The abbreviation “Xmas” is not a non-religious version of “Christmas”. The “X” is actually indicating the Greek letter “Chi”, which is short for the Greek , meaning “Christ”.

Source: www.todayifoundout.com

December 12th is National Poinsettia Day!

Dr. Joel Roberts Poinsett, an amateur botanist and first United States ambassador to Mexico, introduced the plant that became known as the poinsettia to the United States. He discovered a shrub with brilliantly colored red leaves growing by the side of the road in Taxco, Mexico, in December 1828 and sent cuttings home to his plantation in Greenville, South Carolina.
Most botanists at that time dismissed the poinsettia as a weed? Fortunately, Poinsett continued to study and breed this plant in his greenhouse, sharing plants with his horticulturist friends. It soon gained acceptance as a holiday plant, despite its very short bloom time. It wasn’t until the 1960s that researchers were able to successfully breed plants to bloom more than just a few days.

Source: http://www.pss.uvm.edu

Each year more than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent in the U.S. alone.

Source: www.facts.randomhistory.com

The original lyrics to “Silver Bells” were “Tinkle Bells,” but fortunately, writer Jay Livingston’s wife told him he couldn’t use a slang word for urination in a Christmas song.

Source: www.neatorama.com

 In the early 18th century, fruitcake was outlawed in Europe, where it was proclaimed “sinfully rich”.  The law was eventually repealed since fruitcake had become an important part of tea time, particularly in England.

Source: www.recipes.howstuffworks.com

Edward H. Johnson put the very first string of electric Christmas tree lights together in 1882.  Johnson, Thomas Edison’s friend and partner in the Edison’s Illumination Company, hand-wired 80 red, white and blue light bulbs and wound them around his Christmas tree. Not only was the tree illuminated with electricity, it also revolved.

Source: www.loc.gov

According to the Guinness world records, the tallest cut Christmas tree ever was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.

Source: www.kidworld.com

The name for mistletoe comes from the fact that mistletoe tends to spring from bird droppings that have fallen on trees, with the seeds having passed through the digestive tract of the birds.  At the time the plant was given this name, the people didn’t know anything about that, but had observed that mistletoe seemed to spring into existence from bird droppings on trees, thus “mistle” or “missel”, which meant basically “dung”, and “toe”, which came from the Anglo-Saxon “tan” meaning “twig”;  hence, mistletoe is another way to essentially say “poop twig”.

Source: www.todayifoundout.com