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Whether you are celebrating Christmas tomorrow, you celebrated it in the past, or you've never celebrated Christmas at all, its journey from Eastern European to American mainstream is truly a seasonal treat to learn about.

Here are 15 interesting things about Christmas you probably didn’t know:

  • The Statue of Liberty was the largest Christmas present. It was given to the United States by France in 1886. It is 46.5 meters high and weighs 225 tons.
  • It can take up to 15 years to grow an average-sized tree of 6-7 feet, or as little as 4 years, but the average growing time is 7 years.
  • The first person to decorate a Christmas tree was Martin Luther who lived from 1483-1546. According to legend, he was so moved by the beauty of the stars shining between the branches of a fir tree that he brought an evergreen tree home and decorated it with candles.
  • Approximately 30-35 million trees are sold each year in the United States. Christmas trees have been sold in the United States since 1850.
  • The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has calculated there to be 2,106 million children under the age of 18 in the world. If there are 2.5 children per household, Santa would have to make 842 million stops on Christmas Eve and he would travel 221 trillion miles.
  • The poinsettia is native to Mexico. It was grown by the Aztecs and was a symbol of purity. It was also used as a medicine to reduce fever.
  • President Teddy Roosevelt was an environmentalist and banned Christmas trees from the White House in 1912.
  • There are approximately 21,000 Christmas tree farms in the United States with over 400 million trees on them.
  • Bolivians celebrate Misa Del Gallo (Mass of the Rooster) on Christmas Eve, because they believe the rooster was the first animal to announce the birth of Jesus.
  • The British wear paper crowns while they eat Christmas dinner. These crowns are stored in a tube called a “Christmas cracker” that usually has the paper crown, a small gift and a joke in it.
  • In Poland, spiders (or spider webs) are common Christmas tree decorations, because it is believed that a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus. Polish people believe spiders to be symbols of goodness and prosperity.
  • Christmas was declared an official holiday in the United States on June 26, 1870.
  • Mistletoe is from the Anglo-Saxon word misteltan, which means “little dung twig,” because the plant spreads through bird droppings.
  • For many Japanese, Christmas dinner means eating at Kentucky Fried Chicken. This is such a popular tradition that reservations are needed.
  • An old tradition in some European countries is that of hiding a pickle ornament in a Christmas tree. The first person that finds the pickle ornament receives an extra gift.