I bet you did not know all of these 10 Christmas (Day) facts… or maybe you did

Christmas may not be until next weekend, but I still wanted to take this opportunity to present you with 10 Christmas facts you may not have known. Some facts are about the day itself, while others are things associated with Christmas itself.

1. Christmas gifts have Christian and Pagan origins – For Christians, Christmas gift-giving is a way to mimic the fact that the Three Wise Men brought Jesus gifts the day he was born. Pagans also gave offerings to their gods as well. With that, it is believed by some that December 25 was chosen as Christmas Day because it coincided with Saturnalia – the day to honor the god Saturn.
2. Christmas trees have been a thing since the 1500s – During the 16th century, Egyptians and Romans used Christmas trees. They used evergreen trees (fir/pine), wreaths and garland. Only they decorated their Christmas trees with fruits and nuts instead.
3. Stocking hanging was started by accident – Apparently there is a legend about a poor man who didn’t have enough money to even buy his three daughters new socks. So, they hung their socks up to dry by the fire. Santa then decided to drop a bag of gold down their chimney and it just so happened to land in the daughters’ freshly washed socks. The more you know.
4. The NORAD was discovered by accident too – The North American Aerospace Defense Command started tracking Santa back in the 1950s, but do you know why? It’s all because a young child in the 50s was calling NORAD to find out where Santa was at. From then on, they decided to track Santa’s Christmas Eve whereabouts.
5. Xmas is Greek – I’ve personally always found it off that people call Christmas “Xmas.” While I thought it might be called Xmas by others to appease those who don’t believe in Christ, it actually still does mean Christmas. It is just the Greek was of saying it, as X is the first letter of Christ in Greek.
6. The Japanese eat KFC on Christmas – We all know there are not a lot of people in Japan who celebrate Christmas the way Americans do. However, did you know they still celebrate it? They just celebrate it with a bucket of three-months-prior preordered fried chicken in their hands.
7. One in three men wait to buy Christmas presents until Christmas Eve – I’m not going to lie, I’ve definitely done this a time or two… or maybe more. So this number does not surprise me at all. However, it is still crazy to think 33 percent of us guys wait until the day of to do some (or all) of our Christmas shopping.
8. The 12 Days of Christmas equals 364 presents – Think about it. The song does not say you only buy the present stated on that day. You buy the present stated for that day and all previous ones. So for example, on the third day you are giving three french hens, four turtle doves and three partridges.
9. Santa Claus used to interchangeably wear green, purple or blue – That was until Coca Cola got involved. Back in the 1930s, they got their creative team involved and they decided to dress Santa in red and white (with black boots). The look has stuck for nine decades since.
10. Rudolph was born from a marketing gag – Montgomery Ward department store asked copywriter Robert May to put together a Christmas story they could give to customers as a promotional gimmick. Well, 2.4 million copies (in the first year) later and it was a hit. Now we can’t imagine Christmas without Rudolph’s bright red nose lighting up the sky.

Christmas is arguably the most popular holiday in American culture, and after walking through these 10 facts it is not hard to see why. It is something that people have always been drawn to, and it is a day that will live in US culture for forever and a day.