CHRISTMAS TRIVIA

 

• In "The Night Before Christmas" Santa landed his sleigh on the roof
• Santa's Reindeers are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.
• Saturday Evening Post artist, Norman Rockwell, was known for his whimsical pictures of Santa Claus
• Scrooge improves Cratchit's life the day after Christmas by giving him a raise
• Scrooge's deceased business partner in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was Jacob Marley
• Sharing their names with two Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie, are two friends in It's A Wonderful Life
• Silent Night was written in 1818, by an Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas that the church organ was broken and would not be prepared in time for Christmas Eve. He was saddened by this and could not think of Christmas without music, so he wanted to write a carol that could be sung by choir to guitar music. He sat down and wrote three stanzas. Later that night the people in the little Austrian Church sang "Stille Nacht" for the first time.
• Since the 1840s, the residents of Pietarsaari, a town on Finland's coast, have decorated a Christmas street, Storgatan, since the 1840s. Suspended over the street are three large illuminated decorations: a cross symbolizing faith, an anchor representing h
• St. Nicholas was bishop of the Turkish town of Myra in the early fourth century. It was the Dutch who first made him into a Christmas gift-giver, and Dutch settlers brought him to America where his name eventually became the familiar Santa Claus.
• St. Nick's nose like a cherry!
• Suzy Snowflake tells you she's in town by tap, tap, tappin' at your windowpane
• Telesphorus, the second Bishop of Rome (125-136 AD) declared that public Church services should be held to celebrate "The Nativity of our Lord and Saviour." In 320 AD, Pope Julius I and other religious leaders specified 25 December as the official date of the birth of Jesus Christ.
• Thanksgiving has traditionally been the start of the Christmas season in the U.S was moved Thanksgiving back a week to extend the holiday shopping season. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in a move to help out Depression-strained retailers. Since 1859 Thanksgiving had been celebrated on Nov. 30, but in 1939 FDR declared the holiday to be the fourth Thursday in November. Two years later, FDR signed a bill making the move permanent and official.
• The '12 Days of Christmas' are the 12 days after Christmas: December 26 to January 6
• The 1990 movie “Home Alone” told of a boy's experience when two men break into his house during Christmas
• The abbreviation of Xmas for Christmas is not irreligious. The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is chi, which is identical to our X. Xmas was originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation that was used in tables and charts.
• The actual gift givers are different in various countries:

England: Father Christmas
France: Pere Noel (Father Christmas)
Germany: Christkind (angelic messenger from Jesus) She is a beautiful fair haired girl with a shining crown of candles.
Holland: St Nicholas.
Italy: La Befana (a kindly old witch)
Spain and South America: The Three Kings
Russia: In some parts - Babouschka (a grandmotherly figure) in other parts it is Grandfather Frost.
Scandinavia: a variety of Christmas gnomes. One is called Julenisse.