A Little Trivia About Christmas Throughout the Years

1. Real Candles were first used to light Christmas trees. This presented a fire hazard, so people kept huge water-filled containers near their Christmas trees.

2. The tradition of having a Christmas tree display at the Rockefeller Center in New York City started with the workers in the construction industry. It happened in the 1930s.

3. Starting from the mid-1960's, The National Christmas Tree Association has donated a Christmas tree to the First Family, and has maintained a presence in the White House ever since.

4. In 1880, the former Woolworth department store first sold manufactured Christmas tree ornaments.

5. Plastic became the primary material for making tinsel. Its use was prohibited once due to the discovery that lead was involved in the manufacturing process.

6. A man named John Calcott Horsley of Britain started the idea of Christmas greeting cards. It started in the late 1830s when he started to produce small cards with colorful and attractive scenes with greetings that were fit for the holidays. In the US, similar cards were also made by someone named R.H. Pease of Albany, New York, and Louis Prang, a German immigrant. It became popular to other countries upon the start of postal delivery services only 10 years later.

7. Xmas, the shortened word for Christmas, became popular in Europe in the 1500s. It came from the Greek word "Xristos", meaning Christ.

8. Candy canes were once sold in only one color-white. It happened for 200 years, according to the National Confectioners Association. A machine was then invented in the 1950s that could produce more colors.

9. In England, the day after Christmas is a national holiday, and is named "Boxing Day". There are many ideas of how it originated. Some people believe that it came from boys who collected money in clay boxes. Others think that it originated in the middle Ages some 800 years ago. This was when churches would give their alms boxes containing donations of gifts and money, to the poor on the day after Christmas. Still some people believe that it came from the practice of the giving of gifts from a master to his servants on the day after Christmas.

10. In ancient Europe, people believed that evergreens ward off witches, illnesses, evil spirits and ghosts. They hung these over their doors and windows to serve their purpose. In the winter, sun god worshippers hung them over their doors to remind them of the green plants of the summer and their sun god as being strong again. These worshippers still worshipped the sun god in December due to their belief that winter occurred yearly because their god had become ill. They celebrated the winter months because it was a sign for them that their god would soon be strong and well again.

11. On the Christmas Day of 1789, the Legislators in Congress had a Congressional session, and it was the first one to be observed under the country's new constitution. It happened because it had become unpopular to take part in English customs after the American Revolution.

12. From 1659 to 1681 in Boston, taking part in Christmas celebrations was barred, and anyone who got caught had to pay five shillings.