Facts About Christmas You Didn’t Know
The song ‘We wish you a merry Christmas’ was originally used as a threat.
We wish you a merry Christmas was originally a song sung by servants used to demand alcohol from their masters over the Christmas period. The line ‘we won’t go until we get some’ was used to get their point made.
Spiders are a traditional Eastern European Christmas decoration.
Finding a spider or a spider’s web on your Christmas tree in many Eastern European countries is recognised as a symbol of good luck. The legend behind it is that a widowed Mother is too poor to decorate her Christmas tree, so spiders create webs on the tree that turn into silver and gold in the sunlight.
Jingle bells was the first song played in space.
The song ‘Jingle Bells’ made history on the 16th of December 1965 when it became the first song to be played in space during NASA’s Gemini 6A space flight.
A traditional Christmas dinner in Japan is to go to KFC.
In 1974, KFC launched its Kentucky for Christmas marketing campaign, which was an instant hit. Now, KFC is a popular choice for Christmas dinners in Japan.
Tinsel was originally made with real silver.
Tinsel was originally made with real silver to create its glamorous sparkly effect. This was first used in Germany centuries ago, but it was quickly discovered that silver corrodes easily. Different types of metals were experimented with over time before we got to the durable plastic tinsel that we use today.
Santa doesn’t wear red because of Coca Cola.
It is widely believed that Santa wears red because of the brand Coca cola, however this is not actually the case. St Nick was portrayed wearing a scarlet-coloured coat in many books and illustrations before the company had started. Coca Cola just made it more popular!
