1. Chris Columbus was going to direct National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, but Chevy Chase was difficult to work with so he dropped out and did a different project instead. It was Home Alone — the highest grossing Christmas film of all time.
2. A survey by Harris Poll found that 69% of Americans would prefer to skip the gift-giving aspect of Christmas, suggesting financial concerns are the main reason.
3. Additionally, the survey revealed that 60% of people said they'd spend more time with their friends and family if they weren't so concerned with gifts.
4. To stop public tree theft around Christmas time, cities and school campuses put skunk scent and fox urine on the trees. Outdoors, the smell isn't noticeable, but if taken to a small space, the smells grows intensely funky.
5. Real Christmas trees are better for the environment than artificial ones. This is for a number of reasons, from the toxic materials fake trees are made of to the fact that Christmas tree farms serve as a habitat for local wildlife.
6. Norway sends a Christmas tree to Britain every year as a symbol of gratitude for their help preserving Norwegian liberty during World War II.
7. The tradition with mistletoe suggests that not kissing a person while standing under one is bad luck. After each kiss, a berry is removed from the mistletoe, and the kisses conclude when all the berries are gone.
8. A Charlie Brown Christmas pretty much single-handedly caused the death of aluminum Christmas trees. Charlie choosing a real tree over an aluminum one, as Lucy suggested, had an influence on the public.
9. In 1984, Wham! donated the earnings from "Last Christmas" to Ethiopian famine aid.
10. A radio host once wanted to get listeners in the holiday spirit, so he barricaded himself in a studio and played "Last Christmas" by Wham! 24 times in a row.
11. The Grinch isn't exclusive to Christmas — he's also got an Emmy award–winning special called Halloween Is Grinch Night.
12. The total number of gifts listed in "The 12 Days of Christmas" is 364 — nearly one gift for every day in the year.
13. Mae Questel, who played Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, was also the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl.
14. Ralphie from A Christmas Story has an appearance in 2008's Iron Man, and he was an executive producer of the film.
15. Jingle Bells was originally titled "One Horse Open Sleigh" and was arguably written for Thanksgiving, not Christmas.
16. It's a Wonderful Life performed very poorly at the box office when it was first released. The film didn't become a classic until years later, when Republic Pictures failed to extend their copyright and it became available in the public domain.
