CHRISTMAS TALES

WACKY CHRISTMAS FACTS

 

~~~ Winter was a time of celebration to pre-Christian Romans and they decorated fir trees in honour of this seasonal change.

~~~  The use of a Christmas wreath as a decoration for your front door and window symbolises a sign of welcome and long life to all who enter.

~~~  Today Poinsettias are the most popular Christmas plant and are the number one flowering potted plant in the USA.

~~~  Real Christmas trees are an American product, grown in all fifty states, including Alaska and Hawaii.

~~~  Most artificial trees are manufactured in Korea, Taiwan or Hong Kong.

~~~  The biggest selling Christmas single of all time is Bing Crosby`s White Christmas.

~~~   In 1937, the first postage stamp to commerate Christmas was issued in Austria.

~~~   Epiphany, 6th January is the traditional end of the Christmas holiday and is the date on which we take down the tree and decorations. To do so earlier is thought to bring bad luck for the rest of the year. From the middle ages until the mid-nineteeth century, Twelfth Night was more popular than Christmas day, and even today some countries celebrate Epiphany as the most important day of the Christmas season.

~~~  In America in 1822, the postmaster of Washington DC complained that he had to add 16 mailmen at Christmas to deal with cards alone.  He wanted the number of cards a person could send limited by law. " I don`t know what we`ll do if this keeps on," he wrote.

                                          

 

WONDER

There is faint music in the night,

And pale wings fanned by silver flight;

A frosty hill with tender glow

Of countless stars that shine on snow.

A shelter from the winter storm,

A straw-lined manger, safe and warm,

And Mary crooning lullabies,

To hush her baby`s sleepy sighs.

Her eyes are rapt upon His Face,

Unheeded here is time and space;

Her heart filled with blinding joy,

For God`s own Son- her little Boy!

by Nancy Buckley.