Strange but true

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created for Montgomery Ward department stores. (Rudolph began in 1939 when the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company (a chain of department stores) asked one of their writers, 34-year-old Robert L. May, to come up with a Christmas story which could be given away to shoppers as a promotional gimmick. The chain had been been buying and giving away coloring books for Christmas every year. To save money, they wanted to create their own booklet. It was loosely based on the Ugly Duckling.)

Christmas Urban Myth #3

'Xmas' is a modern, disrespectful abbreviation of the word 'Christmas'. (X is a substitute for the Greek, Chi, which was an early church representation of Christ. It has been around for a long time and had no meaning of disrespect.)

Christmas Urban Myth #2

The Bible tells of three wise men who travelled from afar on camels to visit the infant Jesus as he lay in the manger.(Mathew 2:1 tells us: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem . . . ". That is the extent of it. There is no mention of THREE wisemen and no mention of camel! Also, Matt 2:11 states "And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him . . . ". Note that it mentions a child in a house, rather than a baby in a manger... so this is a postbirth event.)

Christmas Urban Myth #1

Poinsettia plants are poisonous to humans. (The poinsettia poison myth had its origin when a young child of an Army officer in Hawaii died of poisoning, incorrectly assumed to be a poinsettia leaf. A 50 lb. child would have to eat more than 1.25 lbs. or 500 - 600 leaves , according to the POISINDEX Information Service. Handbook of Poisonous and Injurious Plants lists the symptoms of eating Poinsetta as vomiting as a side effect of ingesting otherwise harmless poinsettia leaves.)