Christmas Fun Facts and Trivia

The largest Christmas pud weighed 7,231 pounds (3,280 kilos) and took the villagers of Aughton, England seven days to make.

• Holly was originally hung to ward off witches. Mistletoe was prized by the ancient British Druids as a fertility symbol.
• English Christmas carols, which date to the 13th century, were once banned from the church because they had become too theatrical and raucous. Carol singers resorted to wandering around towns and villages, hence the tradition of singing door to door.
• The modern day Christmas tree was popularized in England by Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, whose picture in front of a Christmas tree in 1848 was printed around the world.
• The first Christmas card was designed in 1842 by John Horsley for England’s Sir Henry Cole.
• By 1860, the British postmaster was already advising people to mail their cards early.
• The modern day image of Santa was created in 1931 by Swedish American artist Sundblom, whose widely popular oil paintings of jolly old Saint Nicholas appeared in a long-running series of holiday advertisements for 'Coca-Cola'.
• The first Christmas tree originated in the eighth century, when St. Boniface of Crediton, an English Missionary in Germany, reportedly chopped down a sacred oak.