The Eggheads' Christmas Story Book Quiz

Answer: Tall, stately masts for sailing ships

The little fir tree eventually grows big and strong, but is never satisfied with its life in the forest. It's jealous of the trees which were big enough to become masts and go over the seas, and of others which were taken to be decorated as Christmas trees.

One day the fir tree's wish comes true, and it is chopped down and taken into a splendid drawing room. Its branches are decorated with apples, walnuts and candles, and it is topped with a sparkling tinsel star.

That evening the candles are lit and the festivities began. With children dancing all around and the air filled with the sound of joy and laughter, the fir tree finally feels that it knows what it is to be alive. Once everyone has drifted away to bed, it dreams of doing everything all over again the next day.

However, the next day, the fir tree is dismayed to be stuffed away in an old attic room, where it lingers for many months with only mice and rats for company. The fir tree remembers its time in the beautiful forest with longing. When spring comes, the fir tree is dragged out into the fresh air and is filled with hope that this is the start of a new adventure.

As it is chopped into pieces and burnt in the fire, the fir tree laments that it didn't appreciate the best days of its life.

Though this Christmas story is rather melancholy, it conveys the yearning and sadness sometimes felt at Christmas with the thought that another year is almost over. It also serves as a warning to be sure to appreciate the beauty of the current situation, however dissatisfied we may be tempted to feel. This is particularly poignant for those of us surrounded by the chaos of young children!

(Question and interesting information submitted by emiloony.)

Answer: His crutch

"Amahl and the Night Visitors", by composer Gian Carlo Menotti, was written for American television and first broadcast live on Christmas Eve 1951. It became an annual holiday tradition through 1966. Due to a dispute between NBC and Mr. Menotti, it wasn't shown again until 1978 when a new version was filmed, some of it on location in Israel. Additionally, there were a couple of productions done in both the UK and Australia.

Today a grainy copy of the 1955 kinescope can be seen on DVD. The 1978 version was released on video as well. There are often regional stage productions of "Amahl and the Night Visitors". The story is charming, the music is lively, the songs are both amusing and dramatic. If you've never seen it - treat yourself to watching a performance either live or recorded. You'll be glad you did.

(Question and interesting information submitted by VanCoerte.)

Answer: Selling them

"Christmas Trees (A Christmas circular letter)" is a classic tale (at least to New Englanders) of a farmer matching wits with a man from "The City". The city fellow was interested in buying Christmas trees from the poem's narrator, a farmer who was not actively thinking of selling them. As negotiations began, the narrator confided to the reader that he wasn't really interested in selling the trees, and, if he did, would be embarrassed when the trees found out he was selling them to grace the homes of city people.

While he knew he must eventually sell them before they were past their prime, upon finding out that the city man wanted to buy one thousand trees at three cents each, and would probably sell them for a dollar apiece (This poem was written in 1916 but the profit margin probably hasn't changed much since then!), the narrator sent the man away and wished that he could stuff the trees into envelopes and mail them to his friends as part of a Christmas letter.

(Question and interesting information submitted by CmdrK.)

Answer: The Greatest Gift

"The Greatest Gift", published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, was the short story on which the lovely 1946 film "It's A Wonderful Life" starring the equally lovely James Stewart, was based. Initially released as a booklet in 1943, "The Greatest Gift" was re-published as a book the following year.

There are marked differences between this work and the later film. In the story, the protagonist, George Pratt, is thinking about killing himself by leaping from a bridge on Christmas Eve when he sees a shabbily dressed man carrying a bag. Striking up a conversation with this tramp, George verbalises the thought that he wishes he'd never been born. To his astonishment, the tramp tells him his wish has been granted. He hands George the bag and tells him to pretend to be a travelling salesman of brushes if anyone approaches him.

When George goes back to his town, he finds that not only does nobody know him, but their lives have all taken different paths because they weren't touched in some way by his own. This includes his wife who is married to another man who orders George away when he tries to give her a brush - and his younger bother, now dead, because George hadn't been around to save him from drowning as a child.

Returning to the bridge, George finds the strange man still there. He is told that the gift of life, which he had given up so readily, was in fact the greatest gift of all. And so it is. The story ends happily after George begs for his life back and his plea is answered. He then happily returns to his home, his loving family, and his own familiar life once more. This is a more sombre tale than the latest version found in the film "It's a Wonderful Life" but still with a happy ending all the same. Oh, that everyone in our sad old world could have a similar happy ending on Christmas Day as well.

(Question and interesting information submitted by Creedy.)

Answer: Carefully shopping for groceries

Mr & Mrs James Dillingham Young (Della and Jim) lived in an $8 a week furnished room. Jim's salary had been reduced from $30 to $20 a week. Della put aside one cent at a time for months by carefully shopping for meat and other food items. Jim and Della had two prized possessions: Jim's gold watch, which had belonged to his father and grandfather and Della's beautiful, brown, shining hair which fell to her knees.

Della sold her hair for $20, and after searching the shops for the perfect gift she decided to buy a beautiful gold chain for "The Watch". She thought the watch chain was very much like Jim with its quiet elegance. When she arrived home, her excitement soon gave way to more reasonable thinking. What if Jim became angry with her? She prayed that he would still think she was pretty. O. Henry addresses his readers when he writes "Love and large-hearted giving, when added together, can leave deep marks. It is never easy to cover these marks, dear friends-never easy."

When Jim saw Della his expression was one that Della had never seen. Della tried to make the situation better by assuring him that her hair would grow back. She told Jim that the hairs on her head could be counted but her love for him was infinite. He gave her a package and told her that she would understand his reaction when she opened it. Inside were beautiful jeweled combs for her hair! He had sold his watch to buy them. Jim smiled and suggested the put their gifts away for a while to be used later.

