Songs of Christmas Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Marshmallow World

Carl Sigman wrote the lyrics and Peter DeRose composed the music in 1949. Many famous singers have graced us with their versions of "Marshmallow World." Some of the earliest recordings were by Bing Crosby and Vic Damone. Later, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and my personal favorite, Johnny Mathis, provided their own unique versions.

Answer: Christmas Bells

Longfellow wrote the poem "Christmas Day" in 1864. His inspiration came from the recent loss of his wife and the wounding of his son during the American Civil War. The poem was set to music sometime around 1872, based on a melody previously composed by an English organist, John Baptiste Calkin.

Answer: My Favorite Things

Actress Mary Martin first introduced the song in the 1959 Broadway production. In the movie version Julie Andrews, who played the role of Maria, sang the song to the children during a thunderstorm. Although the song was never intended to be a Christmas song, somehow the imagery of snowflakes falling, sleigh bells, and silver white winters very much evokes the holiday season.

Answer: The Lemon Drop Kid

Hope sang "Silver Bells" along with actress Marilyn Maxwell. The song was composed by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans who were asked to come up with a new Christmas song for the movie, although the film wasn't really a Christmas movie. Originally titled "Tinkle Bells," the duo changed the title after Livingston's wife pointed out the problem with calling it that.

The title was then changed to "Silver Bells." Can you just imagine singing that song with the original title?

Answer: O Little Town of Bethlehem

Brooks greatly admired Abraham Lincoln and all he stood for. It was while Lincoln was lying in state in Philadelphia after he was killed that Brooks delivered a long and impassioned oration over the casket. After the funeral, an emotionally drained Brooks took a sabbatical and retreated to Bethlehem where, on Christmas Eve, he stood in the same field where it is believed that the angel appeared to the shepherds.

After returning to Philadelphia, refreshed and invigorated, he penned the words to the Christmas carol.

His church organist, Lewis Redner, set the words to music.

Answer: In the Bleak Midwinter

Christina Rossetti wrote the poem around 1870 as a request by a magazine for a Christmas poem. It was published posthumously in 1904. Composer Gustav Holst set the poem to music and it became a carol in 1906 after appearing in "The English Hymnal."

Answer: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Charles Schulz is the beloved creator of all things Charlie Brown. The network executives needn't have worried. The critics and viewers loved "A Charlie Brown Christmas." In fact, the show grabbed fifty percent of the American viewer audience. With a sophisticated jazz score by Vince Guaraldi, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" still entertains audiences.

Answer: David Bowie

Bing described Bowie as being "a clean-cut kid." The special in which the duo sang together was called "Bing Crosby's Merrie Olde Christmas." It was recorded September 11, 1977 and became the last TV appearance for Bing before his death a month later.

Answer: The Huron Carol

The carol was created in 1641 by French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brebeuf for the Hurons who lived in what is now the province of Ontario, Canada. Written in the native language of the Hurons, Father Brebeuf used the music from a sixteenth century French folk song and called his carol "Jesous Ahatonhia" which means "Jesus, He Is Born." The carol was preserved orally by generations of Hurons until the eighteenth century when another Jesuit priest, Father Villeneuve, wrote it down after hearing it, thus preserving it for all the world to enjoy.

Answer: Amahl and the Night Visitors

In the early 1950s Menotti was inspired to write his one-act opera from seeing the famous painting, "The Adoration of the Magi" by Hieronymus Bosch, which had been hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Having been commissioned by NBC to write the opera for live television to be broadcast from Rockefeller Center, his "Amahl and the Night Visitors" was the very first production of the "Hallmark Hall of Fame."