Scientists calculated that Santa would have to visit 822 homes a second to deliver all
the world's presents on Christmas Eve, travelling at 650 miles a second.
The word Xmas isn't actually blasphemous.
The letter X is a Greek abbreviation for Christ.
And guess what?
It's likely that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, 1AD, many theologians estimate he was
born sometime in September between 2BC and 7BC.
Which means the calendar as we know it may be out by a few years.
Furthermore it's believed Jesus was actually born in a cave, not a stable.
So why do we celebrate Christmas on the 25th of December?
There are many theories to this, a popular theory is that December 25th was chosen because
the Winter Solstice and the ancient pagan Roman midwinter festivals called 'Saturnalia'
and 'Dies Natalis Solis Invicti' took place in December around this date.
So it was more convenient to have all festivities at the same time.
There are some unusual Christmas traditions around the world, for example, in Iceland
there are 13 different Santas including one called "Grýla", who is a horrifying old woman
who kidnaps children on Christmas if they've been naughty.
In India fir trees and pine trees are extremely scarce because of the climate, so Indians
decorate banana trees and mango trees instead.
In 1966 a 13-metre tall straw goat was erected in the town square of Galve in Sweden.
At the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve a vandal burned down the goat.
But this didn't dissuade the town, every year since the town has re-erected the goat and
every year vandals attempt to burn it down.
The goat has been burned down more than 25 times.
In fact, it has happened so often that in 1988 bookmakers began taking bets on the goats
survival.
And in case you were wondering, no the town doesn't want the goat to be burnt down, in
fact, in 2001 an American tourist served jail time for successfully doing so.
But you ain't heard nothing yet.
The prize for the most uncanny Christmas traditions goes to, you guessed it, Japan.
The Japanese are obsessed with KFC on Christmas day.
On Christmas day people queue outside KFC's all around the country to buy their Christmas
buckets, people even order months in advance to avoid the queues.
This strange tradition is a result of a massive multi-year marketing campaign in Japan by
KFC to associate Christmas with KFC and it worked.
Christmas sponge cakes, with whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate on top are also
a popular Christmas day custom in Japan.
KFC picked up on this growing tradition and now offer a Christmas day menu in Japan, including
a bucket of fried chicken that has a cardboard bottom with a Christmas cake underneath and
a bottle of champagne.
There are countless variations of Santa Claus all around the world, namely St. Nicholas,
Father Christmas and Santa Claus.
But what's the difference between them?
They all originated from one man, Saint Nicholas.
St. Nicholas was a Bishop who lived in Myra in Asia Minor, which is now called Turkey,
around the fourth century AD.
He was a very wealthy because his parents died when he was young and left him a lot
of money.
He was also very kind and had a reputation for helping the poor.
There are several legends surrounding St. Nicholas, one famous story tells us how one
night St. Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold down the chimney of a poor family.
The bag fell into a stocking that had been hung by the fire to dry.
This is believed to be where the custom of hanging up christmas stockings originated
from.
By the 16th century the stories about St. Nicholas had become very unpopular, but someone
had to deliver presents to children at Christmas so various countries invented their own mysterious
gift givers.
The UK came up with Father Christmas, in France he was known as Père Nöel.
Germany named him 'Christ Kind'.
In the early USA he was named [IMAGE]' Kris Kringle'.
However later on, Dutch settlers in the USA took the old stories of St. Nicholas with
them and came up with a new name for him 'Sinterklaas' which turned into the now, widely adopted,
Santa Claus.
But where does he actually live?
There's a lot of debate over this, The UK, USA and Cananda think he lives in the North
Pole, the Norwegians believe he's in Drøbak, the Danes say he's actually in Greenland.
But the Finns are adamant he's in Joulukka, Lapland and Finland's tourist board are out
to prove it.
Santa's Lapland property is an impressive 86-acres, he has his very own managing director.
Private meetings can be arranged with Santa for a hefty $1,360.
Each year more than 70,000 visitors come to Joulukka to visit Santa and the post office
receives more than 500,000 letters from children around the globe.
Santa is able to reply to about 40,000 of them in up to 12 different languages.
So does Santa really live in Lapland?
Well, at the end of the day, almost every country has its own traditions and stories
surrounding Santa Claus, so it's really up to you who you want to believe.
Now for the big question, did Coca-Cola turn Santa Claus red?
Well not really, the red and white coat dates back well before Coke's 30 year long Christmas
advertising campaign.
It's believed the red originates from St. Nicholas, who was the Bishop of Myra, Red
and white were the hues of traditional bishop robes.
The truth is Santa has been portrayed wearing various coloured robes including both red
and green, for centuries, in children's literature and paintings.
However Coke are largely responsible for popularising the jolly red image of Santa we know today
and enforcing it as the status quo all around the globe.
But getting in touch with Santa is easier than you may think, he has a real zip code.
Every year postal services all over the world are flooded with letters to Santa.
The Canadian Post Office received so many they set up a special zip code for Santa,
it's H0H 0H0.
You can write a letter addressed to that zip code in any language and you will receive
a letter back [image ] from Santa.
But where does the tradition of Christmas trees come from?
The evergreen fir tree has been used to celebrate both Pagan and Christian winter festivals
for thousands of years.
Nobody is really sure when they were first used as Christmas trees.
But it probably started about 1,000 years ago in northern Europe.
However many early Christmas trees were hung upside down from the ceiling using chains.
The first documented use of a tree to celebrate Christmas was in the town square of Riga,
the capital of Latvia in the year 1510.
The money behind the world's biggest holiday is astronomical.
Americans spend about $469 billion on Christmas shopping each year.
The average American spends $707 on gifts, but surprisingly they're number 2 on the biggest
spenders list.
The tiny European country of Luxembourg are the world's most generous Christmas spenders,
with each Luxembourgian spending $800 on gifts.
And guess what, Santa Claus is the world's richest man.
According to Forbes list of the 15 richest fictional people.
Santa Claus tops the list with a net worth of infinity.