Greetings to you! I’m sure you’ve heard the Holiday song, “It’s beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.” With only a few days until the Christmas celebration, I thought I’d give you some awesome fun facts about Christmas. Let me start with this song! It was written in 1951 by Meredith Willson. This Christmas tune was originally titled, “It’s Beginning to Look Like Christmas.” It was the artists Bing Crosby and Perry Comowho had wonderful success with it. However, many others also recorded it such as; Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, The Fontaine Sisters, and many, many more!

Okay – here’s some more Christmas fun facts for you …

• The story of Jesus Christ’s birth is told in the gospels of Luke and Matthew.
• Fruitcake originated in ancient Egypt and was considered an essential food for the afterlife.
• Did you know that over 1.76 billion candy canes are made during the Christmas season?
• In traditional Russian celebration – an elderly woman named Babouschka gives gifts to the children on January 5^th, hoping one of them is baby Jesus.
• If you actually counted all the gifts that were given in the Holiday song, “Twelve Days of Christmas,” you would receive 364 gifts in total.
• President Franklin Roosevelt officially moved Thanksgiving a week earlier to have a longer holiday shopping season.
• Around 77 million Christmas tree are planted each year in the United States.
• Lebkuchen, a gingerbread-like treat, is exported from Nuremberg, Germany, all around the world specifically for Christmas.
• The country of England didn’t get on the Christmas tree bandwagon until1846, when Queen Victoriaset up a tree at Windsor Castle.
• For the Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner, there are twelve courses, each dedicated to one of Christ’s apostles.
• Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870.
• Bing Crosby sang “White Christmas” for the first time in the 1942 flick, Holiday Inn.
• On St. Lucia Day, girls awaken their families by singing and bringing them twisted saffron buns called, “Lucia cats.”
• Legend has it, Protestantism founder, Martin Luther, was the first to add lights to a Christmas tree after being inspired by the stars in the night sky.
• Thanks to the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Macy’s is the world’s second-largest consumer of helium. The United States government is number one.
• Dr. Seuss coined the lyrics of “Fahoo Forays” to mimic the sound of Latin in his movie, How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
• Before World War 2, Lauscha, Germany supplied virtually all blown-glass Christmas tree ornaments to the world.
• Since the 1970s, the Salvation Army Angel Tree program has provided donated holiday gifts to local children.
• Many Japanese people spend their Christmas Eve eating KFC. It’s so popular, it needs to be ordered two months in advance!
• In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Rudolph has antlers. However, it is only female reindeers that keep their antlers in the winter.
• By the 12^th Century, Christmas trees were hung upside-down from ceilings, as a symbol of Christianity. 
• In the Midwest, it’s common to have Scandinavian cookies like Pepparkakor during the Christmas season.
• Britain’s Queen Elizabeth I gave notable visitors gingerbread cookies baked in their likeness. And the gingerbread man was born!
• The Christmas song, “Jingle Bells,” was originally called, “One Horse Open Sleigh.” 
• In Sweden, people traditionally watch Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve.
• The song most people know as the “Charlie Brown Christmas song” is actually titled, “Christmas Time is Here.”
• The minimum size of the Christmas tree in New York’s Rockefeller Center must be 65 feet tall and 35 feet wide.

Keep watching for more of my blogs!

If you see any sick or injured manatees, please call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at: 1-888-404-3922 (FWCC). They are the folks who are responsible for rescuing us in Florida.

Here’s the Save the Manatee Club link to learn more about us manatees …

www.savethemanatee.org

Here’s a cool link for you to learn more about how we’re rescued and brought into rehabilitation …

www.wildtracks.org

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

~ Robert Scott Thayer

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