Christmas Carols by the Numbers

Enjoy some number crunching Christmas Carol trivia from GeekMom.
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Image: Sarah Pinault.

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  1. In "The Twelve Days of Christmas," counting each unit as a gift, the total number of gifts is 364.
  2. Ninety-three – Age at which you become an adult according to Mel Torme: "And so I'm offering this simple phrase, for kids from one to 92."
  3. In 1984, Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" broke records by going straight to number one in the UK charts.
  4. There are over 500 recordings of Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," the most recent by CeeLo Green.
  5. "Up on the Housetop," written in 1864, was the first secular Christmas song, beating out "Jingle Bells" which was written in 1857 but intended as a Thanksgiving song.
  6. The Pretenders traveled "2000 miles" for Christmas time whereas Brad Paisley went 364 days.
  7. 2009 – year in which William Shatner's version of "Good King Wenceslas" was recorded.
  8. "Nine Lessons and Carols" is the name of the famous Christmas Eve service broadcast from King's College in Cambridge, England. The service was first performed in 1918 to celebrate the end of the war.
  9. Not only did three kings come from afar, they may or may not have seen three ships go sailing in on Christmas day, on Christmas day.
  10. You wouldn't have a "Holly Jolly Christmas" if you ate more than 20 Holly berries: these toxic red gems could kill you if consumed beyond 20.
  11. While most mothers feel only one joy on the birth of their child (more if they are having multiples), Mary reportedly received seven joys upon the birth of Jesus.
  12. According to Nielsen, between 2003 and 2010 there were 1,794,000 digital downloads of Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is you" and only 264,000 downloads of Gayla Peevey's "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas;" I just don't understand that.
  13. Merry Christmas, by Bing Crosby was the best selling album in 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949 and 1950.
  14. There are nine tracks on the Star Wars Christmas Album. Is it nine too many?
  15. In 1958, "The Chipmunk Song" won two Grammy awards: Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording For Children.
  16. The "Christmas Number One" is a coveted title in the UK, and is an accolade earned by the artist whose song reaches number one in the music charts the week that spans Christmas. To achieve this slot in a regular week, a performer must sell between 75,000 and 150,000 singles. During Christmas week this number tops 450,000.

Sources:"The Christmas Almanac", edited by Natasha Tabori Fried

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_carol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_song

www.billboard.com

www.grammy.com