I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing.

Keeping in the spirit of giving, here’re 5 fast facts about Christmas: (in no particular order)

1. We celebrate Christmas on 25 Dec, but it was previously celebrated on 7 Jan. Yeah, a Caesar adopted a new calendar, yada yada, and 25 Dec is about 9 months after Incarnation on 25 Mar. Anyhoo, here we are, in the twenty first century, celebrating Christmas on 25 Dec.

2. When you talk about Yuletide cheer, you’re really referring to a Scandinavian Winter Festival called Yule (not to be confused with my favourite Survivor of all time, Yul). But hey, at least they got the dates right, and celebrate Yule on 21-22 Dec, depending on when the Winter Solstice is. Yuletide refers to the period after, between 24 Dec and 6 Jan. What we do know is that this pagan festival predates Christianity, and depending on what or when, you either sacrifice a pig for the god Freyr (Christmas Ham, anyone?) or light logs in honour of Thor.
3. The Twelve Days of Christmas might be just a song for most, but it bears some real symbolism. On the twelfth day after Christmas, it’s Epiphany. The play by Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, was written to be Twelfth Night entertainment, and I don’t know if it’s because of all the Neil Gaiman stuff I read, but it makes the play sound all magical and pagan altogether.
4. Santa Claus – though a variation on a Dutch folk tale on Saint Nicholas (incidentally my alma mater was named after him), was a bishop born somewhere near Turkey a long time ago with a cheeky habit of secret gifting, and a big heart. One of the popular tales of St Nick was how he saved a father’s three daughters from a life of prostitution by secretly supplying him with gold for the dowries, enabling the daughters to be married properly. For this reason, St Nick is the patron saint of pawnbrokers, with three gold balls hanging outside the pawnshop to symbolise the tree sacks of gold he gave out. While that’s not a big surprise, did you know that Saint Nicholas is also the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, children, and students in Greece, Russia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro? He is also the patron saint of Barranquilla (Colombia), Bari (Italy) Amsterdam (Netherlands), and of Beit Jala in the West Bank of Palestine. Bet yer didn’t.
5. Confused over the whole Merry Christmas deal? Why is Christmas the only holiday that warrants it to be “merry” while the others are just “happy”? We’ve probably got Mr Bah Humbug and a few greeting card fellas to thank for that. A Christmas Carol. The first known use of “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. It was used in the first Christmas card, produced in 1843. In that same year, the relatively new term found its way to Mr Dickens’ work, where Scrooge would go “If I could work my will every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding.” Bah, humbug!

And there we have it. Five Christmas facts, 60 fun minutes on Wikipedia and a partridge in a pear tree.