Twelve Things You Never Knew About Christmas

1. Instead of the wonderful electric lights that we have on our Christmas trees, our fore fathers only had candles to light their trees with. Water was always kept to hand in case of fire.

2. There is a tradition of having a Christmas tree on display at Rockefeller Center in New York City. Workers in the construction industry are credited with placing an undecorated tree at the site in the early 1930s.This is how the tradition started.

3. The National Christmas Tree Association has maintained a presence in the White House for over 40 years. It has donated a Christmas tree to the First Family since the mid-1960s.

4. Manufactured Christmas tree ornaments were first sold by the former Woolworth department store in 1880.

5. After the use of tinsel was banned, because lead was used in the production, plastic became the main material in the production process.

6. In the late 1830s John Calcott Horsley from Britain, R.H.Pease from Albany,New York and Louis Prang a German immigrant all started to make little cards that had seasons greetings on the inside and a festive scene on the outside. Sending Christmas cards in the United States and Britain became popular about 10 years later when a new postal delivery started.

7. The Greek word 'Xristos' which means Christ is where it is believed the term Xmas comes from. In Europe it has been popular since 1500 to shorten Christmas to Xmas.

8. White candy canes were the only ones available for two hundred years until the 1950s when according to the National Confectioners Association, a machine was invented that could produce the traditional red and white candy canes.

9. The 26th December is a national holiday in England. It is called Boxing Day there are several different tales as to how the name came about. One tells of how it started with boys who would collect money in clay boxes. Another belief is that the term is originated about 800 years ago in the Middle Ages. Church collection boxes that had collected donations of money and gifts were called 'alms boxes'. Alms churches would open their 'alms boxes' and give the contents to poor people on the day after Christmas. Yet another theory is that it comes from when servants received their Christmas presents from their masters. Their Christmas presents were in boxes received the day following Christmas day.

10. Even before Christianity started people believed that evergreens had the power to ward off witches, ghosts, evil spirits and illness. In winter evergreen trees had special meaning to people. Those who worshipped the sun god were reminded that when Summer returned all the green plants would grow once more and the sun god would be strong again.

11. In ancient times, people celebrated the Winter Solstice because they believed that the sun god had fallen ill and that was why there was a winter but he was recovering. So they worshiped him in December every year, many people worshiped the sun as a god in December because they thought winter occurred yearly because the sun god had fallen into ill health. The winter solstice was a sign that the son god would begin to recover his health and once more be strong again.

12.In 1659 to 1681 ,when Christmas celebrations were prohibited in Boston if anyone was seen observing or participating in any event or activity related to Christmas they were fined five shilling.On Christmas Day in 1789, legislators in Congress did business because following the American Revolution it became unpopular to take part in or observe English customs.