SAMI’S SMACKDOWN

THE HOLIDAYS ARE UPON US

Here Are Some Interesting Facts For A Fun-Filled Trivia Night

The holiday season is full of traditions, some shared and some unique. For many, there’s a tree, greeting cards, parties, gifts and food – lots of food. The history of how Americans celebrate the holidays is as diverse and fascinating as the population. Here are some interesting facts about the holiday season that you may or may not know …

“Jingle Bells” was originally a Thanksgiving song.

Turns out, we first started dashing through the snow for an entirely different holiday! James Lord Pierpont, a Unitarian church organist, actually wrote the song called “One Horse Open Sleigh” for his church’s Thanksgiving concert in the mid-1850s in Savannah, Georgia. Then, in 1857, the song was re-released under the title “Jingle Bells.” On December 16, 1965, the jolly jingle earned its place in space history and a Guinness World Record when it became the first song ever played in space.

Two of Santa’s reindeer originally had different names.

The 1823 poem “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” originally introduced the world to Santa’s reindeer but with slightly different names. Donner and Blitzen were actually called Dunder and Blixem which in Dutch refers to Thunder and Lightning.

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” was originally recorded by a 13-year-old.

“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” is a classic holiday song that was released back in 1958 with Brenda Lee, who was only 13 years old at the time, singing the festive tune. Many artists have recorded this song since including Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was originally created as an advertising gimmick.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in 1939 when the Montgomery Ward department store asked one of its copywriters, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to create a Christmas story for kids that the store could distribute as a promotional gimmick. May actually had to fight for the red nose on the reindeer because red noses were typically associated with drunks. It was finally accepted once the employer saw the illustrated concept. And, thus, Rudolph was born, with Montgomery Ward distributing 2.4 million copies of the story in the first year it was published.

Thomas Edison and his business partner invented Christmas lights.

According to the Library of Congress, Edison created the first strand of electric lights in 1880 which he hung up outside his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey during Christmastime. However, his friend and business partner Edward Johnson first took the strand of hand-wired red, white, and blue bulbs and wrapped them around a Christmas tree. Another interesting fact was that Christmas lights were so expensive that they used to be rented rather than sold. An electrically lit tree was a status symbol in the early 1900s.

The largest gingerbread house ever made was as big as a real house.

The Texas A&M Traditions Club in Bryan, Texas built the largest gingerbread house in the world that measured 60 feet by 42 feet and is worth more than 36 million calories. What went into the making of this masterpiece? A whopping 3,000 pounds of brown sugar, 7,200 eggs, 7,200 pounds of flour, and 1,800 pounds of butter. And, the sweetest part wasn’t even the house walls! The construction also consisted of 1,800 Hershey bars, 1,200 feet of Twizzlers, 100 pounds of Tootsie Rolls, 100 Whirly Pops and thousands of other assorted candies.

At first, Christmas trees weren’t accepted in the United States.

Christmas trees weren’t an immediate hit in the United States when they were first introduced by the German settlers in Pennsylvania in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Although there’s some controversy of the origin of the Christmas tree, Germany is credited with starting the tradition of decorating the trees in the homes. As late as the 1840s, Christmas trees were still seen as pagan symbols and not Christian.

Santa Claus wasn’t always a bearded man in a bright red suit with a furry white trim.

Thomas Nast, a Harpers Bazaar caricaturist, is credited for originating the red-suited version of Santa Claus we all know and love today. Prior to the 1870s, Santa was shown wearing a wide range of colors from brown to green and even blue! However, the modern-day depiction of Santa, with his reddened cheeks and large stomach, his little glasses, and a beaming smile is what we can thank Coca-Cola for that stems from their marketing promotions.

Black Friday is not the busiest shopping day of the year.

Most people believe that Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the busiest shopping day of the year but this is not true. The two days right before Christmas are actually the busiest shopping days of the year. However, Black Friday does have some of the biggest deals of the season. But what’s with the dark name “Black Friday?” The name refers to the 1869 U.S. economic shutdown. After the market crashed, prices were at an all-time low and shoppers took advantage of the discounted prices. This boom helped businesses get back “in the black” after being “in the red” for so long. The name became even more popular when police officers in Philadelphia, during the 1960s, used the term “Black Friday” to describe the chaos that erupted on that day that signaled the start of holiday shopping.

The Abbreviation X in X-Mas is actually not an abbreviation.

The letter “X” in X-Mas actually comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Christos, which became Christ in English. The suffix “Mas” is from the Latinderived Old English word for Mass. The origin of the word for Christmas in Old English is Cristes Maesse meaning the Mass of Christ, first found in 1038.

You can write me at Sami@AZGamingGuide.com. Thanks for your letters and emails! Have fun and good luck! $