Unwrapping Joy: 35 Festive Facts About Christmas That Will Fill You with Cheer – Part 2

Advent doesn't start on 1st December. It starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas so varies by up to a week. The 1st December 'tradition' was invented by companies making advent calendars so the same units/designs can be sold every year.

27. Christmas TV movie production has quadrupled over 10 years partly due to streaming algorithms.

28. Over 80,000 trees were planted on Sable Island in an effort to stabilize it. Only one tree survived, and despite being over 50 years old, is only a few feet tall. It is decorated yearly as a Christmas tree in December as part of a tradition among the station staff.

29. The first-ever Christmas movie came out in 1898. Titled “Santa Claus”, it depicted Santa leaving presents on Christmas Eve.

30. Puritans hated Christmas celebrations. To them, it had “no biblical justification” and only led to immoral behavior. It was banned in England in the 1650s, leading to pro-Christmas rioting. It was also banned in the Puritan colonies (including Boston), where it only became popular after 1776.

Nova Scotia sends Boston a Christmas Tree every year to thank them for their assistance after the Halifax Explosion. For Nova Scotians, it is considered a great honor to have your tree selected, and often times the trees are donated in honor of a survivor or casualty of the explosion.

32. There are close to 15,000 farms growing Christmas Trees in the U.S., and over 100,000 people are employed full or part-time in the industry.

33. The residents of the treeless tundra town of Nome, Alaska create their own Nome National Forest on the frozen sea out of their discarded Christmas trees. The tradition has fallen out of practice but has recently reemerged through pressure from the Mayor.

34. The best-selling Christmas song of all time, White Christmas, was written by Irving Berlin, a Jew whose own Christmas tradition was visiting the grave of his son who died on Christmas day in 1928 at the age of three weeks old.

35. The ‘12 Days of Christmas’ are not the days leading up to the holiday, but rather the 12 days after. In some lore, a witch named Befana brings candy and gifts to kids on January 5th also known as ‘Epiphany Eve,’ much like Santa does on Christmas Eve.