50 Fun Facts About Christmas Book

Which London firm published A Christmas Carol in December 1843?

The same publishers had just threatened to cut Dickens's monthly income by £50 if his sales kept slipping.

How long did Dickens take to write A Christmas Carol?

His biographer Michael Slater says it was written 'at white heat', with the final pages finished in early December 1843.

What did Dickens call the five sections of A Christmas Carol, in keeping with the musical title?

A stave is a musical staff, so the book is a 'carol' in five staves; Marley's ghost appears in the first and Scrooge wakes reformed in the last.

Which two emaciated children does the Ghost of Christmas Present reveal beneath his robe?

The spirit warns Scrooge to beware the boy above all; the pair were inspired by children Dickens saw at a ragged school in London's East End.

Which two-word festive greeting, first recorded in 1534, did Dickens's 1843 novella popularise?

'Bah! Humbug!' also entered the language from the book, and 'Scrooge' was added to the Oxford English Dictionary as a word for a miser in 1982.

Which name did Dickens reject for Bob Cratchit's frail youngest son before settling on Tiny Tim?

He also tried 'Little Fred', a name he then recycled for Scrooge's cheerful nephew, before settling on Tiny Tim.

Trotty Veck, a ticket-porter haunted by goblins on New Year's Eve, stars in which Dickens Christmas book?

It came out in 1844, one year after A Christmas Carol, as the second of five Christmas books Dickens published that decade.

In which year did Dr. Seuss publish How the Grinch Stole Christmas!?

It came out the same year as The Cat in the Hat, and appeared almost simultaneously in an issue of Redbook magazine.

What is the name of the Grinch's long-suffering dog, who pulls his sleigh disguised as a reindeer?

The Grinch dresses himself as Santa Claus and heads down to Whoville with his dog pulling the sleigh.

For how many years had the Grinch endured Whoville's noisy Christmas celebrations before he snapped?

Seuss was exactly that age when he wrote the book, and he admitted seeing 'a very Grinch-ish countenance' in his own mirror on 26 December.

The Grinch first appeared in print in which 1953 Dr. Seuss book, four years before he stole Christmas?

He then starred in a 33-line poem, 'The Hoobub and the Grinch', in Redbook in May 1955.

Who wrote and illustrated The Polar Express (1985)?

He drew it in pastel pencils, sharpened to a fine point, and set part of the story in his home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The Polar Express won its creator a second Caldecott Medal in 1986. Which book won the first?

Both winners were later turned into films, and he served as executive producer on the 2004 Polar Express movie.

In The Polar Express, what does the boy ask Santa for as the first gift of Christmas?

It falls through a hole in his pocket on the way home, only to turn up under the tree; his parents think it is broken because they cannot hear it ring.

'A Visit from St. Nicholas' was first printed anonymously in 1823 in which New York town?

It ran in the Sentinel on 23 December 1823, sent in by a friend of Clement Clarke Moore, and was reprinted for years with no name attached.

Which Poughkeepsie poet's family has long claimed he, not Clement Clarke Moore, wrote 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'?

Vassar professor Donald Foster backed the rival claim in 2000, though later computer-based forensic linguistics came down on Moore's side.

In the poem's 1823 printing, which Dutch-flavoured pair stood in for 'Donner and Blitzen'?

Both mean thunder and lightning; the German-sounding forms crept in through later reprints.

By profession, Clement Clarke Moore was a professor of what?

He taught at New York's General Theological Seminary, built on land he donated, and grew rich developing the Manhattan estate that became Chelsea.

Who wrote the 1816 tale 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King'?

The first edition's title page carried a colour plate of the Mouse King drawn by the author himself.

Tchaikovsky's 1892 Nutcracker used a lighter French retelling, not the 1816 German original. Who wrote the retelling?

The retelling dates from 1844; the ballet also renamed the heroine Clara, whereas the 1816 original calls her Marie.

How many heads does the Mouse King have in the original 1816 story?

After the battle the Nutcracker presents Marie with all of the Mouse King's crowns, which her parents still refuse to accept as proof.

Which American writer published the short story 'The Gift of the Magi' in 1905?

It first ran in The New York Sunday World on 10 December 1905 and was collected in The Four Million the following spring.

How much money does Della have to buy Jim's Christmas present at the start of 'The Gift of the Magi'?

She sells her hair for $20 to buy a platinum watch chain, not knowing Jim has sold the watch to buy her combs.

'The Gift of the Magi' was allegedly written in which New York City establishment?

The bar on Irving Place still trades on the claim; the couple in the story are named Della and Jim Dillingham Young.

Raymond Briggs's 1978 picture book The Snowman is told entirely without what?

Briggs drew it in coloured pencils and always insisted it was not a Christmas book; the festive setting was added by the 1982 animated film.

