Cool Christmas Facts

 Did You Know? Each year, 30-35 million real Christmas trees are sold in the  United States  alone. There are 21,000 Christmas tree growers in the  United States , and trees usually grow for about 15 years before they are sold. Today, in the Greek and Russian orthodox churches, Christmas is celebrated 13 days after the 25th, which is also referred to as the Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This is the day it is believed that the three wise men finally found Jesus in the manger. In  the Middle Ages , Christmas celebrations were rowdy and raucous—a lot like today's  <font color="#0066cc">Mardi Gras </a> parties. <img alt="snowman" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbFour.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factEven">From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and law-breakers were fined five shillings. <img alt="santa hat" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbFive.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factOdd">Christmas wasn't a holiday in early  <font color="#0066cc">America </a>—in fact Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the country's first Christmas under the new constitution. <img alt="christmas star" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbSix.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factEven">Christmas was declared a federal holiday in the  <font color="#0066cc">United States </a> on June 26, 1870. <img alt="christmas bell" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbOne.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factOdd">The first eggnog made in the United States was consumed in  <font color="#0066cc">Captain John Smith's </a> 1607  <font color="#0066cc">Jamestown </a> settlement. <img alt="christmas ornament" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbTwo.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factEven">Poinsettia plants are named after Joel R. Poinsett, an American minister to Mexico, who brought the red-and-green plant from Mexico to  <font color="#0066cc">America </a> in 1828. <img alt="christmas tree" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbThree.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factOdd"> <font color="#0066cc">The Salvation Army </a> has been sending Santa Claus-clad donation collectors into the streets since the 1890s. <img alt="snowman" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbFour.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factEven">Rudolph, "the most famous reindeer of all," was the product of Robert L. May's imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store. <img alt="santa hat" border="0" class="thumbImg" height="45" src="http://www.history.com/minisites/christmas/images/landing-thumbFive.jpg" width="45" /><p id="factOdd">Construction workers started the  <font color="#800080">Rockefeller Center Christmas tree </a> tradition in 1931.