Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to You!

A Newsletter Valuing Change

Fun Christmas Facts

• In 1647, England passed an act making Christmas merry making illegal. Puritans under Oliver Cromwell considered Christmas feasting and revelry immoral. People could not light Christmas candles or eat cake. Town criers went round proclaiming “No Christmas! No Christmas!”
  
  
• It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) was nominated for fve Oscars but didn’t win any. The flm was not an initial box offce success. Its popularity began in the ‘70s when many television stations thought it had entered the public domain and so played it without paying royalties.
  
  
• The frst Christmas card was produced in 1843 by Englishman, Sir Henry Cole. Cole had the artist, J.C. Horsley, design the card and sold 1000 copies in London.
  
  
• The frst Christmas stamp was released in Canada in 1898.
  
  
• Jingle Bells, composed in 1857 by James Pierpont, was originally called “One-Horse Open Sleigh” and was actually written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
  
  
• White Christmas sung by Bing Crosby won the Oscar for Best Original Song of 1942.
  
  
• The Night Before Christmas was written by Clement Moore for his children and some guests. One of his guests anonymously sent the poem to a New York newspaper for publication.
  
  
• Prince Albert, the German-born husband of Queen Victoria brought the tradition of using a decorated Christmas tree from Germany. A picture of the royal family gathered around their decorated tree appeared in the Illustrated London News in 1848. English families followed suit.
  
  
• In 1856, Franklin Pierce was the frst President to have a Christmas tree in the White house.
  
  
• Bob Hope was not at home for Christmas for 25 consecutive years because he was entertaining American soldiers at home and abroad.
  
  

Christmas Trivia: 200 Fun & Fascinating Facts About Christmas-, by Jennie Miller Helderman & Mary Caulkins is the book that I found containing the Christmas facts for this newsletter. It’s a fun question and answer format that you could keep on your coffee table for Christmas.

"At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year."
— Thomas Tusser

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