Christmas facts: behind the holiday

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Published: December 18, 2008

Where did Rudolph come from?

In 1939, Robert May wrote a children’s story about a deer whose glowing nose caused him to be treated like an outcast by his fellow reindeer, and then made him a hero as he led the entire team on a zero-visibility Christmas Eve.

The story was published as a children’s book with great success.

Ten years later, the story was converted into a song.

Gene Autry, singer and cowboy star of movies and television, had two 1947 hits with Here Comes Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

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View of a set of dumbbells in a shared fitness pod of the smart shared-fitness provider Shanghai ParkBox Technology Co. at the Caohejing Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai, China, 25 October 2017.

Smart shared-fitness provider Shanghai ParkBox Technology Co. has released a new version of its mobile app and three new sizes of its fitness pod, the company said in a press briefing yesterday (25 October 2017). The update brings a social network feature to the app, making it easier for users to find work-out partners at its fitness pods. The firm has also introduced three new sizes of its fitness boxes which are installed in local communities. The new two-, four- and five-person boxes cover eight, 18 and 28 square meters, respectively. ParkBox's pods are fitted with Internet of Things (IoT) equipment, mobile self-help appointment services, QR-code locks and a smart instructor system employing artificial intelligence. 



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How did Santa Claus get to be jolly?

The poem The Night Before Christmas, written in 1823, first depicted Santa Claus as “chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.” For more than 100 years after publication, the elfin concept of Santa Claus saw many variations of the caricature envisioned in the verses.

In 1931, Swedish-American artist Haddon Sundblom was commissioned by the Coca-Cola Company to do a painting of Santa Claus for an advertisement. In these paintings, Santa remained his jolly self but no longer an elf. Instead, he became a plump man with rosy, red cheeks and a handsome, white beard.

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