From Christmas to Hanukkah and Kwanzaa to Boxing Day, the Holiday season is a special time of year that is often looked forward to by many. Read ahead to learn some of the most interesting facts about these Holidays that you may have not known before! Here are 25 Intriguing Holiday Facts That You Probably Didn’t Know About.
The UPS delivers 20 billion cards and packages throughout the Holiday season.
The Löschner family of Germany has the largest nutcracker collection, amassing over 4,000 of the wooden toys!
The first candy cane is said to have been created in Germany in the 1600's. Nowadays, almost two billion candy canes are produced for the Holidays.
The world's largest gingerbread man weighs 466 pounds!
(Photo shown: not actual 466 lb gingerbread man)Each year, 33 million real Christmas trees are sold. That's not even counting artificial trees!
Kwanzaa celebrates African-American culture and is celebrated from December 26 through January 1. Kwanzaa is a Swahili word that means, "first fruits of the harvest," and the Holiday celebrates seven important principles: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
The average American spends almost $800 on Holiday shopping.
US shoppers spend five billion dollars on Christmas gifts for pets!
17.5 million sufganiyot (donuts) are enjoyed in Israel during Hanukkah. Enjoying the sweet treat during the Holidays commemorates the miracle of oil.
Hanukkah is a "floating Holiday," meaning that it's celebrated on different dates every year.
Keep reading to see which holidays are not floating.
The Lunar New Year is also called the Spring Festival.
Every Lunar New Year begins with a new animal's zodiac year. The upcoming Lunar New year will be ringing in the year of the rooster.
Santa Claus was named after St. Nicholas, a Turkish man living in the fourth century who was known for his great generosity.
The current aesthetic of Santa Claus (minus the red suit) was invented by Coca Cola in a 1930's ad.
If you’re enjoying this list, you might also enjoy 25 Strange Holidays That People Actually Celebrate.
Eggnog was first made in 1607.
"White Christmas" is the best-selling song of all time.
Christmas trees are usually fir, pine, or spruce evergreen trees.
In 1836, Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a legal Holiday.
The custom of "naughty" children only getting coal for Christmas is an Italian tradition.
The Christmas tree in Rockefeller center has over 25,000 light bulbs.
The origins of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer comes from a store promotion at the department store Montgomery Ward. In 1939, an employee developed the idea of Rudolph to help sell children's books. It worked! The store sold over two million copies.
It is estimated that 1 out of 3 people worldwide celebrate Christmas.
If the gifts in the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" were tallied, the number would be over 364!
Jingle Bells was originally written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas!
Boxing Day is always celebrated on December 26th.
Michael La Corte is a member of the Editorial Department at Try The World, a monthly subscription box company that sources undiscovered gourmet foods from countries around the world (which btw, is having a buy one get two boxes sale until the end of this Friday). He is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education and also works in catering and pop-up supper clubs.
Photos: 25. Pexels, 24. Pixabay, 23. Petr Kratochvil via publicdomainpictures.net, 22. artistlike via pixabay, 21. unsplash via pixabay, 20. Christopher Myers via commons.wikimedia, 19. Andi_Graf via pixabay, 18. Steve Jurvetson via Flickr, 17. Yoninah via commons.wikimedia, 16. 39james via commons.wikimedia, 15. Chris Phutully via Flickr, 14. Remy Baudouin via upsplash via pexels, 13. Lapost via commons.wikimedia, 12. Jon Sullivan via commons.wikimedia, 11. Farther Along via Flickr, 10. zjazjazoie via pixabay, 9. kaboompics via Pexels, 8. Steve Hall via en.wikipedia.org, 7. bycfotografem via pixabay, 6. Mickael T. via Flickr, 5. Rankin Bass via commons.wikimedia, 4. digidreamgrafix via commons.wikimedia, 3. Xavier Romero-Frias via es.m.wikipedia.org, 2. Juarez Barcellos via commons.wikimedia, 1. shutterstock
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