Here are some interesting facts about Christmas that you may or may not know-

• Christmas is also sometimes known as Xmas. Some people don’t think it’s correct to call Christmas ‘Xmas’ as that takes the ‘Christ’ out of Christmas, however In the Greek language and alphabet, the letter that looks like an X is the Greek letter chi / Χ, which is the first letter of the Greek word for Christ, Christos.
• Boxing Day takes place on December 26th and is only celebrated in a few countries. It was started in the UK about 800 years ago. It was the day when the alms box, collection boxes for the poor often kept in churches, were traditionally opened so that the contents could be distributed to poor people. Some churches still open these boxes on Boxing Day.
• The Christmas Candy Cane originated in Germany about 250 years ago. They started as straight white sugar sticks. A story says that a choirmaster was worried about the children sitting quietly all through the long Christmas nativity service. So he gave them something to eat to keep them quiet! As he wanted to remind them of Christmas, he made them into a ‘J’ shape like a shepherd’s crook and sometime around 1900 the red stripes were added and they were flavoured with peppermint or wintergreen.
• Mince Pies, like Christmas Puddings, were originally filled with meat, such as lamb, rather than a dried fruit mix as they are today. They were also first made in an oval shape to represent the manger that Jesus slept in as a baby, with the top representing his swaddling clothes. Apparently if you eat a mince pie on every day from Christmas to Twelfth Night (6th January) you will have happiness for the next 12 months- sounds good to us!!
• One of the main reasons we have the custom of giving and receiving presents at Christmas, is to remind us of the presents given to Jesus by the Wise Men: Frankincense, Gold and Myrrh. Did you know the world’s largest Christmas present was the Statue of Liberty. The French gave it to the US in 1886. It is 46.5 meters high and weighs 225 tons!

We hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, with lots of fun, family and laughter!

Hoodietee

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