Christmas Day Trivia

1.  In 1962, the first Christmas postage stamp was issued in the United States.

2.  Christmas trees have been sold in the U.S. since 1850.

3.  Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870.

4.  President Teddy Roosevelt, an environmentalist, banned Christmas trees from the White House in 1912.

5.  The first printed reference to a Christmas tree was in 1531 in Germany.

6.  "Angels We Have Heard on High" is a Christmas carol in the public domain. The words of the song are based on a traditional French carol known as Les Anges dans nos campagnes (literally, "Angels in our countryside") composed by an unknown author in Languedoc, France.

7.  The early American Puritans of Massachusetts enacted a law in 1659 that made it illegal to celebrate Christmas since Puritans didn't believe it to be the true date of their savior's birth. The law carried a punishment of five shillings.

8.  The man who wrote the melody for "O Holy Night" was Jewish.

9.  Astronomers believe the Star Of Bethlehem, which guided the wisemen to Jesus, may have been a comet or the planet Uranus.

10.  Many parts of the Christmas tree can actually be eaten, and the needles are a good source of Vitamin C.