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127 Christmas facts, all checked

Every fact on this site in one place, each linked to its source. Our build checks each one against the source text; see the sources page. Things that can change carry the date we checked them, and where sources disagree you’ll find both.

Jump to: Origins, Advent and the ban | The Christmas tree | St Nicholas, Santa and Befana | The Victorian Christmas: cards, crackers and Dickens | Christmas in the Isle of Man | Boxing Day to Twelfth Night, and around the world | Plants, food and weather | Royal Christmas broadcasts | Myths and the ban | Where sources differ

Origins, Advent and the ban

  1. 1 The word Christmas means “Christ’s mass”. It comes from the Middle English Christemasse, which came from the Old English Cristes mæsse. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  2. 2 The older word Yule may come from the Germanic jōl or the Anglo-Saxon geōl, words for the midwinter feast. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  3. 3 Navidad (Spanish), Natale (Italian) and Noël (French) all probably mean “nativity”. The German Weihnachten means “hallowed night”. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  4. 4 The church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on 25 December in 336, in the reign of the emperor Constantine. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  5. 5 In the 3rd century, the Roman Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus dated the conception of Jesus to 25 March, which would give a birth date nine months later, on 25 December. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  6. 6 Eastern Orthodox churches that still use the old Julian calendar keep Christmas on the day that is 7 January in our calendar. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  7. 7 The Armenian Apostolic Church keeps Christmas on 6 January, and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church on 7 January. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  8. 8 The Roman winter festival of Saturnalia was first held on 17 December, and later stretched to seven days. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Saturnalia
  9. 9 At Saturnalia, work and business stopped and a mock king was chosen. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Saturnalia
  10. 10 Near the end of Saturnalia, Romans gave presents of candles, wax models of fruit and small wax figures. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Saturnalia
  11. 11 Advent comes from the Latin adventus, “coming”. In Western churches it begins on the Sunday nearest to 30 November, St Andrew’s Day. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Advent
  12. 12 The Advent wreath began in the 19th century. It first had 24 candles, one for each day from 1 December, but that was awkward, so it shrank to four. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  13. 13 The story goes that the Advent calendar was invented in the 19th century by a Munich housewife who was tired of being asked when Christmas would come. The first printed calendars for sale were made in Germany in 1851. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  14. 14 In most European and Latin American countries, presents are swapped on Christmas Eve. In North America, Christmas morning is the time. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  15. 15 Giving gifts at Christmas goes back to the 15th century. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  16. 16 A carol revival began in the second half of the 18th century. Charles Wesley’s “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” comes from that time. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  17. 17 Puritans in England and in America opposed Christmas, and in both places succeeded in banning it for a time. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas

The Christmas tree

  1. 18 The modern Christmas tree began in Germany, where families set up a “paradise tree” on 24 December, the feast day of Adam and Eve. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas tree
  2. 19 A wooden “Christmas pyramid” with shelves, evergreens, candles and a star stood in the same room. By the 16th century, pyramid and paradise tree had merged into the Christmas tree. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas tree
  3. 20 In his book The Ship of Fools (1494), Sebastian Brant mentions the custom of putting fir branches in houses. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  4. 21 Fir trees hung with apples are first known in Strasbourg in 1605. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  5. 22 The first candles on such trees were recorded by a Silesian duchess in 1611. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  6. 23 Queen Charlotte, wife of George III, brought a Christmas tree to Britain in the late 18th century, but it was a yew rather than a fir. Royal Collection Trust: A royal Christmas
  7. 24 In 1848 the Illustrated London News printed a picture of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their family around a decorated tree. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  8. 26 The first adverts for tree ornaments appeared in 1853. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  9. 27 Blown-glass ornaments were on sale in Britain and the United States by the 1870s, many made in small workshops in Germany and Bohemia. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas tree
  10. 28 By 1890, F.W. Woolworth was selling $25 million of ornaments a year in the United States, and electric tree lights were already available. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas tree
  11. 29 Germans began making artificial goose-feather Christmas trees in the 1880s. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas tree
  12. 30 In some parts of India, a mango or bamboo tree takes the place of the evergreen, and houses are decorated with mango leaves and paper stars. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas

