I’ve never been one to have an overabundance of Christmas spirit. I lost most of it back in 1963 when, while in college, I worked part time on a Christmas tree farm in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. After cutting, trimming, bundling, and loading close to 5000 trees onto trucks, I’d had enough. Took me three weeks to get all of the sap and pine smell off my body and out of my clothing. Every time I smell pine scent, it gives me flashbacks to that tree farm. But never let it be said that my issues with Christmas would keep me from supplying you with some holiday spirit in the form of Christmas trivia. Enjoy. . .

• Bing Crosby’s” White Christmas” was released in 1942 and is considered to be the best-selling Christmas song of all time.

• In Greek, X means Christ; that is where the word “Xmas” originated.

• Christmas Clubs, savings accounts in which a person deposits a fixed amount of money regularly to be used at Christmas for shopping, came about in 1905.

• America’s official national Christmas tree is located in Kings Canyon National Park in California. The tree, a giant sequoia is called the “General Grant Tree”, and is over 300 feet high. It was made the official Christmas tree by Congress in 1925.

• An average household in America will mail out 28 Christmas cards each year.

• California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are the top Christmas tree producing states. Oregon is the leading producer of Christmas trees harvesting approximately 8.6 million a year.

• Christmas caroling began as an old English custom cold “Wassailing” – toasting neighbors to a long and healthy life.

• 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 corner, becoming the first Salvation Army collection kettle.

• During the Christmas/Hanukkah season, more than 1.7 6 billion candy canes will be made.

• Hallmark introduced its first Christmas cards in 1915, five years after the founding of the company.

• In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by one of the wise men’s camels. The gift-giving camel is said to have been the smallest one in the Wise Men’s caravan.

• In 1907, Oklahoma became the last US state to declare Christmas a legal holiday.

• Mistletoe, a traditional Christmas symbol, was once revered by the early Britons. It was so sacred that it had to be cut with a golden sickle.

18 More Shopping Days

MERRY CHRISTMAS