December 31, 2024

Americans drink around 360 million glasses of sparkling wine on New Year's. Corks can fly out of the bottle at a speed of 25 miles per hour, so it's best to open bottles at a 45-degree angle.

- goodhousekeeping.com (December 29, 2022)

December 30, 2024

An aunt is part of an extended family. The child of an aunt's is a cousin. Often the word aunt is used with people who are not related to show closeness or respect. In many cultures there are different words to describe a person's mother's sister and father's sister. In Latin a mother's sister is matertera while a father's sister is amita.

- Kiddle encyclopedia (kiddle.co)

December 29, 2024

Founded in 1986, Acura is the luxury vehicle division of the Japanese automobile giant, Honda Motor Company. The car brand was introduced in the United States first to cater to the North American market.

- dubizzle.com

December 28, 2024

Making art helps produce neurotransmitter dopamine which stimulates the creation of new neurons and boosts your focus and learning process. Art gives you a sense of accomplishment which makes you feel good and boosts your confidence. Accomplishment can come from the process of learning, doing and creating and does not have to be about achieving the end result.

- achgroup.org.au

December 27, 2024

Peanut Butter Cookies ½ cup butter ½ cup peanut butter ½ cup granulated sugar ½ cup packed brown sugar ½ teaspoon vanilla 1 egg 1¼ cups all purpose flour ¾ teaspoon baking soda ¼ teaspoon salt

- Lisa's Cook Book

December 26, 2024

55% of Americans don’t use all of their paid time off. Studies show that, on average, employees with an unlimited policy take less time off than employees with a set amount of vacation days, meaning the work still gets done (even though the freedom is there).

- zippia.com (Feb. 26, 2023)

December 25, 2024

From 1659 to 1681, anyone caught making merry in the colonies would face a fine for celebrating. The Massachusetts Bay Colony created the Penalty for Keeping Christmas. It was thought that ""such festivals as were superstitiously kept in other countries"" and were ""a great dishonor of God and offense of others. The penalty for breaking the law was five shillings. By the Revolutionary War, the day had so little significance that Congress even held their first session on December 25, 1789. Christmas wasn't even proclaimed a federal holiday for almost another century, proving that the Grinch's attitude toward the holiday was alive and well long before he was.

- GoodHousekeeping.com (November 11, 2024)

December 24, 2024

Christmas Eve is the 24th of December. British English: Christmas Eve, Italian: vigilia di Natale , Polish: Wigilia Bożego Narodzenia , Swedish: julafton

- collinsdictionary.com

December 23, 2024

Pickleball is not as new as you might think! The sport was invented in 1965 and has been around for almost 60 years now. The sport is named after Joel Pritchard's dog, Pickles. There is no other association to pickle anywhere in the sport!

- badmintonwarehouse.com (December 9, 2021)

December 22, 2024

The Friday and Saturday before Christmas are the busiest shopping days of the year. According to recent statistics, the top ten busiest shopping days in the U.S. account for nearly half of all holiday retail traffic including the weekend before the big day. As for the entire holiday shopping season, the NRF estimates sales reached $936.3 billion in 2022.

- thepioneerwoman.com (December 12, 2024)

December 21, 2024

“Cheers” originated from the old French word chiere which meant “face” or “head.” By the 18th century, it meant “gladness,” and was used as a way of expressing encouragement. Today, “cheers,” is simply a symbolic and succinct way of toasting with the wish of good cheer and good health to those around us – an exercise of camaraderie.

- farmersalmanac.com (May 7, 2024)

December 20, 2024

The study also includes the Gingerbread index, which is perhaps a better known barometer of holiday food prices. This year, it’s showing a 5.5% increase in the cumulative price of wheat, sugar, butter, eggs, ginger and cassia. Sugar (up 18.3% year over year) and egg prices (up a jaw-dropping 97.5% from a year ago) were the cause for the price surge, as wheat and butter are both cheaper this year.

- fortune.com (December 17, 2024)

December 19, 2024

"The Chipmunk Song" was the first Christmas song to hit #1 in America. It hit the top spot on December 22, 1958 and stayed for four weeks, sticking around long after the Christmas lights had come down. The Chipmunks were called Alvin, Simon and Theodore. They were named after Liberty Records president Al Bennett, owner Si Warnoker and the engineer on duty when it was recorded, Ted Keep.

