Holiday Trivia Answers 16-40, Plus Scoring Leaders

Question Sixteen: In what film did the song White Christmas first appear?
      b. Holiday Inn
      I think I like that movie better than White Christmas.

Question Seventeen: Hanukkah commemorates
  b) the cleansing of the Temple and victory of the Maccabees over Syrian oppression
 That's the short version, of course. The "cleansing" was the removal of false idols from the Temple. There was  also the rededication of the Temple and the miracle of the oil.

Question Eighteen: Which of the following is not one of traditional names of the three Wise Men?
     c. Amahl
     He did meet them, though.

Question Nineteen: Hanukkah can also be spelled
   d) All are acceptable.
   Of the English transliterations, the most common are Hanukkah and Chanukah.

Question Twenty: Which of the following was never found in the Wassail bowl?
     d. ice
     Ice wouldn't work well in a hot drink!

Question Twenty-One: In A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, what were the names of the other Cratchitt children?
    b. Belinda, Peter, and Martha

Question Twenty-Two: What is the point of the eight candles in a menorah?
  d) there are actually nine candles, counting the shamash, and anyway, the miracle involved lamp oil  that lasted for eight days
 

Question Twenty-Three: In England, what is the day after Christmas called?   
     c) Boxing Day

Question Twenty-Four: Who played Kris Kringle in the first filmed version of  Miracle on 34th Street?
    c) Edmund Gwenn
   The similarly-named Fred Gwynn played Herman Munster.

Question Twenty-Five: Which of the following was not a real hit record in the U.K.?
    a) Christmas Alphabet
   This is a book title.

Question Twenty-Six: When and where did Christmas first become a legal holiday in the United States?
  d) Alabama, 1836

Question Twenty-Seven: What coin goes into the traditional English Christmas pudding?
     c) a sixpence
Although it could be another silver coin, it was usually a silver sixpence.  Even after Britain stopped making silver sixpences, the coins continued  to be used, but other silver objects have sometimes been substituted. When I was there in late November, 1986, street vendors offered a "sixpence for your Christmas pud." Nowadays,  you can even order your Christmas pudding online, sixpence and all.

Question Twenty-Eight: When and where did the first Santa Claus school in the United States open?
   d) September 27, 1937, in Albion, New York
   And it's still going.

Question Twenty-Nine: Whom did Scrooge love before money? 
    d) all of the above
    That was the whole point of the Christmas Past sequence.

Question Thirty: In England under Puritan rule, December 25 was
  b) an ordinary working day
  Christmas was banned, and Parliament was in session.  The Puritans hated all that feasting and merriment, especially with its pagan and Roman Catholic influences.

Question Thirty-One: What happens to Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Fir Tree" at the end of the story?
     c) After Christmas he gets chopped up as firewood to heat a teapot.
    It's a morality tale about appreciating what you have while you have it, which the Fir Tree consistently failed to do.

Question Thirty-Two: What well-known fantasy author wrote The Father Christmas Letters?
     b) J.R.R. Tolkien
     He originally wrote them for his children.

Question Thirty-Three: What singer is most closely associated with Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree? 
    d) Brenda Lee

Question Thirty-Four:  According to Christmas tradition, what is Lamb’s Wool good for?
   c) drinking—it’s apple pulp,  a medieval variation  on hot cider

Question Thirty-Five: In what year was A Charlie Brown Christmas first broadcast?    
     c) 1965
     No, I didn't ask this before.  I asked about the first Rudolph air date.

Question Thirty-Six: Why is Santa Claus associated with the North Pole?
   b) Father Thor lived in the far north
  Father Thor was a pagan / Norse precursor to the Santa Claus / St. Nicholas legends.

Question Thirty-Seven:  Which of the following historical figures does not become one of Santa’s immortal helpers  in The Autobiography of Santa Claus?
    d) Charles Dickens
Santa does visit Dickens, though

Question Thirty-Eight: Who goes “Thumpety-thump-thump, thumpety-thump-thump?”
      b) Frosty the Snowman
 

Question Thirty-Nine: A character on the TV series The OC has been spearheading a semi-serious movement to institute what interfaith holiday?
       c) Chrismukkah

Question Forty: In The Holly and The Ivy, the ivy
         d) is hardly mentioned

Leaders, Questions 1-40:
Becky Y: 35 of  40, for 87.5%
Sarah K:   23 of  40, for 57.5%
Jeff: 8 of 40, for  20%
No, Jeff, you don't have the lowest score!


Karen