Awww, You Brought Me A Present! Quiz

Answer: Ambrosia

The Three Wise Men who came from the east brought with them the gifts for the baby Jesus, gold, frankincense and myrrh. As to why a baby may have needed precious metals, resins, and balms...it's still a bit questionable. But this being said, the story, found in the Gospel of Matthew, was part of the story of the nativity, the Christmastime story about the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.

There are many meanings prescribed as to why gold, frankincense and myrrh were the chosen gifts; all three, at the very least, were considered fit for royalty.

Answer: World War II

When Canada harboured Princess Juliana of the Netherlands in the end of World War II, the Dutch returned the goodwill with the delivery of 100,000 tulips upon the removal of the Nazis. As a tradition, the Dutch have sent 20,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa on an annual basis leading to the Canadian Tulip Festival every May.

Many more than that deck out the gardens of the Canadian capital at this time (millions, actually) from dedicated growers in Europe and Canada.

Answer: Jingle All the Way

Released in theatres in 1996, this Arnold Schwarzenegger holiday movie showed up just in time for the Christmas season and featured the action lead making bold attempts to get a Turbo-Man action figure for his son, Jamie. What followed was a mad dash around the city of Minneapolis as he waited at malls, broke into radio stations, stormed Santa's workshop (or a counterfeit toy racket, really) and posed as Turbo-Man himself in an effort to do good by his boy.

The movie made over $120,000,000 in the box office despite low review scores.

Answer: Kanye West

When Kanye West and Kim Kardashian wed in 2014, it was reported that Kanye purchased ten Burger King locations throughout the UK, France, and Italy. As it turned out, West purchased the rights to these locations but the actual restaurants never materialized, likely because West and Kardashian were occupied with their lucrative and consuming careers. Kardashian and West divorced in 2021, citing 'irreconcilable differences' as the reason they were splitting after just under eight years. Surely neither of them needed to divide out the Burger Kings amongst their assets.

Answer: Sixty

Power to the couple on their sixtieth wedding anniversary. No matter which traditions you follow, by the time you reach the fifteenth anniversary, traditional gifts become streamlined. Every five years, the couple is meant to receive the next tier of gift (from crystal to porcelain and on and on up to gold, emerald, and diamond).

It's definitely a step up from a first year anniversary-- paper doesn't compare to the other years. That said, most of these traditional gifts, these days, are encouraged by jewellers and old school etiquette observers.

Answer: People

According to the stories, to put an end to the Trojan War, the Greeks gifted the Trojans a massive wooden horse, delivering it to the City of Troy (in present-day Turkey). What the Trojans didn't know was that the horse contained quietly-hidden Greek soldiers who would go on to emerge in the night and spark a battle that would end the war. Though it was believed that these stories were nothing more than myth and legend, excavations of the old city commenced in the late 19th century, leading scholars to determine that perhaps the Trojan Horse wasn't far from the truth.

Answer: No

Delivered to the United States across the later decades of the 19th century, this world-famous landmark, sitting on Liberty Island in New York City, came over the Atlantic Ocean in several pieces. The torch showed up in Philadelphia for the American Centennial; the head was still at the Paris World's Fair in 1878; the pedestal was started in the mid-1880s. Covered in copper, the landmark was originally a brownish copper colour when it shipped over and was built; verdigris covered the statue by the turn of the century.

This is the most well-known work of designer Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, but the man responsible for its construction, Gustave Eiffel, is also known for the tower bearing his name.

Answer: Milhouse Van Houten

Appearing in the seventh season Christmas episode, "Marge Be Not Proud", the 'Bonestorm' video game was a hyper-violent (though still quite primitive) console video game that Bart sought to receive as a gift for Christmas. When Bart was caught stealing from the local department store, Marge forbade him from ever playing 'Bonestorm' (though Milhouse got a copy!).

It forced Bart to learn a lesson about consequence, even if Marge eventually did get him a video game ('Lee Carvallo's Putting Challenge', much to his masked disappointment).

This episode debuted in 1995.

Answer: Oprah Winfrey

Throughout the 2000s, Oprah Winfrey created some must-watch TV on her self-titled talk show when she introduced her 'Oprah's Favorite Things' episodes, single shows held during November (during U.S. Thanksgiving) and acting as a prescribed wishlist of Christmas gift ideas for the year. Though these set sales trends for years, none were a bigger stunt than the 2004 episode in which Oprah gave away Pontiac G6 vehicles-- one for every audience member, 276 in total.

The cars sold for a retail value of $28,500 USD, but that cost was waived. What audience members needed to do, however, was pay the taxes on their earnings, meaning that each of them had to pay up to $7,000 per federal law.

Some gift, eh?

Answer: White Elephant

Also known as 'Yankee Swap', White Elephant is a gift exchange game for people who are into the idea of Secret Santa...but with a twist. Generally, the gifts in White Elephant aren't bought with a specific person in mind, and participants are given a cost limit. People take turns grabbing wrapped presents, opening them, and trading them around (with a limit) before settling on a gift they want that doesn't get taken or a gift they get stuck with.

The white elephant itself is a near-useless, but fancy gift that someone can't get rid of. Why, after all, do you need a big white elephant?