- songfacts.com

December 18, 2024

Zoomies, or Frenetic Random Activity Periods (FRAPs), refer to those unmistakable explosions of energy that dogs have on occasion. Zoomies often feature frantic, repetitive behavior such as running in circles or spinning around. A frequent cause of zoomies is an excess buildup of energy that dogs hold on to, which is then released in one big burst. Certain times of day may trigger zoomies in dogs more than others, such as the first thing in the morning or in the evening after spending much of the day in a crate.

- akc.org (November 22, 2019)

December 17, 2024

A large number of mysterious drones have been reported flying over New Jersey and across the eastern U.S., sparking speculation and concern over where they came from and why. The FBI, the Homeland Security Department and state agencies have been investigating, but officials say there has been nothing so far to suggest any drones have posed a national security or public safety threat. Authorities say many of the drone sightings have actually been legal drones, manned aircraft, helicopters and even stars.

- Dave Collins, apnews.com (December 20, 2024)

December 16, 2024

Determined to make good on his promise to electrify downtown Manhattan, Thomas Edison sought to draw attention to his incandescent light bulb during the 1880 Christmas season. The Wizard of Menlo Park, who was known for his PR savvy, laid eight miles of underground wire to power strings of lights around the outside of his New Jersey laboratory. Train commuters traveling between New York and Philadelphia were so amazed by the glowing fields that one reporter labeled Edison “the Enchanter” and described the spectacle as “a fairy-land of lights.”

- mentalfloss.com (December 21, 2022)

December 15, 2024

In the early 1930s, Coca-Cola turned to Haddon H. Sundblom, an advertising artist with the D'Arcy Agency, to design a new Santa. Sundblom redrew Santa Claus as a plump, cheerful man with snow-white hair and dressed him in red and white—colors that had already become associated with Santa, but which happily matched Coca-Cola's signature colors. Sundblom even provided a Mrs. Claus, based on his own wife. Today, it is Sundblom's Santa who decorates everything from Coca-Cola cans to Christmas sweaters, from greeting cards to home décor, all because Coca-Cola wanted to increase its winter sales.

- americanhistory.si.edu (December 17, 2014)

December 14, 2024

Glass blowing involves heating glass to extremely high temperatures to make it molten. The temperature required can range from 1,100 degrees Celsius to 1,400 degrees Celsius. In addition to the high temperature, the glass blower must work quickly, as the molten glass begins to cool immediately.

- artcentron.com (February 5, 2024)

December 13, 2024

The average person only brushes for 45 to 70 seconds a day, the recommended amount of time is 2-3 minutes.

- hillsdaledentalcare.com

December 12, 2024

The season of Advent dates back to the fourth century, and is celebrated by most Christian churches in the Western tradition. The four-week period begins on the Sunday closest to the feast day of St. Andrew the Apostle (Nov. 30) and lasts for the next three Sundays. Today, most Advent calendars don't technically cover the Advent season, but instead start on Dec. 1 and run through either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The reason is practical, as Vox explains: The length of the Advent season changes from year to year, so it's easier to pick a set number of days for calendars that can be reproduced or reused every season.

- Rachel Treisman, NPR (November 6, 2023)

December 11, 2024

The perfect gift doesn’t have to be expensive: often the most meaningful gifts are those that have symbolic value or that recall a special moment or experience. According to a 2020 research, the global corporate gifting market is expected to reach $125 billion by 2025. Around the world, Christmas is the main holiday for gift giving. In the United States, Black Friday is the most important day for Christmas shopping, while in China, Singles’ Day (November 11) is the world’s biggest online shopping day.

- ilariaapolloni.com

December 10, 2024

The Consumer Product Safety Commission's most recent news release estimates that 14,700 people visit hospital emergency rooms each November and December from holiday-related decorating accidents — which is about 240 injuries per day. The most common accidents involve falling, lacerations and back strains.

