I love this time of the year.  Thanksgiving starts to get everyone in the spirit, and the ball just keeps rolling in December.  As a youngster, Christmas was officially "ON" for me, when I saw presents begin to accumulate under the tree.

And by now, we think we should know all there is to know about Christmas.  Christmas, however, is a massive subject!

Here are 5 Christmas facts that I found interesting - and that you can impress your friends with!

1)  The 1st American president to decorate a Christmas tree in the White House, was Franklin Pierce, our 14th president.  And he was by all accounts, also a very handsome fellow.  That's where the good news stops completely for President Pierce, however.  Our only president to ever come from New Hampshire,  he was an alcoholic for decades, and died from cirrhosis of the liver.  Before that, he had three children - that all died before age 11, and he's still generally considered one of the worst presidents, ever.

2) Electric lights were first used on Christmas trees in the U.S., in 1895.  Somebody put a lot of effort into decorating their tree.......then it got dark, and they started thinking,"Hmmmmm, something is missing, this doesn't seem as cool as it did a few hours ago?"

3) "It's A Wonderful Life" has appeared on TV more than any other holiday movie.  This was a shocker to me, as the first few movies that came to my mind had to do with; a red-nosed reindeer, a Grinch, and a 'Miracle' on 34th Street.  How about some love for the original "Home Alone"?

4) Mistletoe has been the state flower in Oklahoma since 1893.  Does that mean you can kiss people under the mistletoe all year long there, or will that just end up getting your butt kicked?

5) The first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday, was Alabama.  Yeah, we don't usually think of Alabama when we think "leading the way", or "blazing a trail", of any kind, do we?  In fact, 'backwards' - was actually the first word that popped into my head.  It's biggest city is Birmingham, and it was founded by French colonists.  That's all I remember about Alabama.

***Christmas Side Notes***

More DIAMONDS are sold during Christmas time than any other time of the year - translation = men are stupid.

RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER was actually made up by Montgomery Ward for a promotion, in the 1930's - translation = sales people are NOT stupid.

The first artificial Christmas trees were made in GERMANY - translation = even those  strong, tough, German guys got tired of chopping down trees in the cold!

Happy Holidays!

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