There are always mixed feelings about this time of year. Some people, when thinking of the holidays, imagine fun snowball fights with friends, presents, and sipping sweet hot chocolate next to a warm, comforting fire. Others just think of the freezing weather and annoying family you are forced to spend time with where seeing them once a year is one too many. Whether on one side, the other, or stuck in the middle, no one can deny that the best time of the year is when you have no school.
Although it is the end of the quarter and we have a month’s break ahead of us, this doesn’t mean we should stopping learning. Why not know a couple little facts about the holidays you can share at the dinner table?
Myth:
The image of Santa Claus was always a big, jolly man in a red suit with a white beard.
Reality:
The modern day Santa that we know today was actually shaped by the Coca-Cola Company.
As found on the Coca-Cola Company website, the image of Santa Claus, or St. Nick, as they used to refer to him, was introduced in 1931 on a Cola-Cola holiday ad that featured a kind and jolly-looking man in a red suit.
Before this, the image of Santa “ranged from big to small and fat to tall.” He also was at times displayed as wearing green or as a creepy, elf-like creature.
Because the St. Nick advertisement was featured in magazines at a time when magazines were “widely viewed,” and because it “appeared for more than three decades,” the image of St. Nick (or Santa Claus) was socially adopted and remains till this day.
Not only is this Christmas icon not as we thought, there is also fiction in another aspect of the Christmas image.
Myth:
Christmas trees are traditional.
Reality:
If you’re ever asked to write down everything that comes to mind when thinking of Christmas, a Christmas tree will definitely pop up along with lights and ornaments. But it turns out that if you asked someone before the middle of the eighteenth century what they think of, a Christmas tree would not be on that list.
It turns out that Christmas trees are a German tradition. The History News Network explains that the first Christmas tree in America made its debut thanks to a German reverend in Cleveland, Ohio in 1851. This parson “put up a Christmas tree in his local church” but was “roundly condemned” for doing so because no one had ever put up a Christmas tree in an American church before.
When the late nineteenth century rolled around, the Victorians started to adopt this tradition and although it was still controversial, it caught on and has been seen as a “tradition” ever since.
I hope you enjoyed these facts about the season ahead. Happy Holidays!
