Christmas is here, and with it comes the festivities of the holidays: twinkling multi-colored lights, scores of evergreen trees, and hot steaming hot chocolate. But for how prevalent Christmas is, most people know very little about it. Sure, this is the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, but there’s far more history to the holiday than is popularly known.
Christmas Fast Facts
Christmas isn’t just celebrated on December 25th. In some Eastern Orthodox countries like Russia, it is celebrated on January 7th.
The true birthdate of Jesus is a contested topic and is currently unknown.
The word Christmas comes from the old English phrase ‘Cristes maesse’, meaning ‘Christ’s mass.’
Santa Claus is based on a real person– St. Nicholas was a man who lived in the 4th century AD on the southwest coast of Turkey.
The current image of Santa Claus– namely his red sweatsuit, plump figure, and snow-white beard– was created by the cartoonist Thomas Nast in the 1860s.
Christmas unsurprisingly prompts gargantuan sales influxes during the winter months. The National Retail Federation projects 2021 holiday sales to reach up to $860 billion, a 10.5% increase over last year’s spending.
The United States Post Office delivers around 900 million packages during the modern holiday season.
Last year, 32.8 million real Christmas trees were sold during the holiday season.
Like buying in many other sectors (including organic cold-pressed juice), Christmas shopping is increasingly becoming an online endeavor. More than 60% of US consumers prefer to buy their holiday gifts online.
Sustainability is becoming a priority: 66% of holiday shoppers will pay more for sustainable products, and younger generations are even more likely to do so.