From the Saturday, Dec. 26, editions of The Daily Journal (Kankakee, Ill.) and The Times (Ottawa, Ill.) …
By Dave Wischnowsky
The WISCH LIST
Ever wonder how much it would cost if your “one true love” actually did give you everything listed in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas”?
Let’s just say it would be the one true debt of New Year.
For the past three decades, PNC has actually calculated “The True Price of Christmas,” tallying the cost of hiring leaping lords, purchasing a partridge (and a pear tree) and buying everything else in between.
The final bill for 2015: $34,130.99.
And as you process that, here are 12 other things you probably didn’t know about Christmas, which I hope for you was a very merry one.
Even without any swans-a-swimming.
1. In A.D. 350, Pope Julius I, bishop of Rome, proclaimed Dec. 25 as the official celebration date for the birthday of Christ, even though many scholars believe He was likely born during the spring.
2. In Norway, scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system. Either that or too much eggnog.
3. With names like Blitzen, Comet and Cupid, most of Santa’s reindeer sound like males, but they shed their antlers around Christmas. So the pack pulling Santa’s sleigh are likely not male, meaning that the treatment of Rudolph is kind of like a North Pole version of “Mean Girls.”
4. According to the Guinness world records, the tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle. Good luck finding a tree bag for that one.
5. Created in 2007 by the Children’s Society in London, the world’s largest Christmas stocking measured 106 feet and 9 inches long and 49 feet and 1 inch wide. It weighed as much as five (male) reindeer and held nearly 1,000 presents. Good luck finding a mantle for that one.
6. Christmas trees have been sold in the U.S. in 1850, and today there are approximately 21,000 Christmas tree farms across the country. On those farms, nearly 350 million Christmas trees are currently growing with approximately 25 to 30 million of them sold every year.
7. Each year in the U.S., kids sit on the laps of approximately 20,000 “rent-a-Santas” who usually undergo seasonal training on how to maintain a jolly attitude under pressure from the public. Their education also includes lessons about avoiding garlic, onions, or beans for lunch.
8. Each Christmas Eve, Bolivians celebrate Misa del Gallo or “Mass of the Rooster” with some people even bringing roosters to midnight mass as a gesture symbolizing the belief that the bird was the first animal to announce the birth of Jesus.
9. In Poland, meanwhile, spiders or spider webs are common Christmas trees decorations because, according to legend, a spider wove a blanket for Baby Jesus.
10. In 1836, Alabama became the first state in the U.S. to officially recognize Christmas, although it wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.
11. There are two competing claims as to which president was the first to place a Christmas tree inside the White House. Some scholars say Franklin Pierce did it in 1856, while others argue that Benjamin Harrison hauled in the first tree in 1889. Not up for debate: Calvin Coolidge started the White House lighting ceremony in 1923.
12. Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nikolas of Myra, who lived during the fourth century. Born in modern-day Turkey, he is the world’s most popular non-Biblical saint, and is the patron saint of banking, pawn-broking, pirating, butchery, sailing, thievery, orphans, royalty, and New York City, where – perhaps not coincidentally – you can find all of those things.