Christmas fun facts

We wanted to take this opportunity to convey our sincere appreciation to you, our most valued patients, whom we have had the immense pleasure of providing dental care to, and to those who have utilized our services during this past year, we wish you peace and goodwill. Thank you for investing in one of your most valuable possessions, your dental health.

We would like to take this opportunity to extend an invitation to those who are looking for a new dental home. We truly believe that once you walk through our doors you’ll feel like you’ve found the dentist for you. From General Dentistry, to Orthodontics, Oral Surgery and Pediatric Dentistry, we are proud that we are able to offer state of the art dentistry for your entire family at one location. We look forward to meeting you soon.

Each month we are given the pleasure by The Lahontan Valley News of educating you on the various aspects of dental care as well as a range of procedures and specialties. We hope you enjoy these articles as much as we enjoy sharing them with you. We thought we would take a break from our usual articles and share some fun facts about Christmas. Please enjoy.

Christmas Fun Facts

Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra (also known as Nikolaos the Wonderworker, Bishop Saint Nicholas of Smyrna, and Nikolaos of Bari), who lived during the fourth century. Born in Patara (in modern-day Turkey), he is the world’s most popular non-Biblical saint, and artists have portrayed him more often than any other saint except Mary.

Santa Claus is called “Kanakaloka” in Hawaii , and in Germany and other parts of the world he is known as Kriss Kringle or Pere Noel in France, as well as Grandfather Frost in Russia

Christmas wasn’t declared an official holiday in the United States until June 26, 1870. Alabama was the first state to officially recognize Christmas in 1836. Oklahoma was the last state to declare Christmas a legal holiday, in 1907.

Christmas trees have been sold in the U.S. since 1850. Today, approximately 30-35 million living Christmas trees are sold each year in the U.S. The Germans made the first artificial Christmas trees out of goose feathers dyed green. According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.

If you received all of the gifts in the song, “Twelve Days of Christmas” you would receive a total of 364 gifts.

Most of Santa’s reindeer have male-sounding names, such as Blitzen, Comet and Cupid. However, male reindeers shed their antlers around Christmas, so the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely not male, but female.

In Poland spiders are considered to be symbols of prosperity and goodness at Christmas. In fact, spiders and spider webs are often used as Christmas tree decorations.

In Germany, Heiligabend, or Christmas Eve, is said to be a magical time when the pure in heart can hear animals talking.

NORAD’s Santa Tracker actually came from a misprint in a Sears advertisement. The number printed on the ad was the hotline of the Director of Operations for the U.S. Continental Air Defense. The colonel on staff ordered his staff to give the children of the world updates on the flight coordinates for Santa.

It is estimated that the single “White Christmas” by Irving Berlin is the best selling single of all time, with more than 100 million sales worldwide.

Tinsel was invented in 1610 in Germany and was once made of real silver.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), there are 2,106 million children under age 18 in the world. If there are on average 2.5 children per household, Santa makes 842 million stops on Christmas Eve, traveling 221 million miles!

It is said that the famous song “All I want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth,” written by Don Gardner, a music teacher in the 1940s, was motivated when he was selecting songs for his second graders Christmas program. He was inspired by watching the children tell their teacher what they wanted for Christmas that year, and in doing so they all used the same phrase, “All I want for Christmas,” he said. The story goes, that he noticed that 16 of the 22 children in that second grade class were missing their front teeth. And from there, a song was born that has been listened to and sang by thousands of children throughout the years.

Coca-Cola was the first company that used Santa Claus during the winter season for promotion.

It is reported that the most expensive decorations for a Christmas tree were in United Arab Emirates last year and were valued at more than $11 million.

The Japanese spend their Christmas Eve eating in KFCs. This is a tradition is so popular in Japan that reservations are often made months in advance.

“It’s A Wonderful Life” appears on TV more often than any other holiday movie, and “The Nutcracker” remains the most famous Christmas ballet.

The song “Jingle Bells” was originally written for Thanksgiving. It is said that composer, Lord Pierpont, wrote the song in the 1850s to play for his Boston Sunday school class during Thanksgiving as a way to commemorate the famed Medford sleigh races. Kids and adults loved the song and eventually changed the lyrics to fit Christmas.

The Statue of Liberty was gifted to the U.S. by the French on Christmas Day in 1886. Weighing 225 tons it is considered the biggest Christmas gift in the world.

Every year millions of letters are addressed to Santa Claus from all over the world. Did you know that Santa has his own zip code? H0H 0H0

Thank you again for your continued trust and confidence in our office. We hope you have a safe and Happy Holidays season. Merry Christmas to all!

See you next year! The Dentists’ Office Team.