Category: Christmas Trivia

Played by Jim Varney, the silly character was Ernest P. Worrel starring in “Ernest Saves Christmas.”

In 1984, the most popular dolls given as Christmas gifts were the Cabbage Patch Kids. First introduced in 1978 by Xavier Roberts as “Little People Originals” for a local craft show, the dolls intrigued Coleco toy company, who began mass producing the first Cabbage Patch Kids in 1982. Two years later, the Cabbage Patch Kids branded products generated over two billion dollars in retail sales!

The traditional Christmas dinner in Medieval England consisted of either a peacock or a boar’s head prepared in mustard. The turkey was imported to the U.K. in the 1700s by the French Jesuits and soon took the place of the boar on the table.

Wassailing, which derives from an old Anglo-Saxon toast, is synonymous with Christmas caroling. It literally means to to toast your neighbors to a long and healthy life. Interestingly enough, the term also refers to the custom of singing to apple trees in cider-producing orchards in England.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the U.S., was the first to send official White House Christmas cards. At the end of his term in 1961, the White House sent out 2,000 Christmas cards. Today, over 1.4 million cards are sent out each year.

Approximately one out of three Christmas cards have a religious message.

The first Christmas card greeting read, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.” The greeting appeared on a card illustrated by London artist John Calcott Horsley. Out of the original 1,000, only 12 of these Christmas cards are still in existence today.

This law was passed in 1822 because the postal service did not have enough staff at the time. Even though commercial Christmas cards were not yet available, people were sending handmade cards in numbers that were too large for the postal service to handle.

The 14th President, Franklin Pierce, was the first to decorate a tree in the White House in 1856 for a group of Sunday School children.

During the Christmas season, we often refer to the creche as the Nativity scene. Creche is a French term meaning infant bed, and in the U.K. the term means crib, further referring to the Nativity scene as a representation of the birth of Jesus Christ.