St Nicholas, Santa and Befana

  1. 31 St Nicholas lived in the 4th century in Myra, in Asia Minor, near modern Demre in Turkey. Encyclopaedia Britannica: St Nicholas
  2. 32 His feast day is 6 December in the Western churches and 19 December in the Eastern churches. In many countries children get presents on 6 December, St Nicholas Day. Encyclopaedia Britannica: St Nicholas
  3. 33 He is a patron saint of children and of sailors. Encyclopaedia Britannica: St Nicholas
  4. 34 Santa Claus is also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas and Sinterklaas. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
  5. 35 The poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”, often called “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”, was first printed without a name in the Troy Sentinel, a New York newspaper, on 23 December 1823. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Visit from St. Nicholas
  6. 36 The reindeer in the 1823 poem are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem. Modern versions say Donner and Blitzen instead. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Visit from St. Nicholas
  7. 37 The way Santa is drawn today is based on pictures by the cartoonist Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly, starting in 1863. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
  8. 38 Adverts painted by Haddon Sundblom for the Coca-Cola Company from 1931 helped fix the image of a white-bearded Santa in a red suit, but that image has roots in Nast’s 19th-century drawings. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
  9. 39 Santa’s sleigh is said to be pulled by eight or nine reindeer. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Santa Claus
  10. 40 In Australia, where Christmas dinner is often eaten on the beach, Santa wears red swimming trunks as well as his white beard. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  11. 41 In Italy, Befana is an old woman who fills children’s stockings with presents at Epiphany, 6 January. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Befana
  12. 42 Befana rides or carries a broom. Naughty children may get a lump of coal or a piece of straw from it. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Befana
  13. 43 Tradition says Befana’s cottage was in Urbania, Italy, which holds a festival for her in the days before Epiphany. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Befana

The Victorian Christmas: cards, crackers and Dickens

  1. 44 At the start of the 19th century, Christmas was hardly celebrated in Britain, at least not in a way we would recognise. By the end of the century it was the biggest yearly celebration in the British calendar. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  2. 45 Gift-giving used to be a New Year activity, but it moved to Christmas as Christmas became more important to the Victorians. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  3. 46 New railways meant people who had moved to cities for work could go home for Christmas. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  4. 47 Henry Cole, later the first director of the V&A, sent the first Christmas card in 1843. V&A: The first Christmas card
  5. 48 The artist John Callcott Horsley drew the design. Cole’s diary for 17 December 1843 says: “In the Evg Horsley came & brought his design for Christmas Cards”. V&A: The first Christmas card
  6. 49 A thousand copies were printed. Spare cards were sold at a shilling each, which was expensive then, and the venture was judged a commercial flop. V&A: The first Christmas card
  7. 50 The cards were printed by lithography and then coloured in by hand by a professional colourer called Mason. The Postal Museum: The first Christmas card
  8. 51 The second Christmas card, by William Maw Egley, came in 1848. It was once thought to be older than Horsley’s, because its date was misread as 1842. V&A: The first Christmas card
  9. 52 The Halfpenny Post, introduced in 1894, boosted Christmas card sales even more. V&A: The first Christmas card
  10. 53 The V&A now holds the national collection of greetings cards: over 30,000 of them, more than half for Christmas. V&A: The first Christmas card
  11. 54 Around a billion Christmas cards are bought in the UK each year. V&A: The first Christmas card
  12. 55 When one of Cole’s first cards was sold at auction in 2013, it fetched £22,000. V&A: The first Christmas card
  13. 56 By the turn of the 20th century, one Christmas card showed Father Christmas riding a bicycle, then a fairly new invention. V&A: The first Christmas card
  14. 57 The Christmas cracker was invented by Tom Smith (1823–1869), a London confectioner and baker who set up shop in Clerkenwell in the 1840s. V&A: The Christmas cracker
  15. 58 On a trip to Paris, Smith saw French bonbons: sugared almonds twisted in tissue paper. He started adding a little motto inside the wrapper. V&A: The Christmas cracker
  16. 59 The idea for the “pop” is said to have come from the crackle of a log fire. V&A: The Christmas cracker
  17. 60 Smith patented his first cracker device in 1847 and perfected it in the 1860s. V&A: The Christmas cracker
  18. 61 Tom’s son Walter added the paper hats. V&A: The Christmas cracker
  19. 62 By the 1890s the cracker business employed 2,000 people. V&A: The Christmas cracker
  20. 63 The year before its 1907 “Christmas Tree Crackers” box label, Tom Smith & Co. was granted its first Royal Warrant. The National Archives: Tom Smith’s Christmas crackers
  21. 64 In 1878 Tom Smith sold “Telephone Crackers”, with a picture of a cup-and-string telephone on the box. The National Archives: Tom Smith’s Christmas crackers
  22. 65 Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was published on 19 December 1843. Its first 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Christmas Carol
  23. 66 Within a year A Christmas Carol had been reprinted 12 more times. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Christmas Carol
  24. 67 In the story, Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a mean, lonely old man into a generous one after visits from a series of ghosts. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Christmas Carol
  25. 68 At least eight stage versions had appeared by February 1844. Encyclopaedia Britannica: A Christmas Carol

