Neff Zone Column

Print Edition: December 23, 2006

THE FACTS ABOUT CHRISTMAS

One of the reasons Christmas is so much fun is that the holiday has such unique lore attached to it. Traditions and practices join together to make this a truly global celebration.

One thing I get a kick out of is Christmas trivia, little known facts relating to the season. What follows is a Christmas list of things no one really needs to know but are (hopefully) interesting and maybe even entertaining.

*Ever wonder why is "Christmas" is sometimes abbreviated as "Xmas?" Most people assume it’s an attempt to make the holiday more secular. Actually, the Greek letter "x" is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Xristos. "Xmas" therefore means "Christ's Mass." The abbreviation has been around since at least the sixteenth century. Early printers often used the abbreviation because it took fewer letters and less ink to print.

* Santa Claus was not invented by the Coca-Cola company, which is a popular urban legend. St. Nicholas was bishop of the Turkish town of Myra in the early 4^th century. The Dutch were the first to make him into a Christmas gift-giver and Dutch settlers brought the tradition to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus. By the way, St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of thieves and pawnbrokers.

*The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew in Mexico, where it is also known as the 'Flower of the Holy Night'. Joel Poinsett first brought it to America in 1829.

*Alabama was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday in 1836.

*Roast turkey did not consistently appear on Christmas Day menus until the 1850’s. Just be glad you don’t live in Armenia where the traditional dinner is fried fish and spinach.

*Michigan has no official state song, but "Michigan, My Michigan" is frequently used. The words were written in 1863 and the melody is copied from "O Tannenbaum."

*The Cadillac area is famous for its Christmas trees, but the number one producer is the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. The bad news is that artificial trees have outsold real ones since 1991.

*Christmas carols are popular this time of year. "Silent Night" was first sung as part of a church service in Austria. A guitar was used because the church organ was so badly rusted it couldn't be played. "Jingle Bells" was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, and was originally called "One Horse Open Sleigh". There are 364 gifts mentioned in "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

*Based on a survey, 17 percent of us will embarrass ourselves in some way at our workplace’s Christmas party.

*It's Donder, not Donner. (Donner is the name of a group of ill-fated emigrants, who became trapped by snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains during the winter of 1846-47. Nearly half of the party died, and some resorted to eating their dead in an effort to survive. (Obviously the reindeer were too smart to come within shooting distance to these folks.) Anyway, it’s a moot point because two of Santa's reindeer were originally named 'Dunder' and 'Blixem,' not 'Donner' and 'Blitzen.'

*Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was invented in 1939 by the Montgomery Ward stores. They used the story as a coloring book to give away to their customers as a promotional gimmick.

*Christmas pudding should be stirred from east to west.

*How about some statistics? 56 percent of Americans sing holiday carols to their pets. 53 percent of Americans engage in re-gifting. 33 percent of men will wait until Christmas Eve to finish their shopping (and 15 percent of men would like to get rid of all the gift-giving altogether.) There are 1.76 billion candy canes produced every year. Based on an estimated population count of North America and Europe, on Christmas Eve Santa Claus has to visit 42,466,666 homes in a 12-hour period -- that's 983 homes per second.

*On Christmas Eve in 2001, the Bethlehem Hotel had 208 of its 210 rooms free.

*There really is a person named Kris Kringel. He’s in his 40s, lives in North Pole, Alaska, and delivers pizzas for a living.

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.