Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was invented for a US firm's Christmas promotion in 1938.
113
7.6 million Christmas trees are sold each year.
100
Robins on cards were a joke 150 years ago when postmen wore red tunics and were named after them.
20
The Queen's Christmas speech was first televised in 1957.
18
Coca Cola was the first beverage company to use Santa for a winter promotion.
251
Frumenty was a spiced porridge, enjoyed by both rich and poor. It was a forerunner of modern Christmas puddings. It is linked in legend to the Celtic god Dagda, who stirred a porridge made up of all the good things of the earth.
5
The twelve days of Christmas are the days between Christmas Day and Epiphany (6th of January) and represent the length of time it took for the wise men from the East to visit the manger of Jesus after his birth.
36
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