FAST FACTS — Christmas

(CNN) — Here’s a look at Christmas, a popular Christian holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Facts:

♦ Celebrated Dec. 25 in the United States and other countries. In 2019, Dec. 25 falls on a Wednesday.

♦ Christmas is celebrated on Jan. 7 in some Eastern Orthodox countries, such as Russia.♦

♦ The real date of Jesus’ birth is not known.

♦ The Christmas story is told primarily in the Gospels of Saint Luke and Saint Matthew in the New Testament.

♦ Considered the most popular Christian observance, Christmas is also celebrated as a secular family holiday.

♦ The word Christmas is derived from the Old English phrase Cristes maesse (Christ’s mass).

♦ The tradition of substituting X-mas for Christmas has its origins in the early Christian church. The first letter of Jesus Christ’s name is X in the Greek language.

♦ Many of the customs and symbols traditionally associated with Christmas originated with ancient pagan festivals and winter solstice♦ rituals.

♦ The modern Christmas tree (typically evergreen conifers, usually pine, balsam or fir species) originated in Germany in the 16th century and became popular in England by the mid-19th century thanks to Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, who was German.

♦ St. Nicholas, the real person on whom Santa Claus is based, lived in the 4th century AD in the province of Lycia on the southwest coast of Asia Minor.

♦ Cartoonist Thomas Nast is credited with creating the current image of Santa Claus, based on his illustrations that began appearing in Harper’s Weekly in 1863.

Economic Impact:

Expected holiday spending for November and December 2019 is between $727.9 billion and $730.7 billion, according to the National Retail Federation, an increase of 3.8% to 4.2% over 2018 spending.

The United States Post Office anticipated delivering 800 million packages in the 2019 holiday season.

File Photo: Carlton Fletcher