Christmas Fun Facts and Trivia

How much will we spend this year? And what's the best-selling Christmas song of all time? Find the answers below.

We know that there were three Wise Men, 12 days of Christmas and that Santa delivers all his presents around the world in one night. But did you know... $23,439.38  How much it would cost to buy your "true love" all the gifts in the 12 Day of Christmas . 12.9 billion hours, $447 billion How many hours Americans were expected to spend shopping, wrapping and returning gifts last year. That was about 42 hours and $688.87 per person.  Get your postman/postwoman a gift According to Hallmark, Christmas is the largest card-sending occasion . Nearly 1.5 billion cards are sent to friends and family every Christmas Season. (That's actually down 400 million cards since 2004.) $983 million The value of U.S. imports of Christmas tree ornaments from …

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When is Waltham Holiday Tree Lighting?

See when the city plans to light its holiday tree!

The annual Waltham Holiday Tree Lighting will be held at 6 p.m. on Nov. 23 on the City Common, according to the mayor's office. Waltham High School's show choir will perform and Santa Clause's mailbox will start accepting letters to the North Pole and Santa himself will be on hand after the lighting to take photos with children on his lap.

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Moms Talk

The Christmas Goof

Well, it's the thought that counts, right?

Yesterday—as is our tradition on the first Sunday of every December—we went to Church, had breakfast at Martin's while our children attended religious education class (LOVE religious education), and then trekked to Allendale Farm to pick out our Christmas tree. This year, however, we channeled our inner Chevy Chase and got two trees that we spent all day dressing up in their holiday best. The smaller, fatter tree was draped in classy white lights and smugly preens in the corner of our sunroom for all the passersby to see. The very tall, slightly thinner tree was slathered in multicolored lights with fat retro bulbs like the ones I grew up with, only these won’t set the tree on fire five minutes after you turn them on. The tree in the …

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Waltham Alive with Christmas Love

Slideshow shows a town adorned in Christmas spirit.

Christmas was certainly alive this holiday season in Waltham: homes, businesses and government buildings were ablaze with lights and festooned with decorations, as you can see in these photos.

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