Christmas Day

Wishing you and your family a Very Merry Christmas from the Park Hills - Leadington Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and Staff!

Christmas Fun Facts -- I bet you didn't know this...

• Japanese people traditionally eat at KFC for Christmas dinner, thanks to a successful marketing campaign 40 years ago. KFC is so popular that customers must place their Christmas orders 2 months in advance. – Source
• We frequently abbreviate Christmas as X-mas because of ancient tradition. X is the Greek letter “chi” which is an abbreviation for the word “Christ” in Greek. – Source
• An artificial Christmas tree would have to be reused for more than 20 years to be “greener” than buying a fresh-cut tree annually – Source
• The Nazi party tried to turn Christmas into a nonreligious holiday celebrating the coming of Hitler, with Saint Nicholas replaced by Odin the “Solstice Man” and swastikas on top of Christmas trees. – Source
• The US playing card company ‘Bicycle’ had manufactured a playing card in WW2. That, when the card was soaked, it would reveal an escape route for POWs. These cards were Christmas presents for all POWs in Germany. The Nazis were none the wiser! – Source
• During the Christmas of 2010, the Colombian government covered jungle trees with lights. When FARC guerrillas (terrorists) walked by, the trees lit up and banners asking them to lay down their arms became visible. 331 guerrillas re-entered society and the campaign won an award for strategic marketing excellence. – Source
• Many of Denny’s restaurants were built without locks, which was problematic when they decided to close down for Christmas. – Source
• Nearly all of the most popular Christmas songs including ‘Winter Wonderland’, ‘Chestnuts roasting…’, and ‘I’m Dreaming of a white Christmas’ were written by Jews – Source
• In 1918 and for the past 40 years, the Canadian province of Nova Scotia has sent the city of Boston a giant Christmas tree as a thank you for their support after the 1917 Halifax explosion – Source
• During the Christmas of 1914 (World War 1), a truce was held between Germany and the UK. They decorated their shelters, exchanged gifts across no man’s land and played a game of football between themselves. – Source
• About half of Sweden’s population watches Donald Duck cartoons every Christmas Eve since 1960 – Source
• In 1867, a Boston industrialist heard Charles Dickens read A Christmas Carol and was so moved he closed his factory on Christmas Day and gave every one of his employees a turkey – Source
• Some zoos take donated Christmas trees and use them to feed their animals. – Source
• Charles Dickens grew up during a ‘Little Ice Age’ and hence it snowed for each of his first 8 Christmases influencing his writing and hence today’s tradition of a ‘White Christmas’. – Source
• Mormon missionaries can only call home twice a year: once on Mother’s Day and again on Christmas. – Source
• Telling “scary ghost stories” is an old Christmas Eve tradition that has died out in the past century – Source
• 95% of all Americans celebrate Christmas (only 75% of the U.S. is Christian), and just 51% of the holiday’s celebrators consider it a “strongly religious” holiday. – Source
• A village in Peru settles their grudges by fist fighting on the Christmas day, then go drinking and start the New Year off on a clean slate. – Source
• Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen is the only record to get the UK Christmas Singles Chart Number One twice, once in 1975 and again in 1991. – Source
• During Christmas time in Newfoundland, people called mummers dress up in crude disguises and go from house to house. At each house they visit, they start dancing, playing music, and get wasted drunk while the hosts try to discover their true identities. – Source
• Christmas is celebrated on the 25th of December because of the Roman sun god and not the birth of Jesus – Source
• Engineers designing the Voyager Space mission planned it to avoid planetary encounters over Thanksgiving and Christmas – Source
• Paul McCartney earns $400,000 a year off his Christmas song, which is widely regarded as the worst song he ever recorded. – Source
• All letters addressed to Santa in the United States go to Santa Claus, Indiana. – Source