Home For The Holidays Magazine

Page 7 2022 Home For The Holidays Lincoln Daily News November 23, 2022 Christmas Trivia There are several interesting facts about Christmas traditions we often take for granted. For example, Christmas was not always a national holiday in the United States. In the early days of our nation, Christmas was even outlawed. In “27 Best Christmas Trivia Questions to Impress Your Family This Holiday,” Jessica Leigh Mattern, Erin Cavoto and Ashley Leath share the following surprising facts about the holiday. When was Christmas outlawed in America? During most of the second half of seventeenth century, Puritans outlawed Christmas. Between 1659 and 1681, “Puritans did not allow Christmas to be celebrated.” In fact, it was not until 1870 that Christmas was celebrated as a national holiday. What is the busiest shopping day of the year? Though Black Friday is one of the most popular days for holiday shopping, it is not the busiest. The busiest shopping day is actually two days before Christmas. How many households in the United States put a tree up? More than 95 million households put up a tree at Christmas. The American Christmas Tree Association says that in 2019, “77 percent of American households displayed a Christmas tree.” More than 80 percent of the trees people in the U.S. put up are artificial. How fast would Santa have to travel to deliver presents to all the children in the world? The Telegraph calculates that Santa would need to travel six million miles per hour in 31 hours to deliver presents to children around the world. They estimate that there are approximately 700 million children in the world. When were gingerbread houses invented? The popular gingerbread houses have been around quite a bit longer than we realize. PBS says gingerbread houses are “thought to have been invented in Germany during the 16th century and rose in popularity with the Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel story.” How tall was the tallest Christmas tree ever displayed? Though some might think the tree in Rockefeller Center is the tallest tree to be displayed at Christmas, that is not the case. It is usually under 100 feet tall. Guinness World Records says the tallest tree ever displayed was a221-foot-tall Douglas Fir. It was put up in Seattle, Washington at the Northgate Shopping Center in 1950. Continued —