Christmas in the Isle of Man

  1. 69 In the Isle of Man, Christmas was a break from hard work called the “Foolish Fortnight”, in Manx Gaelic “Yn Kegeesh Ommidjagh”. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  2. 70 The Foolish Fortnight began on the shortest day, Black Thomas’ Eve (now 21 December), and ended on Twelfth Night (6 January, or Old Christmas Day). Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  3. 71 Very little work was done. The time was spent singing, dancing, eating, playing sports and games, and visiting. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  4. 72 Fiddlers were hired at Christmas to play for dancing, and their fee was called “Yn Unnysup”. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  5. 73 Oie’l Verrey (also spelt Oie’ll Verree) means the Eve of the Feast of Mary: Christmas Eve. After the evening service, the parish clerk and congregation stayed in church to sing carvals, carols in Manx Gaelic. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  6. 74 Culture Vannin calls the Oie’ll Verree on Christmas Eve perhaps the key event in the traditional Manx song year. Culture Vannin: Oie’ll Verree and the Manx carval tradition
  7. 75 Carvals rarely told the Nativity story. They were usually sung without instruments, by a male singer. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  8. 76 A carval might last as long as it took to walk and sing from the back of the church to the altar, or as long as a lit taper (a thin candle) took to burn out. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  9. 77 Some carvals were 320 verses long. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  10. 78 The congregation cheered at the end of each verse, and women might fling parched peas at their bachelor friends. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  11. 79 A.W. Moore published a collection of carval texts, Carvalyn Ghailckagh, in 1891. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  12. 80 Early on Christmas morning, fiddlers called at houses to wake everyone up for their presents. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  13. 81 Hunt the Wren happens on St Stephen’s Day, 26 December, and has gone on in the Isle of Man without a break for longer than written records. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  14. 82 In Manx Gaelic, Hunt the Wren is Shelg yn Drean. It is a music and dance tradition performed on St Stephen’s Day. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  15. 83 Today, groups go round their local community with a decorated wren pole, singing and dancing. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  16. 84 It was first written about in the Isle of Man in the 1720s, when it was already said to be ancient. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  17. 85 The Hunt the Wren tune was first printed in Mona’s Melodies in 1820. The words were first printed in 1845, in an account by Joseph Train, and have hardly changed since. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  18. 86 By the 1890s, catching a real wren had become rare. Instead, just the decorated wren pole was carried round the houses with singing. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  19. 87 The first known photographs of Hunt the Wren were taken in 1904, in Ramsey and in Douglas. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  20. 88 The dance was thought lost, but it survived as a children’s game in Lezayre, where Mona Douglas wrote it down in 1925. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  21. 89 In the Manx cultural revival of the 1970s and 80s, Hunt the Wren was brought back with a new focus on the dance, and it now flourishes in towns and villages across the island. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  22. 90 Hunt the Wren was once found across the British Isles and parts of northern Europe, but long ago died out everywhere except the Isle of Man and Ireland. It has recently been revived in parts of England. Culture Vannin: Hunt the Wren, a short history of a Manx custom
  23. 91 Culture Vannin’s 2016 newsletter reminded wren groups that the singing, dancing and hunting the wren must be over by 12 noon “to avoid bad luck”. Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)

Boxing Day to Twelfth Night, and around the world

  1. 92 Boxing Day, 26 December, is a holiday in Britain and some Commonwealth countries. Traditionally, servants, tradespeople and the poor were given gifts on that day. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Boxing Day
  2. 93 Nobody is sure where the name comes from. Some say it is from church alms boxes being opened for the poor; others say it is from boxes of gifts given to workers the day after Christmas. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Boxing Day
  3. 94 Britannica describes Twelfth Night as the evening before Epiphany, 5 January. On that night many families leave out hay, carrots and water for the Wise Men’s camels. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Twelfth Night
  4. 95 The next morning children find small presents in their shoes, in honour of the Wise Men’s gifts. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Twelfth Night
  5. 96 Las Posadas is celebrated from 16 to 24 December in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. It remembers Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Las Posadas
  6. 97 In many places a nightly procession, often led by a child dressed as an angel, visits homes asking for lodging, with songs. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Las Posadas
  7. 98 At the end, children break open piñatas filled with sweets and toys. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Las Posadas
  8. 99 In Brazil, Christmas is a great summer festival, with picnics and fireworks. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas
  9. 100 Singing “Auld Lang Syne” at New Year, now a worldwide custom, began at Hogmanay in Scotland. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Hogmanay
  10. 101 Hogmanay “first footing” says the first visitor after midnight brings luck, especially a tall, dark-haired man carrying a gift such as coal or salt. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Hogmanay

