‘Jingle Bells’ was originally written as a Thanksgiving song.
It’s hard to imagine that one of the most popular Christmas songs was originally written as a Thanksgiving song, but apparently, it’s true. The song was composed by Unitarian church organist James Lord Pierpont in the 1850s, in Savannah, Georgia, to be performed at a Thanksgiving gathering at the church, according to Time.
Did you know that ‘Jingle Bells’ was the first song ever played in space? How cool is that?!
What song would you play if you were to ever travel in space? It would definitely be a very hard choice, but NASA’s Gemini 6A space flight crew wanted to feel the holiday spirit and chose to play ‘Jingle Bells’ on December 16th, 1965. That’s how one of the most common Christmas songs became the first song to ever be played in space.
The delicious eggnog has its origins in medieval times.
Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the delicious eggnog, but did you know this signature beverage dates back to medieval times? According to Healthline, in the 13th century, monks used to drink ‘posset’. Posset was made with sweetened milk, eggs, figs, and wine or ale, and it was served hot.
Besides being awesome, Santa has more than 30 different names.
Santa Claus is famous for having a large number of names around the world. Brazil refers to Santa as Papai Noel, in France he’s called Père Noël, Mikulás in Hungary, Moș Crăciun in Romania, Hoteiosho in Japan, in Norway he’s called Julenisse, and many other countries have different names for him.
The Christmas lights were invented by Thomas Edison and his business partner.
Thomas Edison is one of the greatest inventors in the United States and the whole world for that matter. He is known for inventing the light bulb, the first movie camera, and the phonograph. But did you know that Thomas Edison and his business partner and friend, Edward H. Johnson invented the Christmas lights?
As data from the Library of Congress shows, Thomas Edison created the first strand of electric lights back in 1880, and he hung them during Christmas in his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. he was the first man to ever use a strand of hand-wired bulbs colored in red, white, and blue to decorate the Christmas then.
Did you know that there are almost 750 versions of ‘Silent Night’?
Another very famous Christmas song that you can hear almost everywhere you go during the holiday season, ‘Silent Night’, is also one of the most recorded Christmas songs in the world. There have been more than 730 versions of the song from 1978 until 2014, and they still continue to appear each year, according to Time.
The origin of the hanging stockings tradition comes from a tale about marriage.
Every American hangs up stockings in their household, just to find them filled with presents on Christmas morning. But did you know the tradition of hanging stockings is based on a legend?
It all started with a poor man who had three daughters. He feared that he wouldn’t manage to find a husband for all of them because of his lack of wealth, the Smithsonian explained.
According to the Smithsonian, “St. Nicholas was wandering through the town where the man lived and heard villagers discussing that family’s plight. He wanted to help but knew the man would refuse any kind of charity directly. Instead, one night, he slid down the chimney of the family’s house and filled the girls’ recently laundered stockings, which happened to be drying by the fire, with gold coins. And then he disappeared.”
When the daughters woke up the next morning, they were thrilled to find all their socks filled with gifts. Thanks to St. Nicholas, the three daughters became eligible to marry. It was indeed, a Christmas miracle!
