{"id":4498,"date":"2024-12-24T18:51:56","date_gmt":"2024-12-24T18:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=4498"},"modified":"2024-12-24T18:51:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-24T18:51:56","slug":"merry-christmas-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/?p=4498","title":{"rendered":"Merry Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For many years, I\u2019ve done an (almost) annual Christmas blog. I\u2019ve celebrated Christmas a lot of times in a lot of places. They were all different, and all special. This year Christmas is different, but not special. But here goes \u2014 my (almost) annual Christmas blog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got to wondering the other day \u2014 we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas, but we don\u2019t really think much about him, at least not as a baby.
I was wondering\u2026. how much did he weigh when he was born, and was he a cute baby? Most people think all babies are cute so I expect most would have thought Jesus was cute. But maybe since they thought He was the messiah or a great prophet, they\u2019d probably think he would have been cute just because they\u2019d have positive thoughts about him. But if he was so wise, maybe he looked like a serious little old man. Since there were no iPhones, I guess we can\u2019t know for sure, but I think he was probably cute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As to how much he weighed, so far as I know, the weight of Baby Jesus isn\u2019t recorded in the Bible \u2014 or any historical texts. His birth is described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, but they focus more on the circumstances of his birth rather than specific physical details. Given that He was born as a human child, a good guess would be that he weighed within the typical range of newborn\u2019s weight \u2014 probably between five and a half and eight and a half pounds. Of course that\u2019s based purely on speculation.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So now that that\u2019s out of the way, here\u2019s some more stuff you \u2014 like me \u2014 have been\u00a0 wondering about\u2026.
\u201cSilent Night\u201d was first sung as part of a church service in Austria. a guitar was used because the church organ was so badly rusted it couldn\u2019t be played.
Guatemalan adults do not exchange Christmas gifts until New Year\u2019s Day. Children get theirs (from the Christ Child) on Christmas morning.
In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts use shoes.
The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew in Mexico, where it is also known as the \u201cFlower of the Holy Night.\u201d Joel Poinsett first brought it to America in 1829.
When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on a goat named Ukko. Finnish folklore says that Ukko is made of straw, but is strong enough to carry Santa Clause anyway.
When distributing gifts in Holland, St. Nicholas is accompanied by his servant, Black, who is responsible for actually dropping the presents down the chimneys. He also punishes bad children by putting them in a bag and carrying them away to Spain.\u00a0
In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by one of the Wise Men\u2019s camels. The gift-giving camel is said to have been the smallest one in the Wise Men\u2019s caravan.\u00a0
There are 364 gifts mentioned in \u201cThe Twelve Days of Christmas.\u201d
The Puritans forbade the singing of Christmas carols.
America\u2019s official national Christmas tree is located in King\u2019s Canyon National Park in California. The tree, a giant sequoia called the \u201cGeneral Grant Tree,\u201d is over 300 feet high, and was made the official Christmas tree in 1925.
Artificial Christmas trees have outsold real ones since 1991.
Franklin Pierce was the first president to decorate an official White House Christmas tree.\u00a0
Electric Christmas lights were first used in 1854.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So to both my faithful readers, and everyone else, and no matter how your celebrate \u2014 have a Merry Christmas.\u00a0
\u2014 30 \u2014<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For many years, I\u2019ve done an (almost) annual Christmas blog. I\u2019ve celebrated Christmas a lot of times in a lot of places. They were all different, and all special. This year Christmas is different, but not special. But here goes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4500,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4498\/revisions\/4500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jimmy.ekota.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}