Monday, December 3, 2007

Strange but true Christmas facts

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created for Montgomery Ward department stores. (Rudolph began in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company (a chain of department stores) asked one of their writers, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story which could be given away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. The chain had been been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year. To save money, they wanted to create their own booklet. It was loosely based on the Ugly Duckling.)


Christmas cards date to 1843. (English school children made their own and sent gave them to each other before this date. The first formal card was designed in 1843, by J.C. Horsley, in England. It was lithographed on dark cardboard. It consisted of a color print of a party of grownups and children with glasses of wine raised in a toast over the words "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you." Since it only cost 1 penny to send a card at that time, the custom caught on quickly.)


The holiday season abounds with superstitions. (There are too many to mention! Why do we put up Christmas trees? Why do we kiss under mistletoe? Why do we "deck the halls" with green branches? Does Holly and Ivy really have healing powers? How did caroling get started? Which story is true about Green and Red? Which of the many versions of the Yule Log is correct? The list goes on!) More on this later...

1 comment:

Roses in December said...

And lets NOT forget the dreaded fruitcake! I wrote a blog story on fruitcake because it was a family tradition. Some people use them as doorstops after the holidays! I loved my mothers fruitcake, but you would have to rob 6 banks to make my grandmothers recipe and afford the ingredients.Then be dissappointed only to find it behind someone's door waiting to hold it open - after the fact. NOT me, I have better things to spend my money on, like new tinsel and ribbon candy. No madam, lets flush the fruitcake this year and go for the eggnog! Now that's a good tradition! Brenda