The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! (In a Way) Quiz

Answer: Advent calendar

For anyone who has never heard of an Advent calendar, it is a calendar you usually put on your wall, with little doors on it, marked from 1st December to 24th December. You open one door each day, hyper-ventilating as you get closer to the last one.

Some calendars have a little chocolate behind each door, which was terribly exciting when we first had one. Until one year when there didn't appear to be any chocolates behind the doors, causing great distress, until they were discovered in the bottom of the calendar, having fallen when we put it on the wall. (Just a word of warning...)

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip." - Gary Allan

Answer: Karaoke

The Karaoke machine was first invented in Japan in the 1970s ('kara' meaning 'empty' and 'okesutora' meaning 'orchestra'). It allows people to sing along to their favorite songs by providing the music only, while a television screen provides the words to the song.

Originally rented to restaurants and hotel rooms, they quickly became popular worldwide, and are now frequently bought for people's homes. They can be bought as video games, CDs and DVDs with microphones that you can use with them.

Some people are a bit 'Bah Humbug' about Karaoke at parties, mumbling something about it just sounding like you've hired a really bad band. But they were heavily vetoed.

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people once a year." - Victor Borge

Answer: Kissing under the mistletoe

Throughout the Christmas period, mistletoe is hung over doorways, and if two people are found standing under it at the same time, then tradition demands that a kiss is shared between the two.

However, the original tradition of kissing under the mistletoe has basically now boiled down to kissing someone under it, and that's it. The end. However, if we were to adhere properly to tradition, then we would need to pluck a berry from the mistletoe each time we kissed under it, and when all the berries had gone, the kissing must stop, or bad luck will follow.

The leaves of mistletoe are thought to be an aphrodisiac, and are said to stimulate fertility. To the ancient Druids, mistletoe was extremely sacred. They would prepare an elixir made from the mistletoe, believing it would make their infertile animals fertile.

Please note some potential 'dangers' of this romantic tradition:
1. Mistletoe is actually a parasitic plant. Here is a definition of 'parasite': "An organism that grows and feeds on or in a different organism, while contributing nothing to the survival of its host." Hmm.
2. Those berries you're meant to pluck off after the kiss, are poisonous. Perhaps it might seem romantic to nibble on the one you just plucked. Don't. Kissing is romantic. Diarrhea and vomiting, not so much. Remember that mistletoe is also poisonous to your pets.
3. In all the verve of plucking the poisonous berries off the mistletoe, watch you don't pull the whole sprig off with it. Those pointy bits at the end of the leaves could have an eye out. Don't add a trip to the emergency room to your need for 'Imodium'.

CHRISTMAS JOKE:
What happens if you eat the Christmas decorations?
You get tinsel-itus.

Answer: Animal skins

These weren't socks like we know them today. Animal skins were folded around the foot, and then tied around the ankle so they wouldn't fall off. This was around 800BC. By 400AD, socks were worn as a symbol of purity by holy people in Europe. By 1000AD socks were worn by the aristocracy as a symbol of affluence.

In much later years, socks were made from cotton and silk, but it wasn't until 1939 that socks were made from nylon.

Bear in mind that socks can be a GREAT gift! It wouldn't matter if I sat and refused to take my eyes off the washing machine, as it washed the even number of socks I had put in it; somehow, somewhere, an odd number comes out. With that in mind, here is a part of a poem that is pretty apt to me:

"Oh Where Do All The Odd Socks Go?" by Shane Ward

"Where do all the odds socks go?
It drives me to despair.
No matter how I wash the things
One goes to... who knows where?

Ten socks inside a pillowcase
And all of them are mine.
I pull them out once they are washed
To count them. Yep. There's nine!"

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know... the birth of Santa." - Bart Simpson

Answer: Columbus Museum, Georgia

The greeting card Jody Winger designed stood nearly nine feet high, and twenty-four feet long. It was put in an envelope, stamped, and mailed to the Columbus Museum in Georgia. Including the envelope, it weighed 72 pounds. It was constructed from re-cycled paper, and is free standing. The card has a drawing of a cake on it, with the words "Happy 50th Birthday, The Columbus Museum" on it; and underneath is written "Museums are places we go to remind us of how to let our imaginations fly".

