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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.

Christmas within Orange County

Then and now

1953 to 1979

The 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.

Topographic sheet of Christmas, surveyed 1979
Topographic sheet of Christmas, surveyed 1953

Compare 1953 against another survey:

Population over time

2 figures

Christmas 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.

YearPeople Change
20101,146
20202,439+1,293 (+113%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

6 surveys from 14 printed sheets

Matched 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.

Fires near this place

218 since 1992

Regional 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
Natural134
Railroad operations and maintenance22
Missing data/not specified/undetermined21
Arson/incendiarism14
Equipment and vehicle use12
Debris and open burning9
Misuse of fire by a minor3
Recreation and ceremony2
Fireworks1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
4 September 2012Naturalunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceLIGHTNING (48)
26 September 1993Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreFlorida Forest Servicenot named
25 September 2003Natural1.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceBLOCK
14 September 2013Naturalunder an acreFlorida Forest ServiceCOLONIAL (48)
12 September 2011Natural6.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceRED HOG (48)
11 September 2011Natural2.0 acresFlorida Forest ServiceBINGO (48)
1 September 2007Natural4.0 acresFlorida Forest ServicePONCHO (04)
1 September 1998Natural5.0 acresFlorida Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Orange County

Storms near this place

13 since 1993

Regional 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.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
March 1993Thunderstorm WindChristmas$500Thunderstorm winds blew down trees along Highway 528.
April 2023HailChristmas$100Trained 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 2014Tornado (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 2013HailChristmas-A report courtesy of the NSSL SHAVE Project indicated quarter size hail in the town of Christmas within rural eastern Orange County.
May 2013HailChristmas-A report courtesy of the NSSL SHAVE Project confirmed ping-pong ball sized hail fell in rural eastern Orange County.
September 2013Thunderstorm WindChristmas-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 2011Tornado (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 2010Thunderstorm WindChristmas-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 2010Funnel CloudChristmas-A funnel cloud was sighted near the intersection of Highway 520 and 528 by a Florida Department of Transportation crew.
June 2001Tornado (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 1994HailChristmas-Dime-size hail fell at the toll booth on U.S. Hy 528 5 miles south of Christmas and in Ocoee.
July 2003HailChristmas-no account filed
March 1996HailChristmas-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Orange County

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 PlaceDistance Sheets
Wedgefield4.6 miles13
Bithlo4.9 miles14
Lake Pickett6.6 miles14
Lockwood6.9 miles13
Wewahotee8.9 miles13
Tala Apopka (historical)10.0 miles11
University Park10.3 miles13
Alafaya10.4 miles13

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 ChristmasAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q29838The 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.