Christmas Fun Facts
- First State to recognize Christmas - Alabama in 1836.
- Year Christmas became a federal holiday - 1870.
- Like the Christmas tree, the Advent wreath and its candles are of German origin.
- YULE? After the conversion of Anglo-Saxon Britain in the very early 7th century, Christmas was referred to as geol, the name of the pre-Christian winter festival from which the current English word 'Yule' is derived.
- XMAS? The word Christmas originated as a contraction of "Christ's mass". It is derived from the Middle English Christemasse and Old English Cristes męsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038, compounded from Old English derivatives of the Greek christos and the Latin missa. In early Greek versions of the New Testament, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ. Since the mid-16th century Χ, or the similar Roman letter X, has been used as an abbreviation for Christ. Hence, Xmas is often used as an abbreviation for Christmas.