Christmas Fun Facts!

• Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.
• 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. Talk about a big gift!
• The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of dyed goose feathers.
• The name Santa Claus was created by the Dutch who settled in the New York region of America, the term Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for St. Nicholas, was Americanized to produce the name Santa Claus.
• Over 45,000 multi-colored LED lights adorn the 76 foot tall Norway Spruce in Rockefeller Center. Interestingly, the very first tree at Rockefeller Center was unadorned. Construction workers placed a bare tree there at the center of a construction site in 1931.
• Approximately 30-35 million living Christmas trees are sold each year in the U.S.  And on that note, Teddy Roosevelt banned the Christmas tree from the White House for environmental reasons.
• Each year more than 3 billion Christmas cards are sent in the U.S. alone.
• According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.
• Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870. Alabama was the first state to declare Christmas a legal holiday in 1836, and Oklahoma was the last to declare it in 1907.