Interesting Facts About Christmas: Merry Christmas from the Team at CJ Henley, DMD
Ever wondered where some of our Christmas traditions started?
We first shared this holiday post in December 2023. Here are a few Christmas facts and traditions, with the history checked, and our warm wishes for the season from all of us at the office.
Christmas trees. Decorating evergreen trees at Christmas is usually traced to 16th-century Germany. In Britain, Queen Victoria and her German-born husband, Prince Albert, helped make the decorated tree popular in the 1840s.
The first Christmas card. In 1843, Henry Cole in London commissioned the first commercial Christmas card, illustrated by his friend John Callcott Horsley. It showed a family raising a toast, and the first printing ran to 1,000 copies.
Santa's look. Coca-Cola did not invent the modern Santa. The jolly figure grew out of Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas and Thomas Nast's 19th-century drawings. Starting in 1931, Haddon Sundblom painted Santa for Coca-Cola ads for more than 30 years, and those ads helped make the warm, red-suited Santa the familiar image.
Stockings. The custom of hanging stockings is often linked to a legend about St. Nicholas, who is said to have left gifts for three poor sisters.
Red and green. A common interpretation is that red stands for the blood of Christ and green, the color of evergreens, for eternal life.
Mistletoe. Kissing under the mistletoe is often linked to a Norse myth about the goddess Frigg. The custom as we know it became popular much later.
A record for lights. Guinness World Records lists the most lights on a residential property as 601,736, set by the Gay family of LaGrangeville, New York, in November 2014.
A very tall tree. The largest artificial Christmas tree on record stood 72.1 meters, about 236 feet, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in December 2016.
Caroling. The word carol is thought to come from an old French word for a circle dance. Over time, caroling came to mean singing festive songs.
Around the world. In Iceland, children hear about the 13 Yule Lads, folklore figures who visit in the nights before Christmas. In Japan, many families eat KFC at Christmas, a tradition that grew from a marketing campaign in the 1970s.
Merry Christmas from all of us. Our holiday hours are posted on our contact page.
About the author. CJ Henley, DMD, is a general dentist in Jacksonville whose practice focuses on cosmetic and restorative dentistry, dental implants and dental care around head and neck cancer. Meet Dr. Henley.
CJ Henley, DMD, PA · 3675 Hendricks Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32207 · 904-398-1549
Updated October 2026.
Sources
Victoria and Albert Museum. The first Christmas card. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
The Coca-Cola Company. Haddon Sundblom and the Coca-Cola Santas. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
Guinness World Records. Most lights on a residential property. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
Guinness World Records. Largest artificial Christmas tree. Retrieved October 6, 2026.
What Is Beauty? The Golden Ratio and Your Smile
Sheila Samton is the author-illustrator of many award-winning books for children, as well as a designer and muralist. Her first children’s book, “The World from My Window” (Crown, 1985), also dealt with the subject of beauty. Ms. Samton has two sons and lives in New York City.
The golden ratio is a useful idea in smile design, but it doesn't define a beautiful smile. When researchers measured the front teeth of people with attractive natural smiles, the golden proportion was uncommon. I use proportion as a starting point and then design around the person's face, lips, gums and preferences.
What is the golden ratio?
The golden ratio is a number, about 1.618, that appears when a line is divided into two parts so that the whole line relates to the longer part the same way the longer part relates to the shorter one. It has been called the golden mean, the golden section and the divine proportion.
A rectangle with sides in this ratio has a neat property. Cut a square off one end, and the piece that's left is a smaller rectangle with the same proportions. Mathematicians find the number interesting for many reasons like this.
Why is it linked with beauty?
For centuries, people have connected the golden ratio with harmony and perfection. It is often said to appear in the Egyptian pyramids, the Parthenon and the Mona Lisa. Those claims are popular but debated, and in many cases there is no evidence the builders or artists intended it. Some designers did use it on purpose. The architect Le Corbusier built a whole system of proportions around it.
How did the golden ratio come into dentistry?
In the 1970s, dentists proposed using the golden proportion to plan the upper front teeth. Seen from the front, each tooth would appear about 62 percent as wide as the tooth in front of it, moving from the central incisors back toward the canines. The idea gave dentists and laboratories a simple grid to work from, and it still appears in smile design discussions.
Does the golden ratio show up in attractive smiles?
Not consistently. In a 2004 study, researchers photographed 157 dental students whose smiles were judged attractive and measured the apparent widths of their six upper front teeth. They did not find the golden proportion between those teeth, and concluded that it is not a common feature of attractive smiles. Other researchers had already re-examined the idea and questioned whether it fits natural teeth.
That matches what I see. Smiles that look natural vary a lot. A rigid formula can produce teeth that look too narrow on the sides or too uniform across the front.
What do I look at instead when planning a smile?
Your face. The center of the smile should line up with the center of the face, and the edges of the upper teeth should follow the curve of the lower lip when you smile.
Tooth shape. Natural central incisors are usually somewhat longer than they are wide. In one study of extracted teeth, unworn upper central incisors were about 78 percent as wide as they were long.
The gum line. Even, healthy gums frame the teeth. Uneven gums can make well-shaped teeth look wrong.
Color and texture. Brightness, translucency at the edges and surface texture often matter more than exact widths.
Your preferences. Some people want a noticeable change. Many want to look like themselves on a good day.
Photographs, models and trial versions of the new shape let you see and react to the design before anything is final. You can see examples on our before and after page and in our e.max front teeth case.
Thinking about changing your smile?
If you're considering veneers or other cosmetic dentistry, bring photos of smiles you like and tell us what bothers you about your own. Contact our office at 3675 Hendricks Avenue in Jacksonville or call 904-398-1549.
Sources
Levin EI. Dental esthetics and the golden proportion. J Prosthet Dent. 1978;40(3):244-252. doi:10.1016/0022-3913(78)90028-8 (retrieved via PubMed)
Preston JD. The golden proportion revisited. J Esthet Dent. 1993;5(6):247-251. doi:10.1111/j.1708-8240.1993.tb00788.x (retrieved via PubMed)
Mahshid M, Khoshvaghti A, Varshosaz M, Vallaei N. Evaluation of "golden proportion" in individuals with an esthetic smile. J Esthet Restor Dent. 2004;16(3):185-192. doi:10.1111/j.1708-8240.2004.tb00032.x (retrieved via PubMed)
Magne P, Gallucci GO, Belser UC. Anatomic crown width/length ratios of unworn and worn maxillary teeth in white subjects. J Prosthet Dent. 2003;89(5):453-461. doi:10.1016/S0022-3913(03)00125-2 (retrieved via PubMed)
About the author. CJ Henley, DMD, is a general dentist in Jacksonville whose practice focuses on cosmetic and restorative dentistry, dental implants and dental care around head and neck cancer. Meet Dr. Henley.
CJ Henley, DMD, PA · 3675 Hendricks Avenue, Jacksonville, FL 32207 · 904-398-1549
Updated October 2026.