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.