The craziest Christmas records
Christmas is a time of magic, and these crazy Christmas records prove that. Have a look.

Imagine cramming hundreds of baubles into a beard. It is no easy task, says Joel Strasser from the USA, who last December set a world record by attaching a whopping 710 beard baubles to his mid-length beard.

Strasser is a serial record-setter, holding records for the most straws, chopsticks, golf fees, forks, toothpicks, pencils and clothes pegs in a beard. He set his first record for the most beard baubles in 2019 (a lowly 302) and has been breaking his own record each year since then (2020: 542 and 2021: 686).
When asked by Caxton Local Media if he would be attempting to break his record again this year, Strasser said: “I am working out a few details. This year, I may break the record for most candy canes in a beard instead, but the date hasn’t been finalised yet.”
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Largest gathering of Santas
It was not a blanket of snow, but rather a sea of red that covered Thrissur, the cultural capital of the southern Indian state of Kerala, in December 2014, when the record for the ‘Largest gathering of Santas’ was set.
With the region’s December daytime temperatures averaging around 30°C, snow would have been gratefully welcomed by the thousands of people wearing red Santa suits, hats and beards. Instead, 18 112 people sweltered while patiently waiting to enter the Nagar Saktan Thampuran Ground, where the record attempt was to be made. It was slow going because each Santa’s identity needed to be verified to enable the officials from Guinness World Records to officially declare a world record.
Participants completed bar-coded entry forms in the months leading up to the event, and these were verified via fingerprints at the gate on the day.
The event was organised by Thrissur Citizenry and Thrissur Archdiocese and named ‘Boun Natale 2014’ (Merry Christmas).
According to the National Catholic Register, Thrissur is home to India’s largest Christian population.

Most snowmen built in one hour
Oddly enough, the world record for the ‘Most snowmen built in an hour’ was set in February and not December.

Guinness World Records says that on February 28, 2015, 2 036 snowmen were built by 1 406 people at Zuriyama Observation Field in Akabira, Hokkaido, Japan. The attempt took place during the filming of a Japanese TV drama called Unhandy handyman and actors as well as local citizens participated.
With the average daytime February temperature in the area a freezing -2°C, the snowmen were around for a while after the event.
“It took an adjudicator and four witnesses two hours to measure and count the snowmen. Thirty stewards were also present to ensure the participants did not use any tools and stopped making the snowmen at the adjudicator’s signal,” says Guinness World Records.
The Japan Times reported at the time that each snowman had to be at least 90cm tall. In addition, the snowmen had to be made of three separate snowballs, facial features and arms.
Tallest snowperson
This is an old record, but a goodie! In 2008, Guinness World Records confirmed that residents of Bethel and surrounding towns in Maine, USA, had built a 37.21m-tall snowperson.
The snow queen took a month to build and used 5.8 million kilograms of snow. Her eyelashes were made from eight pairs of skis, her nose was 2.4m long and made from chicken wire and painted cheesecloth – covered in snow, and her lips were made from five red car tyres. Her arms were made from two 9m-tall spruce trees and her scarf was nearly 40m long.
Also read: Wayde van Niekerk wins Olympic Gold in new world record time
Longest time to balance a Christmas tree on the chin
When his neck and back muscles ached, David Rush took it on the chin. When his spirits started flagging, he kept his chin up, and you can be sure that after many hours of practice, he did not have a double chin.

The corny humour aside, Rush – a resident of Boise in the USA – made the record books when he balanced a Christmas tree on his chin for one hour, 30 minutes and five seconds in December 2021.
Guinness World Records says Rush is another serial record-breaker and has achieved over 200 Guinness World Records titles.
Largest artificial Christmas tree
A record for the largest artificial Christmas tree was set on Christmas Eve in 2016. It measured a breath-taking 72.1m tall and 20.2m wide. To give you an idea of the height, it was roughly a third of the 55-storey Leonardo skyscraper in Sandton, Johannesburg, which is South Africa’s tallest building.
The record was achieved by Arjuna Ranatunga Social Services in Sri Lanka.
According to bdnews24.com, the tree’s ‘steel-and-wire frame was covered with a plastic net decorated with more than one million natural pine cones painted red, gold, green and silver’. It boasted 600 000 LED bulbs and was finished off with a six-metre star.

Largest collection of Christmas brooches
The largest collection of Christmas brooches is 7 929, achieved by Adam Wide of the UK. The record was verified in December 2021.
Guinness World Records says that the oldest brooch in Wide’s collection is a colourful Christmas tree from the 1920s, enamelled in sterling silver and with vivid details in black, yellow, red, blue and green.
In 2021, Wide told Guinness World Records: “I think growing up and being an adult is a trap. Don’t do it!”

A ceiling covered in hanging Christmas baubles
Before her death in April, Sylvia Pope of the UK owned the world’s largest collection of Christmas bauble ornaments. Known as Nana Baubles, she lived in Swansea, Wales, and owned 1 760 Christmas ornaments at the time the record was set.
The Guinness World Records book for 2024 is now available. The bestseller is revised and updated each year. The latest edition includes the ‘Largest gathering of Santa Clauses’ and the ‘Most beard baubles in a beard’ records, plus other fascinating records, including the largest female mouth gape, the fastest 100m by a bipedal robot, the tallest living steer (1.87m) and the largest hands on a living person.

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