- Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 20 billion cards and packages are delivered by the U.S. Postal Service.
- Wonder where the Candy Cane went and where it came from? According to folklore, in 1670 in Germany a choirmaster distributed sugar sticks that had been bent to form a shepherd’s crook in an effort to keep the young singers quiet during Christmas services.
- A Christmas Carol was written in 1843 by Charles Dickens. In October and November that year, 6,000 copies sold by Christmas Day.
- Save the cocktails for sitting around the fire. Nearly 6,000 people wind up in the emergency room due to holiday decorating!
- First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, started the tradition of selecting a theme for the official White House Christmas tree. She decorated a tree placed in the oval Blue Room with ornamental toys, birds and angels modeled after Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker Suite” ballet.
- Celebrating Christmas as an official holiday began in 1836 in Alabama.
- In 1857 the song mostly known as a Christmas tune, “Jingle Bells”, was actually written for Thanksgiving! It was originally copyrighted under the name, “One Horse Open Sleigh”.
- “Jingle Bells” was also the first song broadcast from space. The Gemini astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra pulled a Christmas-themed prank while in space on December 16, 1965. This message was sent to Mission Control:
“Gemini VII, this is Gemini VI. We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, up in a polar orbit. He’s in a very low trajectory traveling from north to south and has a very high climbing ratio. It looks like it might even be a … Very low. Looks like he might be going to reenter soon. Stand by one… You might just let me try to pick up that thing.”
Here’s the message from Gemin VI
The astronauts broadcast a rendition of “Jingle Bells” using a harmonica (only one inch long by 3/8 inch wide) and sleigh bells they’d smuggled on board.
Courtesy photo: JOHN F. KENNEDY PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUM