# 1
In 1979 the Christingle Service was for the first time introduced into
Barbados at the St Ambrose Church.
# 2
St Francis of Assisi was the first to introduce Christmas Carols to formal church services.
# 3
In Stuttgart, children dress up as Nikolaus and go from door to door asking for sweets similar to trick or treating at Halloween.
# 4
It was in Germany in 1531 that the first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared.
# 5
Many families in Finland visit cemeteries at Christmas time to place candles on the graves of friends and loved ones.
# 6
It was Pope Julius I, In 320 AD, who selected 25th December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.
# 7
Telesphorus, the second Bishop of Rome from 125 to 136 AD, declared that public Church services should be held to celebrate "The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour."
# 8
The largest crèche in the world is an 1136 square-meter miniature of a Provencal village, located in the town of Grignan in the Drôme, 10 km west of Valréas.
# 9
Rudolph, with the shiny red nose, was the ninth reindeer.
He was created in 1939 by an advertising writer for the Montgomery Ward agency.
The song of the classic children's favorite wasn't written until ten years later.
# 10
The first postage stamp to commemorate Christmas was issued in Austria in 1937.
# 11
It is thought that the concoction we now know as eggnog started out as a mixture of Spanish Sherry and milk which The English used to call "Dry sack posset".
# 12
The first President of the United States, George Washington, was a particular devotee of eggnog and concocted his own recipe which included rye whiskey, rum and sherry.
