Having to live through it once a year, most people assume they know all about Christmas. And that’s a good thing. It makes for easy pickings on finding someone willing to put up some cash in a bar bet. And fleecing suckers is what the holiday season is all about. So here’s some little known facts to help you line your pockets for the holidays (please remember to forward 10% of all winnings to me).

Hark this: There is no reference to angels singing anywhere in the Bible.

Biblical scholars say Jesus was probably born in a cave and not a wooden stable.

Many theologians estimate that Jesus wasn’t born on December 25 but sometime in September between 6BC and 30AD.

We celebrate Christmas on December 25th because in the fourth century, Pope Julius I said so. Most likely because it was also the day of two similar pagan holidays that influenced the formation of Christmas – the birthday of Mithra and the Feast of Saturnalia.

Jingle Bells was originally called One Horse Open Sleigh. It was written for Thanksgiving. It also was the first song broadcast from space when Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra sang it on December 16, 1965.

In England turkey is the traditional Christmas meal. But it used to be a pig’s head and mustard.

Many parts of a Christmas tree can actually be eaten. The needles are a good source of Vitamin C.

The Germanic word for “mistletoe” literally means “dung on a twig.”

That long shopping spree before Christmas began in America when relatives of soldiers posted overseas in the Second World War were encouraged to mail gifts early.

The Beatles hold the record for most Xmas number 1 singles, topping the charts in 1963, 65 and 67.

In Greece, Italy, Spain, and Germany, workers get a Christmas bonus of one month’s salary by law.

The Bible does not put a number on how many wise men there were. The Gospel of Matthew only refers to ‘wise men.’

According to Forbe’s list of the world’s richest fictional people, Santa Claus is tops with an estimated net worth of infinity. Now you know why he’s so jolly.

Back in 1955, a printing error of the phone number of a Colorado Springs Sears store – so that children could call in and tell Santa Claus what they wanted for Christmas – mistakenly directed calls to the hotline for Colonel Harry Shoup, Director of Operations for the US Continental Air Defense. After the 500th call, instead of pushing the button and ending the world as I would have done, Shoup ordered his staff to give children updates on Santa’s flight coordinates. That tradition continues today and you can track Santa’s path thanks to NORAD. Now, there’s even an app for that.

Teddy Roosevelt’s son Archie was closeted. Or at least his Xmas tree was. Teddy, being an avid outdoorsmen and conservationist who found deforestation revolting, imposed a total ban on putting up a Christmas tree in the White House during his presidency. So Archie snuck one in and hid it in his closet.

Clement Clarke Moore, who wrote the poem The Night before Christmas (aka A Visit From St. Nicholas) felt the work was beneath his usual standards and denied writing it for almost 15 years, even after it had become a huge hit.

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