In closing O. Henry writes of the gifts of the Wise Men being undoubtedly "wise gifts" and two "children" who who sold their most valuable possessions to buy each other gifts. He says although that might seem unwise, anyone who gives and receives such as Della and Jim are as wise as the Magi!

(Question and interesting information submitted by Sally0malley.)

Answer: Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy 'Duke' Ellington, son of two talented musician parents in Washington DC, was respected as an American pianist, composer and bandleader. After years of creative collaboration with jazz pianist, composer and arranger Strayhorn, Ellington publicly recognized Strayhorn's contribution by insisting that the original 1960 album cover include Strayhorn's name and picture along with his own. The album was re-released as a CD in 1990.

When Ellington died on May 24, 1974, at the age of 75, his last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered." More than 12,000 people attended his funeral in New York City.

(Question and interesting information submitted by Coach_in_China.)

Answer: Gryla

Each Christmas, Gryla was said to come down from her mountain retreat to search for bad children, bag them up, then take them back to her cave where she would eat them as a tasty treat. She was first mentioned as early as the 13th century. Later, she became known as mother to the thirteen Yule Lads, merry but mischief-making trolls who became a legend in themselves.

Krampus was a legendary Germanic alpine goat-like beast with horns.
Perchta was another alpine legend, but this time a witch with a cloven foot.
The Grinch was a fictional furry green monster devised by Dr Seuss in 1955.

(Question and interesting information submitted by Plodd.)

Answer: Staves

"A Christmas Carol" was first published in London in 1843. Its full title is "A Christmas Carol in Prose, Being a Ghost-Story of Christmas" and it relates the story of a very unpleasant miser who, following the death of his business partner, undergoes several eerie ghostly visits (which scared the wits out of me as a child) which force him to examine his past, present and future life, the latter of which is a cold and lonely grave unless he changes his ways. Fortunately he does and the story has a happy ending after all.

Dickens divided this work into five different sections which he called staves. The first is the visit by Marley's ghost. This is followed by the ghost of Christmas past, the ghost of Christmas present, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, and finally the section showing Scrooge's character transformation and the kind and generous person he becomes.

You may be interested to learn that Dickens wrote this novella after a visit to one of London's Ragged Schools. These were charitable establishments that took in starving and illiterate children of the poor and destitute to give them a basic education. Initially the teachers were almost all volunteers, and the "classrooms" were held in stables or attics or underneath railway arches for the poor little scraps of half-starved misery who were their denizens. Dickens, who had known poverty himself as a child after his father was thrown into debtor's prisons, wrote "A Christmas Carol" because he knew it would tug at the heartstrings of the general public far more than any straight factual article would - and he supported these schools for the rest of his life.

(Question and interesting information submitted by Creedy.)

Answer: He stopped to help a dying man on the road

Van Dyke meticulously describes Artaban's journey on his swift Arabian horse, Vasda. By nightfall of the tenth day of his journey Artaban noticed Vasda had become very tired and showed signs of apprehension. He discovered a man near death on the road.

Artaban carried him to a small mound under a palm tree, gave him water and healing herbs. The grateful man blessed Artaban and wished him the Lord's blessing because he had shown kindness to a sick stranger.

Artaban continued his journey but when he arrived at the meeting place he found a note written on papyrus saying the other men couldn't wait any longer and left. He would have to cross the desert to catch up with them. Artaban had no choice but to sell the sapphire to buy camels and provisions to continue his journey.

He came to a village and met a young mother comforting her baby. She told him three strangers from the Far East, guided by a star, had arrived three days earlier to pay homage to a promised Prince. She said the family had fled to Egypt. When Herod's soldiers arrived to kill the baby Artaban stood in the doorway. The soldiers hesitated. Artaban said he was alone and offered them another of his precious jewels, the ruby, if they left him in peace. The captain greedily accepted the ruby and ordered the soldiers to march on. The grateful mother asked the Lord to bless Artaban with peace.

Artaban continued his journey searching in Egypt for any word of the family who had come from Bethlehem. In Alexandria he met a Hebrew rabbi. The rabbi reminded him the king he sought would not be found in a palace among the rich and powerful, but rather among the poor and oppressed. And so Artaban continued to travel and ministered to the poor and sick as the years passed quickly.

Artaban joined a group of people going to Golgotha where two robbers and Jesus of Nazareth were to be crucified. He met a girl who was to be sold into slavery because of her father's debts. He gave the girl his last jewel--the beautiful pearl. He realized his quest was now finished and he had failed. However, he also realized he had done his best and he knew that if he could live his life over again he would do the same.

Suddenly the sky darkened and the earth shook. Artaban was struck in head with debris. As he lay dying he seemed to talking a distant faint voice which said
"Verily I say unto thee, Inasmuch as thou hast done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast done it unto me." His precious gifts were accepted and his journey was complete!

(Question and interesting information submitted by sally0malley.)

Answer: A bunch of weeds

"The Miracle of the First Poinsettia" tells of a village in Mexico where, in the days before Christmas, a grand crib scene is being set up in the church. The children of the village talk excitedly of the gifts they are going to bring to the Baby Jesus on Christmas Eve. One impoverished girl is filled with sadness, because she longs to bring a precious gift, but has nothing to give and no money to buy anything. On Christmas Eve, she goes along to the church with the rest of the village, and as she is desperate not to come empty handed, she plucks up some weeds which are growing along the roadside. As she offers her humble gift at the manger of the Baby Jesus, the weeds miraculously burst into beautiful velvety red flowers, and the girl realises that Jesus has seen the beauty of her gift, which came from the heart, and has transformed her poor weeds into these beautiful flowers.

(Question and interesting information submitted by emiloony.)