Lesser known facts about Christmas

Posted on 08/09/2016 I by: AstroSaathi

Christmas offers a mix of religious and secular traditions and their origins are just as mixed and varied. Everything from the Christmas tree to the marshmallows has a story behind.

Here are some unknown facts about Christmas.

December 25 used to be a pagan celebration. Actually, no one knows about the birth of Jesus and nobody celebrated his birthday for hundreds of years.

The first person to decorate a Christmas tree was reformer Martin Luther. Legends say he was so moved by the beauty of the stars shining between the branches of a fir tree that he brought home an evergreen tree and decorated it with candles to share the image with his children.

Mistletoe is a very ancient symbol of virility and there comes the mistletoe kissing. Anybody standing beneath means he or she is available.

Victorian intellectuals invented the Christmas tree tradition as part of a social movement to consciously reform Christmas of hoarse drinking.

Santa Claus featured for the first time in a newspaper ad for toys and gift books in the mid 19th century.

Santa didn’t always have a beard. In the book ‘One Night Stands with American History’ Santa is depicted as tall, slender and very dignified without his trademark beard.