Christmas Fast Facts

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

Facts

Celebrated December 25th in the United States and other countries. In 2023, December 25th falls on a Monday.

Christmas is celebrated on January 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 upon 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

The National Retail Federation projects 2023 holiday sales between $957.3 billion and $966.6 billion, an increase of 3% to 4% over 2022 spending.

The United States Post Office announced plans to increase processing capacity to about 70 million packages a day during the 2023 holiday season, an increase of 10 million over the capacity for 2022.