501 Stanyan Street: Location of the home of John McLaren, Golden Gate Park’s builder, who decorated a cypress tree in his front yard in 1929, and the tree has been lit up every year since as the city’s official Christmas tree . . . 1880: the year McClaren’s cypress was planted . . . Jan. 1, 2023: end date of the Macy’s Holiday Windows display in Union Square, which for the first time since 2019 features adoptable and adorable kittens and puppies . . . Dec. 18: date of the fifth annual Glowing Hanukkah Pop-Up in Ghirardelli Square, with crafts, dreidels, donuts, candle lighting, and more . . . A.D. 280: year of the birth of St. Nicholas in southern Turkey; his generosity toward the poor and disenfranchised is the basis of St. Nicholas and Santa Claus . . . 33: percentage of men who wait until Christmas Eve to do their Christmas shopping . . . 98: percentage of Christmas trees grown on farms . . . 733: number of versions of “Silent Night” copyrighted since 1978 . . . 1931: the year that illustrator Haddon Sundblom was hired to design the now-iconic Santa Claus (for Coca-Cola) . . . 8 billion: the number of people Santa Claus will have to deliver gifts to on Dec. 25, according to the latest global population count.
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