LGBTSr Weekly Fun Facts: What You Might Not Know About Christmas

🎄 5 LITTLE-KNOWN CHRISTMAS FACTS

🎁 1. Christmas Was Once Illegal

From 1659 to 1681, celebrating Christmas in Boston could get you fined. Puritan leaders saw it as wasteful and pagan. The ban eventually lifted — but New Englanders stayed suspicious of Christmas for generations.

🌲 2. Upside-Down Trees Were the First Trees

In medieval Central Europe, Christmas trees were hung from the ceiling, point down. They symbolized the Holy Trinity and were decorated with fruit, nuts, and candles.

🧦 3. Stockings Started With Shoes

The Saint Nicholas story originally involved bags of gold dropped into shoes, not stockings. To this day, children in the Netherlands still put out shoes filled with treats.

🦌 4. Rudolph Was a Marketing Idea

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began in 1939 as a Montgomery Ward promotional booklet. A copywriter created him because the store wanted their own Christmas giveaway instead of buying books from a publisher.

🎶 5. “Jingle Bells” Was Written for Thanksgiving

James Lord Pierpont’s song was originally titled “One Horse Open Sleigh” and written for a Thanksgiving church program in 1857. It didn’t become a Christmas song until later.