25 interesting facts about Catholic Christmas (26 photos)

It's time for Christmas trees, garlands, gifts and annual traditions. But even about such well-known and beloved holidays, we have something to tell! Here are some interesting and funny facts related to the celebration of Catholic Christmas.





1.



The use of mistletoe as a Christmas decoration originates from Norse myth. The only weakness of Balder, the Norse god, was mistletoe. Having learned about this, Loki, the god of mischief, cut arrows from the branches of plants, with which he killed the son of Odin.

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The animated film A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) revived the demand for real Christmas trees in America, replacing the aluminum artificial trees popular at the time.

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Nova Scotia sends a Christmas tree to Boston every year to thank the city for its help following the Halifax bombing. For Nova Scotians, choosing a tree is considered a great honor, and trees are often given in honor of someone who survived or was affected by the explosion.

4.



J. R. R. Tolkien wrote letters to his children every year “from Father Christmas.” At first these were simple Christmas letters with wishes for happiness, but gradually they became more complex: many characters and themes appeared in them (polar bear, man on the moon, goblins, snow elves). He also decorated them with drawings and developed a special Arctic language.

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As of 2010, Paul McCartney earned between $400,000 and $600,000 per year from his composition Wonderful Christmastime.

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Tim Burton did not direct The Nightmare Before Christmas. He was a producer and one of the writers, and the film was directed by Henry Selick, who later directed Coraline. Burton couldn't take on the role because he was already under contract to star in Batman Returns.

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The makers of the 2018 animated film The Grinch wanted British actor Benedict Cumberbatch to voice the Grinch in his natural voice, but Benedict decided that since the rest of the cast was American, the Grinch should have an American accent.

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Letters to Santa Claus at Himmelpfort (“Gate of Heaven”) in Germany are answered by the German postal service. In 2020, nearly 300,000 letters were received from 65 countries, and each was answered, some in Braille. Reply letters are stamped with a special stamp.

9.



To get an idea of ​​what Father Frost/Santa Claus really looked like during life, scientists recreated the image of St. Nicholas by reconstructing his remains. The result was a short man, with olive skin, dark brown eyes and a broken nose.

10.



The Puritans hated the celebration of Christmas. For them, it had no “biblical justification” and was considered to lead to immoral behavior. The holiday was banned in England in the 1650s, leading to protests in support of Christmas. It was also banned in the Puritan colonies in the US (including Boston). The popularity of the holiday returned to these parts only after 1776.

eleven.



When green lasers, such as those used in Christmas light displays, become very cold, they stop emitting green and instead emit invisible infrared, which can cause eye damage.

12.



The first Christmas movie was released in 1898. It was called "The Santa Claus" and it told the story of Santa Claus leaving gifts on Christmas Eve.

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More than 80,000 trees were once planted on Canada's Sable Island. Only one tree survived, and despite being over 50 years old, it is only about a meter tall. Every December, it is decorated like a Christmas tree, a tradition at the local weather station.

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Production of Christmas TV movies has quadrupled in 10 years, thanks in part to streaming algorithms.

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The Christmas singles that have hit number 1 in the UK charts for the last 3 years have been parody songs about sausage rolls.

16.



The bubble garland lanterns are filled with methylene chloride. When heated, this liquid seems to boil, and bubbles run inside.

17.



Advent (the pre-Christmas period for Catholics) does not begin on December 1st. It starts on the 4th Sunday before Christmas. The “tradition” of starting it on December 1st was invented by advent calendar companies.

18.



Children's author Dr. Seuss co-produced the classic animated film How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And he himself wrote the lyrics to the famous song “You are evil, Mr. Grinch.”

19.



It is said that one tree in Glastonbury, England, blooms on Christmas Day. And people were disappointed that it did not obey the change to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

20.



Country singer Jimmy Boyd's song "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in Boston on the grounds that it "mixed kissing with Christmas." Boyd met with the archbishop to explain that the song was a joke. After this meeting the ban was lifted.

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In 1867, an American businessman attended a reading of Dickens's A Christmas Carol and was so moved by the work that he closed his factory on Christmas Day and sent each employee a turkey.

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After the Christmas holidays, the tree near Rockefeller Center (New York) is used as lumber to build houses for the Habitat for Humanity charity project.

23.



In Milwaukee, USA, it is a Christmas tradition to eat raw ground beef and onions on rye bread.

24.



Bing Crosby sang "White Christmas" to 100,000 soldiers in France during World War II. He said it was the hardest thing he's ever had to do in his career not to burst into tears. Soon after, many of these soldiers died in the Battle of the Bulge.

25.



The idea of ​​a "white Christmas" was popularized by the works of Charles Dickens, whose tales of a snowy Christmas season were based on his childhood, which turned out to be England's coldest decade in more than a century.