by CFAITH Staff

Alabama was the first state in the U.S. to recognize Christmas as an official holiday. This tradition began in 1836.

In 1907, Oklahoma became the last U.S. state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

George Washington spent Christmas night 1776 crossing the Delaware River in dreadful conditions. Christmas 1777 fared little better. At Valley Forge, Washington and his men had a miserable Christmas dinner of fowl cooked in a broth of turnips, cabbage and potatoes

In 1947, Toys for Tots started making the holidays a little happier for children by organizing its first Christmas toy drive for needy youngsters.

In an effort to solicit cash to pay for a charity Christmas dinner in 1891, a large crab pot was set down on a San Francisco street, becoming the first Salvation Army collection kettle.

In America, the weeks leading up to Christmas are the biggest shopping weeks of the year. Many retailers make up to 70 percent of their annual revenue in the month preceding Christmas.

In the Thomas Nast cartoon that first depicted Santa Claus with a sleigh and reindeer, he was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the U.S. Civil War. The cartoon, entitled “Santa Claus in Camp,” appeared in Harper’s Weekly on January 3, 1863.

New York City’s Empire State Building’s world famous tower lights are turned off every night at midnight with the exception of New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and St. Patrick’s Day, when they are illuminated until 3 a.m.

Right behind Christmas and Thanksgiving, Super Bowl Sunday ranks as the third-largest occasion for Americans to consume food, according to the National Football League.

Copyright © 2007 CFAITH All rights reserved.

Posted on 20 December, 2007