Skip to main content

THINGS YOU PROBABLY DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT CHRISTMAS

 
 
 

   As the Christmas season is fast approaching, I thought it might be interesting to delve into the history of the holidays.  It turns out that there are many myths, false tales, and little known facts about the Christmas holiday and I thought I would share some of these. 

  • The tradition of Santa being pulled by reindeer began in the 19th century when a group of people moved from  Norway to Alaska with a heard of reindeer, who were later used to pull sleds with Santa on them for an advertising campaign.
  • Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer was invented in 1939 by a man working for a department store, previous to this there had only been 8 reindeer.
  • In North American tradition, Santa Claus lives at the North Pole.  However, in Denmark folklore he lives on Greenland, and each country on the Scandinavian peninsula has an area in which he is told to reside.
  • The X in the abbreviation X-mas is derived from the Greek letter Chi which is the first letter of Christ's name in the Greek alphabet, rather than an attempt to remove the religious aspect of the holiday as some believe.



 
 
  • Although the birth of Jesus is celebrated on Christmas, it is cloudy as to whether he was actually born on December the 25th or not.  This date was chosen to give Christian meaning to existing pagan rituals.
  • In Roman times, December 25th  was celebrated as the rebirth of the sun and was called Dies Natalis Solis Invicti.
  • The Christmas tree comes from a pagan tradition involving the Winter solstice, and the word "Yule" also come from pagan sources.  As Northern Europe was one of the last areas to be Christianized, many of it's traditions had to be accepted into Christian traditions rather than obliterated.
  • Santa Claus was not always depicted as fat, jolly and bearded.  Throughout time his image has changed, from skinny and beardless to what he is today.  As a Christmas figure he is a mixture of Saint Nicholas and Christkindlein.
 
 
 






  • In recent years NORAD, the joint North American Aerospace Defense Command between the United State and Canada, has begun tracking Santa and his reindeer on their website via radar as he makes his rounds n Christmas.  This can be viewed at http://www.noradsanta.org/.
  • There was a time in the 17th century when Christmas was actually banned for being too flamboyant by several groups in England and America , such as the Puritans.
  • On December 24, 1914, on the trenches of the Western front of World War I, the troops of the British, French and German empires came to an unofficial, sporadic truce in places.  Carols were sung, gifts were exchanged and soccer matches were even started between the two sides.  This proves that even in the middle of one of the deadliest, dirtiest, and faceless wars that the world has ever seen, some of the most hellish circumstances imaginable, Christmas can still bring peace on earth and goodwill towards men.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

VANILLA PEACH COFFEE CAKE!!

Did you know that the fruit this summer is supposed to be the best it has been in years? Apparently, fruit loves hot weather. I personally have eaten more peaches and cherries this summer than I have in about five years just for that reason.  As I have been a little overzealous lately buying peaches and cherries I found myself with a few peaches that were going to be too ripe for me to eat on the same day. That is unless I wanted to have them for every meal plus a few snacks. So I decided to make this recipe for Vanilla Peach Coffee Cake.  Vanilla Peach Coffee Cake Adapted from  Allrecipes.com Batter: 2 eggs 1 C milk 1/2 C oil 1 tsp. vanilla 1/2 C  sour cream 3 C flour 1 C sugar 1 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 tsp. baking soda Topping: 5 or 6 large peaches, diced. 3 Tbsp. butter, melted 11/4 C brown sugar 1Tbsp. cinnamon 2 tsp. nutmeg 4 Tbsp. flour Vanilla Icing: 1 Tbsp. butter 1 tsp

PRESENT TOPIARY TO DECORATE YOUR PORCH AND FRONT DOOR!

   This comes from www.thatvillagehouse.blogspot.com .  I made something similar a couple years ago, without the pots.  It was about 6 feet high.  I got the inspiration from a Chirstmas dectoration that we bought at Target. This is a very good idea and make a great enterance to your home.  So here's a little something to thing about for next year.  Before you know it December will be here again.  You could also do something like this for an Easter theme.   Enjoy! A Merry Welcome! So here is my first Christmas project for the year!! I saw something similar at our church's Advent celebration & pretty much straight up copied it. I couldn't help it. It was love at first sight! I plan to make a 2nd stack to go on the other side of my door, so I'm not completely done, but I thought I would share it with you anyway. I started with 3 different sized boxes...9, 12 & 14 inch cubes. I used an ice pick to punch holes in each of them so that I could run

SAPPORO SNOW FESTIVAL FROM JAPAN!!!

     The Sapporo Snow Festival is a famous festival held annually in Sapporo, Japan, over 7 days in February.  Currently, Odori Park, Susukino, and Tsudome are the main sites of the festival.  The 2011 Yuki-matsuri dates are February 7th to the 13th.    The festival is one of Japan's largest and most distinctive winter events.  In 2007, about 2 million people visited Sapporo to see the hundreds of snow statues and ice sculptures at the Odori Park and Suskino sites, in central Sapporo, and the Satoland site.  The festival is thought to be an opportunity for promoting international relations. The International Snow Sculpture Contest has been held at the Odori Park sit since 1974, and teams from various regions of the world participate.      The subject of the statues varies and often features as event, famous building or person from the previous yer.  For example, in 2004, there were statues of Hideki Matsui, the famous baseball player who at that time pl