Santa's outfit was originally green; the red outfit became standard after Coca-Cola’s advertising campaign in the 1930s, which prominently featured a jolly Santa in red, matching their branding.

Charles Dickens is often credited with popularising modern Christmas traditions through his books, particularly "A Christmas Carol" (1843). The novella's themes of generosity, family, and festive spirit helped shape contemporary celebrations of Christmas, emphasising goodwill, charity, and togetherness. Dickens' vivid depictions of Victorian Christmas customs, such as feasting, gift-giving, and community, resonated with readers and influenced how the holiday is celebrated today.

When Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, many Romans weren't keen to give up their much beloved raucous festivals for new Christian ones. As a way of combating this, Pope Julius I aligned the celebration of the birth of Christ with the Roman festival of Saturnalia, which brought traditions such as gift-giving, singing, and eating.

During the English Civil War, Parliament banned many festivities that were considered too close to Catholicism, including Christmas, Easter and Whitsun. As the war raged on, Protestants and Puritans became more and more concerned by the existence of Catholics and the possibility that their own king might be one, and so took measures to stamp out any remnants of Catholicism in public life. As the celebration of Christmas is not mentioned in the Bible, and Protestantism as a religion is heavily rooted in scripture, it had to go.

Christmas was first officially celebrated on December 25th in the year 336 AD, during the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine. This marks the first recorded observance of Christmas on that specific date, although it likely took several decades for the celebration to become widespread across the Christian world.

During the medieval period, a peasant was chosen to take the position of ‘Lord of Misrule’ and his word was taken as law for what Christmas games were played; drunken festivities would ensue!

The Christmas tree was popularised in England by Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. He brought the tradition from his native Germany, where decorating Christmas trees was already a well-established custom. The tradition gained widespread popularity after an illustration of the royal family gathered around a decorated Christmas tree at Windsor Castle was published in the "Illustrated London News" in 1848.

The massive tree in Trafalgar Square in London is a gift given annually to the UK from Oslo, Norway as a thank you for Britain’s support of Norway during the Second World War.

Astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra aboard Gemini 6A in 1965 became the first people to perform music in space. In a live broadcast nine days before Christmas, Wally reported an unidentified flying object in polar orbit, flying from the North Pole, before playing Jingle Bells on an 8-note harmonica and set of bells, creating the first musical broadcast from space.