86 Celebrative Facts About The Biggest Festival of the Year – Christmas

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.

52. 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.

53. 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".

54. 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

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

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

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

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

59. 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.”

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

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

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

63. 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".

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

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

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.

67. 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.

68. 47 years ago today, December 18, How the Grinch Stole Christmas was first aired on CBS.

69. 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.

70. 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.

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'.

72. 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.

73. 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"

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

75. 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.