While you’re sitting around the Christmas table, or driving to Grandma’s house, these bits of trivia and lore may keep the conversation interesting! Test yourself and your family.

Holiday Lore, Traditions, and Trivia

Does your dog like his biscuits?
According to old wives’ tales, at midnight on every Christmas Eve animals are given the power of speech for a brief period. (Better be nice to Fido that day.)

Where did the “X” in Xmas come from?
Contrary to what many people think, the “X” is not a way to get away from associating “Christ” with Christmas. Its origin is religious in nature. The Greek word that gives us the English word “Christ” started with the letter “chi” or “X”. The early Christians who spoke Greek used the word to signify “Christ’s Mass.” However, as centuries passed, fewer and fewer people understood ancient Greek and thought the “X” was pagan-like, and even showed disrespect.

When are the 12 days of Christmas?
The Christmas season begins at sundown on December 24 and lasts until sundown on January 5. The true 12 days of Christmas. (Tell that to the retail stores!)

Christmas Trivia

• The first Christmas card was created in England in 1842.

• The average American household mails 28 Christmas cards each year (numbers based on 2006 figures).

• California, Oregon, Michigan, Washington, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina are the leading producers of Christmas trees.

• Charles Dickens’ original phrase for Scrooge was “Bah Christmas” not “Bah Humbug.”

• Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 by author Robert May.

—Trivia from Farmers’ Almanac freelance author Bryan Henry

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by sduncan
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For years, the innocent mistletoe plant has been thought of as a plant with romantic qualities. Ancient Druids once considered mistletoe to be sacred. They believed that mistletoe could cure sickness and protect its owner from evil spirits. The Druids would harvest mistletoe with a special golden sickle, reserved for this purpose only, at the winter solstice, which is a few days before what we now celebrate as Christmas. Because mistletoe was so sacred, the Druids would not allow the plant to touch the ground. They would hang mistletoe over their doorways and entrances, believing that this would help protect the safety and health of all who passed through, as well as promote romance and fertility. They also believed that if a man kissed a woman under the mistletoe and gave a white berry from the plant to the woman, the couple would get married within the next year.

Happy holidays!

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by sduncan
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Snow, Ice, Sleet …it’s all happening AS PREDICTECD in the Farmers’ Almanac!

Is it snowing in your neck of the woods? If you haven’t checked our predictions recently, maybe you should. From page 117 of the 2008 Farmers’ Almanac:

Zone 1 Northeast States

December 12th-15th Another snowstorm, with significant accumulations as far south as Maryland, Virginia, then fair, cold weather .

Today’s snow may not go as far south as Maryland and VA, however, it is hitting many northern sections of the Mid-Atlantic states, and this Saturday more snow is on the way! Yes, I must admit, all of us at the Farmers’ Almanac are smiling!

We also accurately forwarned people the North Central States of some heavy snow for December 4-7th and possible wet snow/rain/ice for the 8th -11th.

People who follow the Farmers’ Almanac forecasts say they are 80-85% accurate.

What’s on tap for the next few weeks? Will you have a white Christmas? Be sure to get a copy of the 2008 Farmers’ Almanac today and check our forecasts online.

Enjoy the snow if you can!

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Watch Video! “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus” 2 min. 27 sec.

Those seven little words, written more than 110 years ago to a little girl from Manhattan’s West Ninety-Fifth Street, have taken on legendary proportions.

The story begins in 1897, when Virginia O’Hanlon, the daughter of Dr. Philip O’Hanlon, a coroner’s assistant on the Upper West Side, wrote the following letter to the editors of the now defunct New York Sun newspaper:

“Dear Editor: I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.’ Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?”

The now famous response, (watch video) penned by veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church, appeared on the editorial page of The Sun on September 21, 1897, under the headline “Is There a Santa Claus?” Though the unsigned editorial ran in the page’s eighth slot, below even a piece extolling the newly invented “chainless bicycle,” it has gone on to become the most reprinted editorial ever run in any English language newspaper. Now an indelible part of U.S. Christmas lore, the editorial’s message was incredibly moving to many readers at the time of its publication, and remains so to this day.

For his part, Church remained anonymous with respect to his famous editorial until after his death in 1906. Many claimed that The Sun reprinted the piece every Christmas until it folded in 1949, but history tells a different story. American University professor Dr. W. Joseph Campbell recently revealed that the paper resisted reader requests to reprint the piece for more than a decade, and did so reluctantly even then. It was only in the 1920s that the famous editorial became an annual staple.

That didn’t stop Virginia O’Hanlon (later Douglas) from becoming something of a minor celebrity. Until her death in 1971, Virginia was interviewed by news media all over the country year after year during the holiday season, and received countless letters from admirers. A school principal by career, with a doctorate from Fordham University, Virginia felt the piece had been a positive influence in her life.

“The older I grow, the more I realize what a perfect philosophy it is for life,” she told an interviewer from CBC radio in 1963.

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