Plants, food and weather

  1. 102 European mistletoe is Viscum album. Kissing under the mistletoe is a custom that grew up in England, and later in the United States. Encyclopaedia Britannica: mistletoe
  2. 103 The poinsettia is native to Mexico and Central America. It is named after Joel R. Poinsett, who was the US minister to Mexico in the late 1820s. Encyclopaedia Britannica: poinsettia
  3. 104 Mince pies go back to the Middle Ages. Pie crusts were then called “coffins” and were not always meant to be eaten. English Heritage: Meat to sweet, a history of the mince pie
  4. 105 Early mince pies had real meat in them. Mrs Beeton’s Household Management (1861) gave two mincemeat recipes, one with meat and one without. English Heritage: Meat to sweet, a history of the mince pie
  5. 106 By the end of the 17th century, mince pies were being made round. English Heritage: Meat to sweet, a history of the mince pie
  6. 107 Turkey first appeared at Henry VIII’s table in the 1540s. Royal Collection Trust: A royal Christmas
  7. 108 For the Met Office, a “white Christmas” needs just one snowflake to be seen falling in the 24 hours of 25 December, by an official observer or automatic weather station. Met Office: White Christmas and UK Christmas weather records
  8. 109 Snow lying widely on the ground on Christmas Day is much rarer. Since 1960 it has happened only four times: in 1981, 1995, 2009 and 2010. Met Office: White Christmas and UK Christmas weather records
  9. 110 The Met Office says that, technically, 2023 was the last white Christmas in the UK, with 11% of stations recording falling snow but none with snow lying. Met Office: White Christmas and UK Christmas weather records · checked 30 Oct 2026
  10. 111 The warmest UK Christmas Day temperature on record is 15.6 °C, at Killerton in Devon in 1920. Met Office: White Christmas and UK Christmas weather records

Royal Christmas broadcasts

  1. 112 The first Christmas Day message by a British monarch was broadcast live by King George V from Sandringham in 1932. BBC: First Empire Address by King George V
  2. 113 The speech was written by Rudyard Kipling. BBC: First Empire Address by King George V
  3. 114 The idea came from the BBC’s Director General, Sir John Reith. BBC: First Empire Address by King George V
  4. 115 In 1957, Queen Elizabeth II made her first live televised Christmas broadcast, from Sandringham House. Royal Collection Trust: A royal Christmas

Myths and the ban

  1. 116 Oliver Cromwell did not start the ban on Christmas himself. A 1644 Parliament ordinance confirmed the abolition of the feasts of Christmas, Easter and Whitsun, before his time as Lord Protector (1653–58). Historic England: Did Oliver Cromwell really ban Christmas?
  2. 117 From then until the Restoration in 1660, Christmas was officially illegal, and the ban was very unpopular. Historic England: Did Oliver Cromwell really ban Christmas?
  3. 118 English Heritage says it is a myth that Cromwell banned Christmas and mince pies. English Heritage: Meat to sweet, a history of the mince pie
  4. 119 Under Cromwell, shops and markets were told to stay open on 25 December. Historic England: Did Oliver Cromwell really ban Christmas?

Where sources differ

  1. 120 Culture Vannin gives Twelfth Night as 6 January (Old Christmas Day). Culture Vannin: Kiaull Manninagh Jiu, December 2016 (Manx music and dance at Christmas)
  2. 121 Britannica gives Twelfth Night as 5 January, the evening before Epiphany. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Twelfth Night
  3. 122 The National Archives says Tom Smith invented the cracker in the 1840s. The National Archives: Tom Smith’s Christmas crackers
  4. 123 The V&A says Smith patented his first cracker device in 1847, but only perfected the “bang” in the 1860s. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  5. 124 The V&A says the decorated Christmas tree was a custom introduced to Britain by Prince Albert. V&A: Victorian Christmas traditions
  6. 125 Britannica says the tree reached England in the early 19th century and was made popular by Albert in the mid-19th century; the Royal Collection says Queen Charlotte had one in the late 18th century. Encyclopaedia Britannica: Christmas tree
  7. 126 The V&A says Henry Cole sent the first Christmas card in 1843. V&A: The first Christmas card
  8. 127 The Postal Museum says Queen Victoria sent the first official Christmas card, and that Cole commissioned the first commercial Christmas card in 1843. The Postal Museum: The first Christmas card