Top 10 Amazing-But-True Facts about the 2007 Holiday Season

During the recent holiday season, alert Internet readers sent us amazing-but-true facts they have learned about the 2007 Christmas season.

We present the top 10 herewith:

1. For the first time in history, Santa Claus is being forced to relocate his North Pole headquarters. The reason? Global warming. The irony is that global warming is rapidly accelerating due to a small percentage of Americans who insist on decorating their homes with tens of thousands of Christmas lights.

2. The Norwegian word for "fruitcake" translates literally to "delicacy of questionable sensibilities."

3. The only human to ever be awarded honorary status by Santa's elves is film composer and former Oingo Boingo front man Danny Elfman.

4. In 2006, three shopping-mall Santas suffered severe facial lacerations while using cats as beards. (The toll for 2007 hasn’t been tallied yet.)

5. Santa's Christmas Eve schedule now takes into account his mandatory TSA inspection upon entering the U.S., as well as airspace congestion over New York La Guardia, Chicago O'Hare and London Heathrow airports.

6. Played in reverse, the opening line of "A Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...") eerily predicts John Lennon's untimely demise.

7. Working for the Allies during World War II, Santa Claus lifted sensitive documents from the homes of Nazi officials each Christmas Eve.

8. Seventy-five percent of holiday plane crashes are caused by pilots mistaking for overly decorated neighborhood streets for airport runways.

9. "The Twelve Days of Christmas" was originally thirteen days. Superstition resulted in the modern version leaving off the verse about "thirteen broken mirrors."

10. During the long, cold Decembers of the Great Depression, many parents encouraged their kids to misbehave because they needed the coal.

(Source: Chris White, TopFive.com)