The following section of Christmaseveryminute.com houses fun facts about Christmas and New Year’s! It will continue to grow, so keep coming back for more interesting facts about December 25!
Hallmark’s first Keepsake ornaments were released in 1973
Since 1973, Hallmark has been manufacturing Christmas ornaments as part of its Hallmark Keepsake Ornament collection. That first year, they introduced a small line of six glass ball ornaments (see one example above) and 12 yarn figures representing their initial collection.
Since that modest entry into the ornament pantheon, Hallmark has produced more than 8,500 Keepsake ornaments and more than 100 ornament series with over 500 active local chapters of the national Hallmark Keepsake Ornament Club in the United States and Canada.
Was Jingle Bells intended to be a celebration of … Thanksgiving?
James Lord Peirpont’s 1857 tune “Jingle Bells,” which is one of the most popular Christmas songs around the globe, may actually have been intended to be a celebration of Thanksgiving, according to historians. The song, thought to be inspired by sleigh races in Massachusetts, is believed to have been performed for the first time at a 1850 Thanksgiving church service. Residents of Savannah, Georgia, however, dispute this account and say they have proof it was written in their city. Regardless of its true origins and intended holiday, there is no disputing that Jingle Bells is today a Christmas staple on every playlist.
The largest gingerbread house in the world featured 22,000 candies
According to the Guiness Book of World Records, the largest gingerbread house ever built was the size of a … real house in Bryan, Texas! The house, built by the Traditions Club in 2013, was 60 feet long, 42 feet wide and over 10 feet at its highest point.
Visitors to the house were able to spend time with Santa for a donation to St. Joseph’s Hospital, which was used to help build a new trauma center.
It was made with 1,800 pounds of butter, 7,200 eggs, 3,000 pounds of sugar, 7,200 pounds of flour, and more than 22,000 pieces of candy. Yum!
Christmas tree throwing woman has lawsuit tossed out of the courtroom
A women in Ireland who sued her insurance company for $823,000 over back and neck pains related to a 2017 car crash, claimed she was “unable” to work for five years due to her injuries and needed medication brought to her bed due to her pain, reports the Irish Independent.
The pain, however, didn’t stop her from participating in a Christmas tree throwing contest in 2018, which was captured in all its photographic glory in images the insurance company presented to the judge in her case. Her winning toss took home the “ladies” title, which was covered by a local newspaper and included photos of her in the yellow winner’s jacket as well as her winning throw.
As expected, the only thing that got tossed in the courtroom that day was her lawsuit. She has not appealed.
Rudolph the department store red-nosed reindeer!
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was the brain child of a Montgomery Ward manager, a popular department store chain that is now online only. It was 1939, the Great Depression was fading, and the manager tapped Robert May, an ad man for the store, to create the story as a promotional giveaway for kids.
The book was an immediate hit and according to NPR.org, the store ultimately distributed more than 2 million copies that year.
May was ultimately given the rights to Rudolph and he tapped his brother-in-law, a songwriter, to turn the red-nosed reindeer into a song that was picked up by singer Gene Autry in 1949. More than 25 million copies of the tune have been sold, which led to the iconic Rankin/Bass stop-motion animated TV special that was released in 1964.
Curious girl asks police to conduct DNA on cookies partially eaten by Santa
According to NPR.org, local police department in Rhode Island received an unusual query: running a DNA test on evidence to prove the existence of Santa.
The authorities in Cumberland, north of Providence, received a handwritten letter from a young girl in December. She asked the police to run a DNA test on a partially eaten cookie and carrot remains presumably consumed by Santa and some of his nine reindeer on Christmas Eve. The food remains were forwarded to the state’s Department of Health-Forensic Sciences Unit for analysis, police said.
The Cumberland Police Department responded to the young girl with “some already uncovered evidence in support of Santa Claus’ presence in her neighborhood” on Christmas Eve, a photo of what appeared to be a deer with antlers. The Rhode Island Health Department responded and said it found no complete matches, and would need more samples from other Santa encounters.
The first Christmas card was sent in 1843
The first known Christmas card was sent by Sir Henry Cole in 1843 in the U.K. Cole was a civil servant in Victorian England and helped set up what would become the first post office. According to the Smithsonian, Cole was upset because he had become inundated with letters from friends but didn’t have time to respond to all, which was considered extremely rude at the time.
So he approached his artist friend, JC Horsley, and asked him to create a card showing a family celebrating the holiday flanked by people helping the poor. He made a thousand copies that allowed for personalization and sent them out before Christmas. And thus the Christmas card was born.
Coca-cola created the version of Santa we know and love
In 1931, Coca-Cola commissioned illustrator Haddon Sundblom to develop a new image of Santa Claus for their upcoming advertising campaign. Sundbloom took inspiration from Clement Moore’s iconic 1822 poem “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and created the pleasantly plump iconic version that has become the definitive Santa Claus we all know and love today.
Sundblom’s Santa debuted in 1931 in Coke ads in The Saturday Evening Post and in Ladies Home Journal, National Geographic, The New Yorker, and others.
Sundblom created his final version of Santa Claus in 1964, but for several decades to follow, Coca‑Cola advertising featured images of Santa based on Sundblom’s original works. These paintings are some of the most prized pieces in the art collection in the company’s archives department.
