The first Christmas card was designed in 1843 by J.C. Horsley.
38
The sun sets on 24 December at 3.55pm in the UK, and rises the following morning at 8.05am.
81
Carols began as an old English custom called wassailing, toasting neighbours to a long life.
33
In 1999, residents of the state of Maine in America built the world's biggest ever snowman. He stood at 113ft tall.
103
English Puritan leader Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas between 1647 and 1660 because he believed such celebrations were immoral for the holiest day of the year.
26
Louis Prang, a Bavarian-born lithographer who came to the USA from Germany in the 19th century, popularized the sending of printed Christmas cards. He invented a way of reproducing color oil paintings
, the "chromolithograph technique", and created a car
, the "chromolithograph technique", and created a car
1
The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, or "Christ's Mass." There is no set date for his birth in scripture and it wasn't celebrated on any particular day. However Christmas was first celebrated on the 25th of December in Rome in 336AD with an aim t
16
The tradition of putting tangerines in stockings comes from 12th-century French nuns who left socks full of fruit, nuts and tangerines at the houses of the poor.
42