Holiday Trivia Answers, #41-75

 Since my regular players have now caught up through last night's questions, I'll give answers through last night, along with your updated scores.

Question Forty-One:  When was the first Miracle on 34th Street film released?
     b) May, 1947
    It's true!  One of the quintessential Christmas movies originally came out in May.  What were they thinking?  Blame Darryl F. Zanuck.

Question Forty-Two: Who narrates the Frosty the Snowman TV special?
     c) Jimmy Durante
     He sings about it too--sort of!

Question Forty-Three: The Druids believed that a syrup made from the holly plant would
     c) cure a cough
     A couple of the other things on the list (e.g. fertility) were holly-related, but the syrup was cough syrup.

Question Forty-Four: According to the song, how does one get to Grandmother’s house?
    a. over the river and through the woods
    How times have changed!

Question Forty-Five: The eight year-old who asked if there really was a Santa Claus was
    b) Virginia O’Hanlon

Question Forty-Six: What, according to A. A. Milne, did King John want most for Christmas?    
     b) a big red India rubber ball
    As one of you pointed out, he wanted the oranges and chocolate and pocket knife too, but the ball was the top wish.  He got it, too.

Question Forty-Seven: In the first verse of Carol of the Bells, what do the bells all seem to say?    
     d) “Throw cares away”

Question Forty-Eight: The first commercially manufactured Christmas cards in the U.S. were made by
   b. Richard Pease, of New York, in 1851
    Sources vary on this one, but a page about Louis Prang, who did it in 1875 and usually gets the credit, mentions printer Pease's earlier achievement
 

Question Forty-Nine:  “Christmas Afternoon”, a Robert Benchley parody of Charles Dickens, closes with
     d) “God help us, every one.”

Question Fifty: What Christmas gift did General Sherman give to President Lincoln in 1864?
    b) Savannah
    as characterized by Sherman in his post-battle telegram, delivered December 22, 1864.

Question Fifty-One: What seasonal breakfast cereal first appeared on supermarket shelves in the mid 1980s?
    b) Cap’n Crunch’s Christmas Crunch
    and it still exists (seasonally) in 2004.

Question Fifty-Two: Which of these is not a genuine record?
    b) We Wish You A Deadly Christmas

 

Question Fifty-Three: How is Santa dressed in A Visit From St. Nicholas?
    b) in fur
    "all in fur from his head to his foot"

Question Fifty-Four: In what body of water can you find Christmas Island?
    d) a and c
    There are two islands with this name, one in the Pacific Ocean and one in the Indian Ocean

Question Fifty-Five:Which of the following was not a real Christmas TV special?
    b) Miss Piggy’s Christmas Cookery
 

Question Fifty-Six: In the song I’ll Be Home For Christmas, how is the singer planning to get there?
    d) by dreaming

Question Fifty-Seven:  The ancient Roman holiday Saturnalia took place
    a)  originally December 17 & December 19th; eventually December 17th through 23rd
    Exactly who and what was celebrated also changed as the empire rose.

Question Fifty-Eight: What is the relationship between Stonehenge and the winter solstice?
     d) b and c
    The stones do align with astronomic events, AND some groups associate it with ancient spirituality.  However, Stonehenge predates the Druids by many hundreds of years.
 

Question Fifty-Nine: Which of the following observances, ancient and modern, is not associated with the winter solstice?
    c)  Ramadan
    Ramadan sometimes misses winter solstice by about a month, as it did this year.

Question Sixty: Saturnalia was associated with all of the following except  
    c) Druids
   Saturnalia comes from the Romans.  Associating it with Druidism is a modern confabulation.

Question Sixty-One:  In A Christmas Carol, who comes to Scrooge’s office and asks him to give to the poor?
    d) two portly gentlemen

Question Sixty-Two: “We won’t go until we get some” what?
    b) figgy pudding

Question Sixty-Three: In O. Henry’s “The Gift of the Magi”, what does Jim sell to raise money at Christmas?
     b) his watch
     I hate that story.  The young couple behave selflessly and get totally screwed over for it.  How is this uplifting?

Question Sixty-Four: What famous American writer almost certainly influenced Clement Moore’s description of St. Nicholas?
    b) Washington Irving
   As described in Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty (1808)

Question Sixty-Five: Which are the correct names of the final pair of reindeer as named in A Visit From St. Nicholas, Clement Moore’s classic poem?
    b) Donder and Blitzen
    although some sources make it Donder and Blixen

Question Sixty-Six: In the movie A Christmas Story, what does little Ralphie want for Christmas?
    a) a Red Ryder air rifle with…
    a compass in the stock, and this thing which tells time.  Incidentally, Daisy says there never was a configuration exactly like that.

Question Sixty-Seven: Who did not record The Little Drummer Boy?
   c) The Hong Kong Cavaliers
    They were too busy fighting Hanoi Xan and Red Lectroids with Buckaroo Banzai!

  Question Sixty-Eight: In France, children leave their shoes by the chimney on Christmas Eve.  In the morning they find them
    c) filled with presents

 Question Sixty-Nine:  On the first day of Christmas, what did my true love give to me?
    c) a partridge in a pear tree
    I didn't mean John, y'know!

Question Seventy: How did George Washington spend Christmas in 1776?
    a) crossing the Delaware by night for a sneak attack on the Hessians

Question Seventy-One: Which of the following is the most likely estimate of the actual birth date of Jesus?
    a) Sometime in the spring, circa 6 - 4 BC
    Okay, or maybe the fall, but probably not December.  There are problems with any date you can name, because the first census we know about took place after that particular King Herod died in 4 BC.  And by the way, there's no such year as 0. But what difference does it make, really, exactly when it happened?

Question Seventy-Two: Roasted boar's head was once a traditional part of Christmas dinner in England. One story about this practice tells of an Oxford student who killed a wild boar with
   c)  a book of Aristotle
    No, really!  The student shoved the book down the boar's throat, choking him!  Is that a bizarre story, or what?!

Question Seventy-Three:  Every year, December 26th is all of the following except
   c) The Feast of St. Wenceslaus
   King Wenceslas is honored as St. Wenceslas our Wenceslaus, but not on that date.

Question Seventy-Four: Which candle in the Kinara is first lit on the first night of Kwanzaa?
     b) the black candle, representing unity
 

Question Seventy-Five: Who was the real Good King Wenceslas?
     a) a ruler of Bohemia, legendary for his generosity to the poor
   

Leaders, Questions 1-75:
Becky Y: 65 of 75, for 86.67%
Sarah K:   42 (!) of  75, for 56%
Jeff: 22 of 75, for  29.33%

Karen