragons creator Gary Gygax was a devout Christian who refused to celebrate Christmas because he thought it was a pagan holiday
13. Telling "scary ghost stories" is an old Christmas Eve tradition that has died out in the past century
14. About half of Sweden's population watches Donald Duck every Christmas Eve since 1960
15. Brenda Lee was 13 years old when she recorded Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
16Earring Magic Ken doll
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.
17. Mariah Carey's single "All I want for Christmas is you" has amassed over 50 Million in royalties since 2013.
18. 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"
19. 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.
20. 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'.
21Christmas in Nazi Germany
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.
22. 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.
23. 47 years ago today, December 18, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was first aired on CBS.
24. 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.
25. 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.