Which choirboy actually sang 'Walking in the Air' in the 1982 animated film of The Snowman?

Aled Jones's better-known version came later, as a 1985 single; the film's singer was a St Paul's Cathedral chorister.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 as a giveaway booklet for which retailer?

The Chicago store had been buying in Christmas colouring books and decided a story of its own would be cheaper; 2.4 million copies went out that first year.

Robert L. May considered two other names for his reindeer before choosing Rudolph. Which pair?

May said he was inspired by a thick fog rolling in off Lake Michigan outside his Chicago office window.

What did retail president Sewell Avery hand to Robert L. May in the 1940s, setting him up for life?

May had been deep in debt from his wife's medical bills; the transfer took effect on 1 January 1947 and the first commercial edition followed that Christmas.

In Little Women, Marmee asks the sisters to give their Christmas breakfast to which poor family?

Their wealthy neighbour Mr Laurence rewards the gesture by sending over a surprise dinner that evening.

Which accident-prone helper causes chaos in Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas?

Tolkien wrote and illustrated the letters for his own children every December from 1920 to 1943; they were published posthumously in 1976.

In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which notorious sibling clan grabs all the lead pageant roles?

In Britain and Australia the novel was retitled The Worst Kids in the World.

In Pratchett's Hogfather, which Discworld regular dons the red robe and false beard when the Hogfather vanishes?

The stand-in delivers presents on Hogswatchnight, 32 December, while granddaughter Susan hunts for the real Hogfather.

In The Snow Queen, splinters of what lodge in Kai's eye and heart, turning him cruel?

The mirror was made by the devil in the form of a troll and shattered into billions of pieces on its way up to mock Heaven.

Which Andersen tale about a conifer that cannot enjoy the moment was published the same day as The Snow Queen?

One biographer calls it the first of Andersen's tales to express deep pessimism: the tree ends up burned after one night of Christmas glory.

On which freezing night is Andersen's The Little Match Girl set?

Among the visions in the match flames is a glorious Christmas tree; the story first appeared in December 1845 in a Danish almanac.

According to The Elf on the Shelf, what must children never do to their scout elf?

Naming the elf is actually required, since that is what grants its magic; the 2005 book was self-published by a mother-and-daughter team from Georgia.

In the 1997 picture book Olive, the Other Reindeer, the title character is actually what kind of animal?

The name comes from mishearing the line 'all of the other reindeer' in the Rudolph song; the 1999 TV special cast Drew Barrymore in the role.

In Capote's A Christmas Memory, what do Buddy and his elderly cousin bake every year with bootleg whiskey?

They buy the whiskey from a bootlegger named Haha Jones; the story first appeared in Mademoiselle magazine in December 1956.

Dylan Thomas's 1952 recording of A Child's Christmas in Wales helped launch which record label?

Two recent college graduates talked Thomas into it at the Chelsea Hotel; the piece had first appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1950.

Richard Paul Evans's The Christmas Box, self-published in 1993, became the first book to achieve what?

Evans, an advertising executive, placed it in Utah stores himself; a bidding war among publishers then earned him several million dollars.

Which of her own books did Beatrix Potter long declare to be her personal favourite?

In the story, grateful mice finish the Mayor's Christmas wedding coat overnight, leaving a note reading 'No more twist'.

In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in what condition has the White Witch kept Narnia?

It is 'always winter and never Christmas' until Father Christmas himself finally gets through with gifts for the Pevensies as the thaw begins.

Which author published The Christmas Pig, about a boy searching for a lost toy, in October 2021?

The boy shrinks and travels to the Land of the Lost, an afterlife for mislaid things ruled by a tyrant called the Loser.

The Jolly Christmas Postman (1991) won illustrator Janet Ahlberg which British children's book prize?

Like the 1986 original, it hides real letters and cards inside envelope pages; the first Jolly Postman took five years to make.

Which short story, first sent out as 200 Christmas booklets in 1943, became It's a Wonderful Life?

Philip Van Doren Stern could not find a publisher; RKO bought the film rights for $10,000 the following April.

Under which title was Agatha Christie's 1938 Poirot novel about a bloody family reunion published in the US?

A 1947 US paperback changed it again to A Holiday for Murder; Christie's foreword promised 'a good violent murder with lots of blood'.

John Masefield's Christmas fantasy The Box of Delights (1935) is a sequel to which of his novels?

It is also known as When the Wolves Were Running; the BBC's 1984 adaptation was the most expensive children's series it had made.

What is the fourth Magi called in Henry van Dyke's The Story of the Other Wise Man?

He carries a sapphire, a ruby and a pearl of great price, and spends 33 years giving them away to people in need along the road.

David Sedaris's 'SantaLand Diaries' recounts his stint as an elf at which store?

The piece was first broadcast on NPR and also appears in his debut book Barrel Fever.