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, around 1.9 billion Christmas cards are sent in the United States. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, 20 billion cards, packages and letters are delivered by post.

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"Mail your packages early so the post office can lose them in time for Christmas." - Johnny Carson

Answer: Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come

Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" in 1843, and it has been adapted for film, television, theatre and musicals many, many times. Many adaptations re-named the 'Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come' as the 'Ghost of Christmas Future'.

Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" after being so affected by the state of the working conditions for children in mines and factories, and was quoted as saying that he would strike a "sledge-hammer blow on behalf of the Poor Man's Child." The result was "A Christmas Carol". Dickens gave a public reading of his novel in Chicago in 1867. One of the listeners, a Mr Fairbanks, was reportedly so moved by what he heard, that he made the decision to "break the custom we have hitherto observed of opening the works on Christmas day." Consequently, his workers all had that day off, and Mr Fairbanks brought all his employees a Christmas turkey each as well.

Answer: Christmas tree

The tradition of the Christmas tree comes from England, where it was first made popular by Queen Victoria. Apparently, Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, who hailed from Germany, missed his homeland's tradition of putting tiny trees on tables at Christmas. So one year, Victoria and Albert brought a tree into their home, and decorated it with apples.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2002, 20.8 million Christmas trees were cut in the United States. And Christmas tree farmers received around $506 million from the sale of their trees in 2004.

CHRISTMAS JOKE:
What do you call people who are afraid of Santa Claus?
Claustrophobic.

Answer: None

"Twas the Night before Christmas" is also called "A Visit From St Nicholas", and mentions 'St Nicholas' or 'St Nick' a total of four times. 'Santa Claus' or 'Father Christmas' is never mentioned.

Clement Clarke Moore wrote "Twas the Night Before Christmas" in 1822. The 'New York Sentinel' published the poem on December 23 1823. But the poem was published under 'Anonymous', as it is believed that a friend of Moore's sent the poem to the paper, as Moore was unwilling to do so. Moore admitted to the world that this was his poem in 1844, by putting it in a new book of his poetry.

My favorite verse is where all the reindeer are mentioned by name (although there seems to be no mention of poor Rudolph!):

"Now Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! on, on Donder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!"

(Later versions of the poem often changed "Donder" to "Donner", perhaps thinking of the German phrase "Donner und Blitzen", meaning "thunder and lightning")

And the end of the poem is possibly the most well-known:

"But I heard him exclaim, 'ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!"

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"There are three stages of a man's life: He believes in Santa Claus, he doesn't believe in Santa Claus, he is Santa Claus." - Anonymous

Answer: Dasher, Dancer and Donner/Donder

Santa's reindeer are Dasher, Dancer, Donner (or Donder in the original poem), Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and Blitzen. When Clement Clarke Moore (author of "Twas the Night Before Christmas") named the reindeer, he gave them names that gave meaning to the reindeers' attributes of speed, agility and gracefulness.

The Christmas stocking tradition also hailed from England. The story goes that Santa ('Father Christmas') accidentally dropped some gold coins when he went back up the chimney, and these coins fell into a stocking that was drying by the fireplace.

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was six. Mother took me to see him in a department store and he asked for my autograph." - Shirley Temple

Answer: Bernard Manning

Bernard Manning was an English comedian who lived from 1930-2007. His stand-up routines were often considered controversial, and were often banned from television. Despite his seemingly racist and sexist routines, Manning was always defended by those that knew him, claiming that it was all an act for the stage. Manning said of himself "I dragged myself up by my bootlaces. I don't drink or smoke, I don't take drugs. I have never been a womaniser. I was brought up right with good parents and I have never been in trouble or harmed no-one. And I love my family."

Have a great Christmas Day, and don't forget to eat, drink, eat, laugh, eat, play games, wear your new socks, and eat. And hope someone put some 'Pepto Bismol' in your Christmas stocking.

CHRISTMAS QUOTE:
"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful." - Norman Vincent Peale