Rather than the jolly, overweight elf that we all know today, early illustrations of St. Nicholas made him out to be a stern symbol of discipline.

If you ever wrote a letter to Santa they are likely sent to Santa Claus, Indiana.

Voyager Space Mission Engineers planned things out so it would avoid planetary encounters during Christmas.

In Peru, there is a village where people setting previous year’s grudges by fist fighting during Christmas. They then begin the new year off with a clean slate.

Sharing scary stories is an old Christmas Eve tradition that has recently died out over the past century.

There are some zoos that accept donated Christmas trees as food for their animals.

The best selling single in history with over 100 million copies sold is none other than “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin.

During Christmas in Newfoundland people called Mummers dress up in crude disguises and go from house to house dancing and playing music while the hosts try to identify them.

Beatles frontman Paul McCartney earns nearly half a million dollars every year from his Christmas song, which many critics regards as his worst song ever.

A large part of Sweden’s population watches Donald Duck cartoons every Christmas Eve since 1960.

Most Denny’s restaurants were built without locks, which was problematic when they decided to close down for Christmas for the first time in 1988.

In December of 2010, the Colombian government covered jungle trees with Christmas lights. When FARC guerrillas (terrorists) walked by, the trees lit up and banners asking them to lay down their arms became visible. Over 330 terrorists re-entered society and the campaign won an award for strategic marketing excellence.

Jewish people wrote nearly all of the most popular Christmas songs including ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Chestnuts roasting…’, and ‘I’m Dreaming of a white Christmas’.

During World War 1, a truce was held between Germany and the UK during Christmas. At this time they decorated their shelters, exchanged gifts across no man’s land and played a game of football between themselves.

In 1918 and for the past 40 years, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia has sent the city of Boston a giant Christmas tree as a thank you for their support after the 1917 Halifax explosion.

In 1867, a Boston industrialist heard Charles Dickens read ‘A Christmas Carol’ and was so moved he closed his factory on Christmas Day and gave every one of his employees a turkey to enjoy with their families.

Between the 16th and 19th centuries was what is known as a “little ice age” where global temperatures were several degrees lower than normal. It is for this reason that many Christmas carols and songs stress a “White Christmas”.

The only UK Christmas single to hit number one on the Christmas singles chart twice is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. Once in 1975 and again in 1991.

The Nazi party tried to turn Christmas into a nonreligious holiday celebrating the coming of Hitler, with Saint Nicholas replaced by Odin the “Solstice Man” and swastikas on top of Christmas trees.

The US playing card company ‘Bicycle’ had manufactured a playing card in WW2 which would reveal an escape route for POWs when soaked. These cards were Christmas presents for all POWs in Germany.

In order for an artificial Christmas tree to be considered “green”, it would have to be used more than 20 years.

Ever wonder why we abbreviate Christmas as X-mas? Well X is the Greek letter “chi” which is an abbreviation for the word “Christ” in Greek.

40 years ago a successful marketing campaign ensured that Japanese people traditionally eat at KFC for Christmas dinner. KFC is so popular that customers must place their Christmas orders 2 months in advance.

The people of Oslo, Norway donate the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree every year in gratitude to the people of London for their assistance during WWII.

1/6 of all retail sales in the U.S. occur during the month of December.