Do you want to show off with some brilliant Christmas trivia at the dinner table this year? Look no further. Here are some fun facts about Christmas that you do not want to miss.
4 Awesome Christmas Trivia
1. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. We all used to sing about him during our childhood, but did you know he was actually created as a marketing trick? Rudolph first came to be back in 1939 in a booklet written by Robert L. May. This colouring book was then handed out for free to children who visited Santa in the Montgomery Ward department store.
2. The Nordic Santa-Claus hasn’t always been the kind and jolly figure we know him as today. What we today know as Santa used to be a tad darker in old folklore. Basically Santa was a mythical being who’d keep an eye on the farm over the year and make sure people behaved well. Bad behaving children could not only be left without gifts, Santa could even take the gifts away from them.
3. Krampus the kid snatcher. In central Europe during Christmas times, the folklore says Saint Nicholas would visit homes during night and reward the well behaved children with gifts left in their shoes. Saint Nicholas would not travel alone however. Along with him comes Krampus, described to be a demon-like being with hooves and horns similar to those found on a goat. Disobedient children would be whipped with a bundle of twigs or even taken away.
4. Santa’s red and white suit. Santa used to be portrayed in a variety of colour schemes. More earthly colours like beige and green were also used in the early days along with the classic red we’re so familiar with today. However, in 1931 Coca-Cola began aggressively placing their ads in popular magazines. They had used Santa before in their marketing, but now they wanted to redo his image. They hired Haddon Sundblom to create a new Santa who was wholesome and good. This version of Santa, who happened to be wearing red, went on to become the mainstream conception of Santa in the western world.
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This was my 6th post in my Advent Calendar 2018!
Comment and share your thoughts! Hope you enjoy it.
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Like Santa needs his helpers also I needed some help with a blogpost for my digital advent calendar. A big thanks to Nikolai for this post! 🙂
Happy Holidays!