CHRISTMAS TRIVIA

 

• In the song "Grandma Got Run over by a Reindeer" Grandma went to get her medication
• It was in New York that the Miracle on 34th Street took place
• In the song "Winter Wonderland", we pretend the snowman is Parson Brown
• In the Thomas Nast cartoon that first depicted Santa Claus with a sleigh and reindeer, he was delivering Christmas gifts to soldiers fighting in the U.S. Civil War. The cartoon, entitled "Santa Claus in Camp," appeared in Harper's Weekly on January 3, 1863.
• In the traditional song, "Go Tell It on the Mountain", you are supposed to go tell on a mountain that Our Jesus Christ is born!
• In the Ukraine, a traditional Christmas bread called "kolach" is placed in the center of the dining table. This bread is braided into a ring, and three such rings are placed one on top of the other, with a candle in the center of the top one. The three rings symbolize the Trinity.
• In Truman Capote's "A Christmas Memory", a Christmas fruit cake was bestowed on the bootlegger, the bus driver, the knife grinder, two Baptist missionaries in Borneo and the president of the United States
• In Victorian England, turkeys were popular for Christmas dinners. Some of the birds were raised in Norfolk, and taken to market in London. To get them to London, the turkeys were supplied with boots made of sacking or leather. The turkeys were walked to market. The boots protected their feet from the frozen mud of the road. Boots were not used for geese: instead, their feet were protected with a covering of tar.
• It is a British Christmas tradition that a wish made while mixing the Christmas pudding will come true only if the ingredients are stirred in a clockwise direction.
• It is estimated that 400,000 people become sick each year from eating tainted Christmas leftovers.
• Jacob Marley was Scrooges' dead business partner in "A Christmas Carol"
• Jesus Christ, son of Mary, was born in a cave, not in a wooden stable. Caves were used to keep animals in because of the intense heat. A large church is now built over the cave, and people can go down inside the cave. The carpenters of Jesus' day were really stone cutters. Wood was not used as widely as it is today. So whenever you see a Christmas nativity scene with a wooden stable -- that's the "American" version, not the Biblical one.
• Jingle Bells" was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.
• King Arthur pulled Excalibur from the stone on Christmas Day
• La Befana, a kindly witch, rides a broomstick down the chimney to deliver toys into the stockings of Italian children. The legends say that Befana was sweeping her floors when the three Wise Men stopped and asked her to come to see the Baby Jesus. "No," she said, "I am too busy." Later, she changed her mind but it was too late. So, to this day, she goes out on Christmas Eve searching for the Holy Child, leaving gifts for the "holy child" in each household.