What they don’t tell you about Christmas — unusual and less known facts about Christmas

For this Christmas edition of the newsletter, I thought to put together 8 less known facts or datapoints about Christmas. Some factual, some hypothetical, some environmental. But all interesting or funny. They might come handy to dole out in friends and family conversations during the Christmas break.

1. Japan’s KFC Christmas craze: In Japan where Christmas isn’t a national holiday, a KFC marketing campaign in the 1970s created the unique tradition of eating KFC for Christmas. 50 years later, millions of Japanese people rush to KFC during the festive season, some even pre-ordering their “Christmas Chicken” weeks in advance.

2. Real or artificial Christmas Trees, which ne is more environmentally friendly?: A real Christmas tree carbon footprint is 16KG CO2 if thrown in a landfill, while it is around 3 to 4 Kgs if properly ‘recycled’, or even less if you keep it! An artificial Christmas tree carbon footprint is on average around 40–50Kg CO2. You need to use the artificial tree at least a dozen years to be environmentally friendly.

3. Santa’s incredible speed and logistics: If Santa Claus had to deliver gifts to all 2.2bn children on earth, it would need to make almost 450,000 visits per minute (assuming 3.5 kids per household), or more than 7,000 visits per second. And if each gift weighted 1Kg, they would need over 80,000 40ft-long containers to be moved around, and if you line them up, it’s a 975km long line! More than the London-Milan straigh line distance.

4. Record-breaking Christmas lights: On November the 8th, 2022, Universal Studios Japan in Osaka, lit up a Christmas tree with 612,000 lights!

5. Christmas music royalties: “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey is still a seasonal hit after 30years. Various sources estimate its yearly royalties at about 2.5/3n $ which are made all in… December!

6. The first artificial Christmas Tree: The first artificial Christmas trees were made in Germany in the 19th century from dyed goose feathers, an innovation driven by environmental concerns!

7. UK Christmas crackers: About 150 millions are sold every year in UK, and they generate more than 2,400 tons of waste, pretty much the weight of 170 glorious double-deckers.

8. The price of Christmas: The annual PNC Christmas Price Index calculates the cost of all the gifts mentioned in “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” This year, the total is $46,729.86, new record. In 1984 it was $20,069.58, the lowest was 17,915.25 in 1995.

Merry Christmas to you all and to your loved ones.