• Philippine Christmas lanterns, called Parols (pictured), are also used in Christmas celebrations in Austria, Canada and California?

Facts on topics related to Parol

Santa Claus

• Charles W. Howard, who portrayed Santa Claus in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for 17 years, founded the world's oldest Santa Claus School?
• James Edgar has been credited as the first department store Santa Claus?
• Knecht Ruprecht, a figure in Germanic folklore, is often depicted as traveling with Santa Claus?
• the 1998 film Goodbye, 20th Century! features a sequence where a man dressed like Santa Claus attends a wake that turns violent to the sound of Sid Vicious singing "My Way"?
• the video game Daze Before Christmas allows the player to transform into "Anti-Claus", a blue-suited, devilish looking version of Santa Claus?

Christmas

• Christmas is traditionally celebrated in Agnone, Italy, with a torchlight parade known as Ndocciata? (2006 event pictured)
• Ludwig I of Bavaria was inspired to commission the Court Church of All Saints (pictured) in the Munich Residence after attending Christmas mass at the Palatine Chapel in Palermo?
• Mayor Tom Weisner once considered outlawing untimely holiday decorations, when citizens of Aurora, Illinois, complained of Christmas decorations abounding during the summer?
• Chrissy Snow from the American sitcom Three's Company was actually named "Christmas Snow"?
  
• Doctor Who spoofs range from a 1964 novelty Christmas single by the Go-Go's called "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek" to two sketches on Saturday Night Live?
• Hugo Jaeger's personal collection of photographs includes colour shots of Adolf Hitler on a cruise in 1939 and of the Nazi leader attending a Christmas party in 1941?
• Tirggel, traditional Christmas cookies from Switzerland, are said to have originated as pagan offertory cakes, cut in the shape of sacrificial animals?
• collecting Toyon branches for Christmas became so popular in Los Angeles, California in the 1920s, that the state passed a law forbidding collecting?
• in the Catalan region of Spain, a Caganer is often tucked away in some corner of a Christmas Nativity scene where he is not easily noticed, because he is defecating?
• shortly before Christmas 1942, an alleged Nazi spy was captured by the Garda in Castletownroche, a small Irish village?

Philippines

• 1,200 journalists, human rights advocates, and leftist activists have been killed in the Philippines as a result of Gloria Arroyo's counter-insurgency program "Oplan Bantay Laya"?
• 40,000 people were estimated to make a living from seaweed farming in the Philippines in 1997?
• 1970's Super Typhoon Joan, the largest storm of the season in size, is the strongest typhoon ever to hit the Philippines?
• 1985's only super typhoon, Super Typhoon Dot, is the sixth-most intense tropical cyclone in terms of wind speed to affect Bicol Region, Philippines between 1947 and 2004?
• footballer Edward King was honored for heroism in the Philippines and tactical skill in France and later became Commandant of the Army Command and General Staff College?
• Austin Coates's Rizal: Philippine Nationalist and Martyr is the second biography of Filipino national hero José Rizal authored by a non-Filipino?
• General Douglas MacArthur's staff threatened United States Army Lieutenant Colonel Charles S. Lawrence with court martial if he confiscated nearly 2,000 cases of food from Japanese-run firms in the Philippines, and that the stores were destroyed during the Battle of Bataan in early 1942?
• Lualhati Bautista’s Tagalog novel, Bata, Bata… Pa’no Ka Ginawa? became a film starring Vilma Santos, an actress turned first female governor of Batangas of the Philippines?
• Meralco's John F. Cotton Corporate Wellness Center was the first implementation of a corporate wellness program in the Philippines?
• Filipino basketball player Gec Chia's walk-off buzzer beater in the 2002 UAAP semifinals brought his coach Joel Banal to his knees, and he later described the shot as "a miracle"?

Nativity of Jesus

• Christian references in Islamic art include the Annunciation, the birth of Jesus and his baptism?
• as well as the Nativity of Jesus, Olivier Messiaen's organ composition La Nativité du Seigneur was inspired by birdsong, the French Alps, and medieval stained glass?