12 Facts About Christmas That Will Blow Your Mind

Since we're data-driven, we wondered… can you measure Christmas?

Christmas loading - Blackboard Holiday Decoration Red Baubles

It turns out you CAN. There is a ton of data available out there about the festive season; so much that it made even our heads hurt a little. But don’t worry, you don’t have to trawl through it all…we curated the best bits for you!

1. "The 12 Days of Christmas" would cost you about $1.3 million

The main expense is the Lords leaping. Lords don’t come cheap; figure about $100K per lord, with an extra $100K to cover the rings, birds and other players. Bonus fact: pipers piping are a good deal – they run about $200 per event in the GTA.

2. The song, “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” is kind of a threat

Essentially this song is about a bunch of people who, while initially give you good tidings, then start to demand figgy pudding in increasingly demanding terms. Just our opinion, but figgy pudding sounds gross. Not sure why the original composers of this song were so adamant about it.

3. Mistletoe was considered an aphrodisiac

The Druids considered mistletoe to be a symbol of fertility and virility – and used it as an aphrodisiac. This explains the whole ‘kissing under the mistletoe’ thing. You can thank the Druids for that at your next awkward holiday party.

4. Santa could have been a lot scarier

The image of Santa Claus flying in his sleigh began in 1819, created by Washington Irving, the same author who dreamt up the Headless Horseman.

5. Merry Christmas, Boston

Since 1918, the city of Boston has received a giant Christmas tree as a gift from the province of Nova Scotia. Boston lent a lot of support to the city of Halifax during the 1917 explosion and subsequent fire disaster.

6. Lay off the nog, Rudolf

Rudolph was actually conceived by a department store, Montgomery Ward, as a marketing gimmick to get kids to buy holiday coloring books. Rudolph almost didn’t have a red nose either: At the time, a red nose was a sign of chronic alcoholism and Montgomery Ward thought he would look like a drunkard.

7. Alrighty then…

And the highest-grossing Christmas movie of all time is How the Grinch Stole Christmas: the Jim Carrey version. Which is madness. Everyone knows Die Hard is the best Christmas movie of all time.

8. That’s a lot of jingling bells

The popular Christmas song “Jingle Bells” was actually written for Thanksgiving. The song was composed in 1857 by James Pierpont and was originally called “One Horse Open Sleigh”. Yikes, imagine hearing ‘Jingle Bells’ starting on Thanksgiving, in Canada.

9. Too much turkey?

There are a lot of Christmas traditions around the world. On Christmas Eve in Japan a lot of people eat fried chicken and strawberry shortcake. That sounds…interesting, actually.

10. Watch out for those runaway reindeer

About 15,000 people end up in the ER each year due to Christmas-related accidents. If that wasn’t bad enough, fires caused by Christmas trees cause an average of seventeen deaths and millions in property damage annually.

11. Last Christmas I gave you my heart

One of the most popular times of the year for break-ups (according to Facebook) is in the two weeks leading up to Christmas. Maybe it’s the stress of the season or realizing you don’t want to buy your significant other a gift! Interestingly, Christmas Day is the least common day to end a relationship.

12. Going evergreen

It wasn’t until 1991 that artificial Christmas trees outsold real ones in the U.S. However, if you think these “artificial” trees are more “green” than cutting down real ones each year, think again. On average, your family needs to use an artificial tree for at least 20 years to have the same ecological footprint as a family that uses real trees.

Kerin Donahue

You may notice that Kerin spells her name a little differently than most. It happened in Grade 4 when there were a bunch of other Karens in her class. She changed it to stand out and has been standing out ever since.