25 Days of Christmas!, Merry and Jolly Countdown! Options

[ZBoy]

25 Days of Christmas!

Well everyone, it's that wonderful time of the year again, and how cn it not get any better with a countdown! I really enjoyed doing the countdown for Animal Parade, so I decided why not do another one for something even more exciting!

Here are a few things you should know about the countdown:

-This countdown will begin on November 30, 2009
-Everyday I will update this thread with an interesting fact about the topic
-This post will also be updated with the daily facts in case you miss out on a few
-Donated facts are highly accepted
-Feel free to chat and discuss the daily fact, or anything dealing with the topic
-This thread will be closed a week after the final fact is given

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 25

About 4,000,000 tons of gift rap and shopping bags are generated every season. That is a lot of paper!

Day 24

It has never been entirely confirmed about which family started it, but the Christmas tree was said to have started in Germany in the 16th century. Evey year, a few more people would put up their own festve tree for celebration. As the years went by, many people began to adopt the tradition of a Christmas tree.

Day 23

The top five Christmas songs of all time are:
-"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas"
-"Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer"
-"Jingle Bells"
-"White Christmas"
-"I'll Be home for Christmas"

Day 22

The structure of the abbrevation Xmas came from the Greek alphabet. X is the letter for Chi, which is the first letter in Christ's name in the Greek aplhabet.

Day 21
In ancient Scandinavia, mistletoe was associated with peace and friendship. That is most likely why kisses are exchanged when standing under it.

Day 20

A few people put stars on their trees to represent the North star that the 3 wisemen followed to find Jesus.

Day 19

A wreath with holly, red berries and other decorations began from at least the 17th century. Holly, with its sharply pointed leaves, symbolised the thorns in Christ's crown-of-thorns. Red berries symbolised the drops of Christ's blood. A wreath at Christmas signified a home that celebrated to birth of Christ.

Day 18

Tinsel on the Christmas Tree is attributed to a woman whose husband died. She was left to bring up a large family of children herself. She was left to do everything working so hard and she was determined to make a happy time for them at Christmas. She prepared a Christmas Tree to surprise them on Christmas Day. Unfortunately spiders visited the tree, and crawled from branch to branch, making webs all over it. The Christ Child saw the tree and knew she would be devastated to find this on Christmas morning. He changed the spiders' webs to shining silver.

Day 17

Electric lights for Christmas trees were first invented by The Edison Company in 1882. Up until then, if trees were lit, candles were used-and then, usually only on Christmas Eve night.

Day 16

Can you believe that ‘Santa’ has been around since the 4th century? Originally known as Saint Nicholas, the patron of children and sailors, the bishop was immortalized because of his generous and loving nature towards children. He was said to have brought joy to the poor by throwing gifts through their windows. The Dutch called him Sint Nikolass, which eventually evolved into Sinter Klaas. It wasn’t until the Dutch began entering America that the colonials of New York began calling him Santa Claus.

Day 15

A traditional Christmas dinner in early England was the head of a pig prepared with mustard.

Day 14

If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 gifts.

Day 13

The dogs barking "Jingle Bells" on the novelty record were not dogs at all, but parrots, which can mimic dogs and are easier to train. I find this quite funny!

Day 12

Christmas was declared a national holiday in 1870. I'm just adding some dates to the list of facts.

Day 11

The practice of hanging stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve comes from England. The legend of St. Nicholas has it that the latter was a kind saint who was believed to have left gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor maidens, who badly needed the money for their wedding dowries. They hung their stockings to dry over the fireplace, and to their great surprise, they found bags of gold in them the next morning. Following this, children kept hanging Christmas stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve in the hope that Santa would drop gifts and toys in them!

Day 10

In many households, part of the fun of eating Christmas pudding is finding a trinket that predicts your fortune for the coming year. For instance, finding a coin means you will become wealthy. A ring means you will get married; while a button predicts bachelorhood. The idea of hiding something in the pudding comes from the tradition in the Middle Ages of hiding a bean in a cake that was served on Twelfth Night. Whoever found the bean became "king" for the rest of the night.

Day 9

One of the most popular Christmas songs, “Jingle Bells” was actually written for Thanksgiving!

Day 8

Tiny Tim in "A Christmas Carol," three other alliterative names were considered by Dickens. They were Little Larry, Puny Pete, or Small Sam.

Day 7

The needles of Christmas trees (pines, firs and spruces) are an excellent source of vitamin C. I dare you to goeat one.

Day 6

Animal Crackers are not really crackers, but cookies that were imported to the United States from England in the late 1800s. Barnum's circus-like boxes were designed with a string handle so that they could be hung on a Christmas tree. I'm tempted to go buy a box of "Animal Cookies" to go hang on my tree now.

Day 5!

The first Christmas card was designed in 1843 by J.C. Horsley.

Day 4!

Christmas pudding was originally a thick soup with raisins and wine in it. Doesn't it sound delicious!

Day 3!

Charles Dickens had written a Christmas story every year, but none of them were ever as popular as A Christmas Carol!

Day 2!

Coca Cola was the first beverage company to use Santa for a winter promotion.

Day 1!

IT'S CHRISTMAS TOMORROW!

I hope you all have a wondeful holiday! Thanks to those few people who came to this thread periodically. It wasn't as popular as my last countdown, but I still had an amazingly fun time putting it all together! Thanks!

[Guitar Smasher]

More like the resurrection of Ranch Story. Or was Ranch Sotry a separate entity?