Christmas, Florida
14 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1979. It stands in the East Orange census division. It lies in ZIP code area 32709. The Survey maps it on the Bithlo quadrangle. 2,439 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 43 feet above sea level.
Then and now
1953 to 1979The same ground, surveyed 26 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.


Compare 1953 against another survey:
Population over time
2 figuresChristmas grew from 1,146 to 2,439 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 1,146 | |
| 2020 | 2,439 | +1,293 (+113%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
6 surveys from 14 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1953 USGS Bithlo quadrangle1:24000, 5 printings
- 1955 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1957 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
- 1958 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
- 1962 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:250000
- 1979 USGS Orlando quadrangle1:100000, 3 printings
Fires near this place
218 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 218 fires within 5 miles of Christmas between 1992 and 2020, burning about 12,646 acres in total. 134 started naturally. 14 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Natural | 134 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 22 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 21 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 14 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 12 |
| Debris and open burning | 9 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 2 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2012 | Natural | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | LIGHTNING (48) |
| 26 September 1993 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | not named |
| 25 September 2003 | Natural | 1.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | BLOCK |
| 14 September 2013 | Natural | under an acre | Florida Forest Service | COLONIAL (48) |
| 12 September 2011 | Natural | 6.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | RED HOG (48) |
| 11 September 2011 | Natural | 2.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | BINGO (48) |
| 1 September 2007 | Natural | 4.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | PONCHO (04) |
| 1 September 1998 | Natural | 5.0 acres | Florida Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
13 since 1993Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Christmas in 13 storm reports between 1993 and 2023: 6 hail, 3 thunderstorm wind, 3 tornado, 1 funnel cloud. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 1993 | Thunderstorm Wind | Christmas | $500 | Thunderstorm winds blew down trees along Highway 528. |
| April 2023 | Hail | Christmas | $100 | Trained spotter reported hail around one inch near the intersection of Fort Christmas Rd and Wheeler Rd. Spotter later reported tree branches down across roads and damage to street signs in Christmas at 534 EDT. |
| July 2014 | Tornado (EF0) | Christmas | - | Several motorists travelling near the intersection of State Road 528 and State Road 520 in eastern Orange County observed a funnel cloud touch down briefly and cross Highway 520. No damage was reported due to the landspout/tornado even though it crossed a line of trees either side of the highway. An examination of video and photographs and the lack of damage suggest maximum winds below 50 mph. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Christmas | - | A report courtesy of the NSSL SHAVE Project indicated quarter size hail in the town of Christmas within rural eastern Orange County. |
| May 2013 | Hail | Christmas | - | A report courtesy of the NSSL SHAVE Project confirmed ping-pong ball sized hail fell in rural eastern Orange County. |
| September 2013 | Thunderstorm Wind | Christmas | - | A southward moving thunderstorm became severe and produced damaging microburst winds, estimated near 65 mph, impacting State Road 528, just west of the intersection with State Road 520 in rural, southeastern Orange County. Motorists driving eastbound on State Road 528 experienced sudden gusts of swirling winds along the leading edge of the microburst, which lofted dirt and small debris tens of feet into the air. Numerous branches were downed in the area and at least one tree was toppled and fell onto State Road 528. |
| January 2011 | Tornado (EF0) | Christmas | - | An off duty USAF weather observer spotted a tornado with strong rotation and a debris cloud evident, to his west over a rural area of extreme eastern Orange County. Radar imagery indicated rotation within the cell, associated with the comma head of a bow echo. |
| May 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Christmas | - | A severe thunderstorm downed many large tree limbs in the Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area in Orange County south of Highway 50 near the town of Christmas. |
| May 2010 | Funnel Cloud | Christmas | - | A funnel cloud was sighted near the intersection of Highway 520 and 528 by a Florida Department of Transportation crew. |
| June 2001 | Tornado (F0) | Christmas | - | An F0 tornado move north out of Osceola County into the extreme southeast corner of Orange County near State Road 532. The tornado dissipate quickly north of the Osceola Orange county line. |
| August 1994 | Hail | Christmas | - | Dime-size hail fell at the toll booth on U.S. Hy 528 5 miles south of Christmas and in Ocoee. |
| July 2003 | Hail | Christmas | - | no account filed |
| March 1996 | Hail | Christmas | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wedgefield | 4.6 miles | 13 | |
| Bithlo | 4.9 miles | 14 | |
| Lake Pickett | 6.6 miles | 14 | |
| Lockwood | 6.9 miles | 13 | |
| Wewahotee | 8.9 miles | 13 | |
| Tala Apopka (historical) | 10.0 miles | 11 | |
| University Park | 10.3 miles | 13 | |
| Alafaya | 10.4 miles | 13 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Christmas | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q29838 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 280429. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.