- GoodHousekeeping.com (November 11, 2024)

December 09, 2024

A Christmas Carol was first published on December 19, 1843, with the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve. By 1844, the novella had gone through 13 printings and continues to be a robust seller more than 175 years later.

- arts.gov (December 4, 2020)

December 08, 2024

An item is considered “antique” if it is at least 100 years old or older. Antique items may be handmade, wooden furnishings, paintings, or other home décor. “Vintage” refers to items that are 20 to 99 years old and also represent distinct characteristics or styles of their time period. “Retro” can mean “younger” vintage pieces from the 1950s to 1980 or newly manufactured items that are made to look like vintage pieces. An antique mall is a large space filled with individual rented booths for vendors to sell their wares (primarily antiques, as opposed to a temporary flea market). In an antique mall, you can browse through hundreds of vendors’ booths that will contain a large variety of antiques, vintage and retro goods, and more. An antique store is typically a smaller shop curated by an antique dealer, and the shop may focus on one specific style or look.

- americasantiquemall.com (February 27, 2023)

December 07, 2024

Scandinavian Holiday Décor: According to Meik Wiking, author of “The Little Book of Hygge,” hygge—a sense of warmth and cosiness—is the sole focus of most Danes throughout December. “Without achieving hygge, a Dane’s toil for the Christmas project is redundant,” he says. “Danish Christmas will always be planned, thought of and evaluated in relation to the concept of hygge. At no other time of the year will you hear Danes mentioning hygge as much.” Indeed, Danes have a special compound word for hygge at Christmastime—julehygge (Christmas-hygge)!

- moderndane.com (December 5, 2021)

December 06, 2024

Rudolph was a marketing ploy. The beloved reindeer was created by a copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department store in 1939. He wrote Rudolph into a children’s story that could be given out to promote the store. It was a huge hit, with more than 2.4 million copies distributed in its first year! In 1949 Gene Autry recorded the famous song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and in 1964 came the movie featuring the island of misfit toys.

- GoodHousekeeping.com (November 11, 2024)

December 05, 2024

Snow appears white, but it is actually translucent. When light reflects off it, snow appears white. The many sides of a snowflake scatter light, diffusing the color spectrum in many directions. Snow can look dark when dust, or pollution, cover it. Fresh-water algae that loves snow can turn it into other colors like orange, blue, or watermelon pink.

- nsidc.org (National Snow and Ice Data Center)

December 04, 2024

Americans’ latest estimate of the total amount they will spend on Christmas and other holiday gifts is slightly higher than what they estimated at this time a year ago. The latest $1,012, from a Nov. 6-20 survey, is up from $975 last November.

- news.gallup.com (November 27, 2024)

December 03, 2024

It's a common belief that dogs and cats are more resistant than people to cold weather because of their fur, but it's untrue. Like people, cats and dogs are susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia and generally should be kept inside. Longer-haired and thick-coated dog breeds, such as huskies and other dogs bred for colder climates, are more tolerant of cold weather; but no pet should be left outside for long periods in below-freezing weather.

- avma.org (American Veterinary Medical Foundation)

December 02, 2024

The modern Christmas card industry arguably began in 1915, when a Kansas City-based fledgling postcard printing company started by Joyce Hall, later to be joined by his brothers Rollie and William, published its first holiday card. The Hall Brothers company (which, a decade later, change its name to Hallmark), soon adapted a new format for the cards—4 inches wide, 6 inches high, folded once, and inserted in an envelope. “They discovered that people didn’t have enough room to write everything they wanted to say on a post card,” says Steve Doyal, vice president of public affairs for Hallmark, “but they didn’t want to write a whole letter."

- smithsonianmag.com (December 9, 2015)

December 01, 2024

Manhattan’s first holiday storefront window display is said to date back to Macy’s at Herald Square in the 1870s. Department stores were emerging as powerful cultural institutions, and the Macy’s display of porcelain dolls and scenes of holiday revelry set the stage for what would become a New York holiday staple. Other major retailers quickly followed suit. By the early 20th century, stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and Bloomingdale’s were competing to create the most dazzling displays, bringing new meaning to the phrase window shopping by enticing shoppers while also celebrating the spirit of the season.

- nydc.com (New York Design Center)