#1.
There's a lot of controversy when it comes to spelling "Christmas" like this: "Xmas". Some say it's offensive, some say it's a trend towards materialism. Some even say it's used a substitute for the usual spelling if you don't want to associate the holiday with Christianity. If that's the case, you couldn't be more wrong. The "X" represents the Greek letter χ (chi), which is the initial letter of this word, which I cannot pronounce. Χριστός (Christós) But here's the thing. The word means "Christ", and the letter X has been an acceptable representation of that for hundreds of years. The device is known as a christogram. For example, "Christian" can just as well be spelled like this: "Xtian".
#2.
In Japan, there's a tradition to eat KFC (aka Kentucky Fried Chicken) on Christmas. You even have to order several months in advance if you want to secure a meal in time for Christmas. This is all thanks to a successful marketing campaign that was run in Japan over 40 years ago.
#3.
Back in 1955, a Sears ad printed the phone number of a Colorado Springs store so that children could call and tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. However, the number was a misprint, and instead sent children to the hotline to the director of operations for the US Continental Air Defense. The calls, of course, started to pour in, but instead of blocking the number, the director ordered his staff to give children updates on Santa's flight coordinates. The tradition has continued to this very day on local news, the Internet, and with a special NORAD Track Santa iPhone app.
#4.
In America, the movie "A Christmas Story" is, for many, a wonderful family tradition to watch every Christmas. The kid who plays Flick, the one who gets his tongue stuck on a pole, went on to act in a dozen pornos. I'm just gonna leave you with that as you watch it with your family this Christmas. Moving on!
#5.
In 1966, a 13-meter tall goat figure made out of straw was erected in the town square of Gavle in Sweden. At midnight of New Years' Eve, the goat went up in flames, but the town kept on building it year after year and vandals never stopped trying to burn the goat down year after year. By 2013, the goat has already been burned down 28 times during the 48 years it has been built. One time, it was burned down only six hours after it had been completed, and several people have been arrested for vandalism and even served jail time. It's burned down so often, that it's almost a tradition in itself by now. Another weird tradition we Swedes have is to gather around the TV and watch... D o n a l d D u c k.
#6.
A village in Peru settles their grudges by fist-fighting each other on Christmas Day. Groups of people gather around to watch members of the community fight each other. People of all ages enter the ring, from young children to elderly. And participation is open to women and men alike. The purpose is to settle grievances built up over the years in a public forum. The fighting seeks to resolve conflicts, strengthen community bonds, and, hopefully, arrive at a greater peace.
#7.
The popular Christmas song "Jingle Bells" is not at all about Christmas. It was originally called "One Horse Open Sleigh" and was meant to be played on Thanksgiving. But people liked it so much, that they changed the lyrics and the title to better fit as a Christmas song.
#8.
There's an island in the Indian Ocean called Christmas Island. It got its name because it was discovered on Christmas Day. Surprisingly enough, though, there's four other islands around the world with the exact same name. And in the US, there are three towns named Santa Claus.
#9.
The only reason Santa Clause is red is because of the Coca-Cola company. In the 1930s, an artist was hired by Coca-Cola to draw a picture of Santa Claus to be used in an upcoming advertisement campaign for the company. The artist chose Coca-Cola's official colors, red and white, and that design is what most people imagine Santa Claus looks like ever since. Before all of this, his clothes were depicted in all kinds of different colors.
#10.
Today, there's roughly two billion children in the world (give or take), and about 378 million of those children are Christian. So, if we consider that, as well as presume there's at least one good child in every household, then to be able to deliver all packages given or received on Christmas, he, Rudolph, and the rest of the pack would have to travel at a relaxing, cruising speed of 1,000 km/s, visiting over 800 homes per second in the process.
This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has about one thousandth of a second to park, hop out of his sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left and move on to the next house.
But, not only that, if we go easy on him and say that each present weights roughly one kilo, the sleigh will have to carry about 350,000 tons of presents. 350,000 tons traveling at 1,000 km/s creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecraft reentering the Earth's atmosphere.
The reindeer in the lead will
absorb 14 QUINTILLION JOULES OF ENERGY... ...PER SECOND... ...EACH! 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥'𝕤 𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙 𝕒 𝕢𝕦𝕚𝕟𝕥 The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within
four thousandths of a second. Santa will have other things to worry about,
though as he will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,000 times greater than
gravity.
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