Christmas songs, stories, movies, and TV specials often depict amazing situations and call them “Christmas miracles.” But, those “miracles” aren’t always works of fiction — sometimes they are just as real as the reason for the season. 

My favorite example is when Christmas gave soldiers a temporary break from fighting to celebrate with their “enemies.” 

During World War I, British and German troops held a ceasefire in the week leading up to Christmas. Soldiers from both sides crossed the trenches to exchange seasonal greetings, food and souvenirs. They even played soccer against each other during the Christmas break from war. 

Roughly 100 years later, my journalism career got started and I’ve had the pleasure of reporting on some pretty miraculous endeavors during the Christmas seasons. Fundraisers far surpassing their goals, groups rallying to help those in need and more provided an evident shift in the mood of the stories reported on during the holidays. 

In this edition alone, you’ll find several “Christmas miracles” – and these things didn’t happen by accident, it took a lot of coordination and work to make them happen.

Newspapers and history are loaded with other examples of amazing things happening on or around Christmas. But some are more well known than others.

The following are some of my personal favorite miracles, facts and other unusual tidbits surrounding Christmas:

• Thousands of letters to Santa from all over the world end up in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana. Since 1914, the entire town has taken part in responding to all 10,000 (or more) of the letters, according to the book Scenic Driving In Indiana.

• During World War II, American and British soldiers who were in German POW camps received playing card decks for Christmas. These card decks contained hidden maps for escape routes that only revealed themselves when wet. How the cards were made remain a secret, according to the manufacturer, Bicycle Cards. 

• “Jingle Bells” was the first song sung in space. On Dec. 16, 1965, Gemini 6 astronauts Tom Stafford and Wally Schirra radioed back to NASA the entire song, complete with a harmonica and sleigh bells they smuggled aboard, according to NASA. 

• In order for Santa to deliver presents to every child in developed countries, the sleigh would need to travel at an average rate of 5 million miles per hour, according to Larry Silverberg, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at North Carolina State University.

• An Arizona couple’s car broke down in the middle of the desert on Christmas Eve in 1931, and 150 feet away they found a perfectly healthy week-old infant in a hat box. The baby was soon adopted and named Sharon Elliott. How she came to be left in a box, and found perfectly fine, remains a mystery that was featured on the old TV show “Unsolved Mysteries.”

• Christmas was used as a means of demobilizing more than 700 members of one of the world’s oldest guerrilla terrorist groups, The Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). The efforts, titled Operation Christmas, Operation Rivers of Light and Operation Bethlehem, were held during Christmas of 2010, 2011 and 2012 respectively. Christmas lights were hung across the Columbian jungles, Christmas messages were sent from relatives of FARC members, and beacon lights were used to transmit the message: “This Christmas follow the light, it will guide you to find your family and freedom. Demobilize. AT CHRISTMAS EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE.”

• Abbreviating Christmas with “X-Mas” was first used in the 1500s and “X” is the Greek letter for “Chi,” the first letter for the Greek translation of “Christ.” It was sometimes used as Greek shorthand for the word “Christ.”  As for the “Mas,” that’s old-English for “mass.” So in a sense, spelling Christmas “X-Mas” is not as unconventional as it may appear. This may not seem like a miracle, or very fascinating, but to this multi-lingual editor, it’s extremely cool.