127 Fun Facts About Holiday Season

Which two of Santa's reindeer had different names when 'The Night Before Christmas' was first printed in 1823?

Donner and Blitzen were 'Dunder and Blixem', from a Dutch oath meaning thunder and lightning, in the 1823 printing; an 1844 edition made them 'Donder and Blitzen', and 'Donner' took over in the 20th century.

Lovers are expected to kiss beneath which festive plant?

Mistletoe once rationed the kisses: in one old version of the custom a berry was plucked from the sprig for each kiss, and when the berries ran out the kissing had to stop.

Who is the miserly protagonist of Charles Dickens' classic 1843 holiday novella?

Ebenezer Scrooge is the central character in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," who undergoes a significant transformation after being visited by several spirits on Christmas Eve.

Hanukkah marks the rededication of Jerusalem's Temple after a revolt led by which band of Jewish fighters?

The Maccabees took their name from their leader Judah, nicknamed Maccabee, often read as 'the Hammer'; after years of guerrilla war they drove the Seleucid army out of Jerusalem and relit the Temple's menorah.

Which author is widely credited with the 1823 poem 'The Night Before Christmas', which gave Santa's reindeer their names?

Clement C. Moore, who taught at a New York seminary, saw the poem printed anonymously in a Troy newspaper in 1823 and put it in a book of his own verse only in 1844.

Where did Protestant families first bring decorated evergreens indoors for Christmas?

Germany's medieval 'paradise tree', a fir hung with apples for plays about Adam and Eve on 24 December, is a likely ancestor; by the 16th century families there were setting up decorated trees at home.

Which Swahili word for 'unity' is the first of Kwanzaa's seven principles, the Nguzo Saba?

Umoja is also a reply: during Kwanzaa people greet each other with 'Habari gani?' and answer with the principle of the day, so on December 26, the opening day, the answer is 'Umoja'.

What four-sided spinning top do children play with during Hanukkah?

The dreidel's four Hebrew letters stand for 'a great miracle happened there'; in Israel one letter is swapped so that the phrase reads 'happened here'.

Which metropolis is famous for its annual New Year's Eve ball drop celebration?

New York City's Times Square ball drop has welcomed every new year since 1908, skipping only 1942 and 1943 for wartime blackouts.

Who created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Montgomery Ward in 1939?

Robert L. May wrote Rudolph as a promotional booklet for Montgomery Ward in 1939; his illustrator friend Denver Gillen sketched the reindeer using zoo deer as models.

In which country did Boxing Day, December 26th, originate?

The United Kingdom's servants had to work on Christmas Day, so they took the next day off and went home with a 'Christmas box' of gifts or money from their employers, one likely origin of the name.

The red 'petals' of a poinsettia are really which part of the plant?

Leaves called bracts turn red only after weeks of long, unbroken nights; the plant's true flowers are the tiny yellow ones clustered at the centre.

What traditional German spiced cookie, often compared to gingerbread, is a popular Christmas treat?

Lebkuchen are said to have been invented by medieval monks in Franconia, who set the sticky honey dough on thin wafers like those used for communion so it would not stick; many are still baked on a wafer base.

Which Hebrew greeting, meaning 'happy holiday', is commonly heard during Hanukkah?

'Chag Sameach!' fits any Jewish festival; because Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights, some Israelis prefer 'Chag Urim Sameach', and many simply say 'Hanukkah Sameach'.

Tinsel, invented around 1610, was originally made from thin strips of which metal?

Silver tarnished quickly, so makers later switched to cheaper metals and then to plastic; the name has nothing to do with tin, coming from an Old French word for a spark.

Which British royal consort set up a Christmas tree at a children's party at Windsor in 1800?

Queen Charlotte, George III's Mecklenburg-born consort, set up a decorated yew at a children's party at Queen's Lodge, Windsor, in December 1800, decades before Victoria and Albert's 1848 tree spread the fashion.

In 1087, sailors took the bones of Saint Nicholas from Myra to which Italian city, where they remain?

Sailors from Bari took the relics from Myra in 1087 and they rest in the Basilica di San Nicola there; Venetians later carried off remaining fragments during the First Crusade.

Which potato pancakes, fried in oil, are a traditional Hanukkah food among Ashkenazi Jews?

Latkes are fried to recall the Temple oil that, in the Talmud's telling, burned for eight days; before the potato reached Eastern Europe in the 19th century, they were usually made with cheese.

What is the 'attendant' candle that lights the others on the festival-of-lights menorah called?

The shamash, Hebrew for 'attendant' or 'servant', is the ninth candle on the hanukkiah; it lights the others and sits apart, higher or lower, because the eight Hanukkah lights may not be used for practical purposes.

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by which activist?

Maulana Karenga, a Black nationalist and later Cal State Long Beach professor, created Kwanzaa in 1966 after the Watts riots, modelling it on African harvest festivals.

The name Kwanzaa comes from a Swahili phrase meaning what?

Kwanzaa comes from the Swahili 'matunda ya kwanza', meaning 'first fruits'; an extra 'a' was added so the name would have a symbolic seven letters, one per principle.

Which diarist recorded giving money to his shoemaker's 'boys' box against Christmas' on 19 December 1663?

Samuel Pepys was tipping the shoemaker's apprentices; such Christmas boxes, collected by tradesmen and servants once the holiday was over, are one likely origin of the name Boxing Day.

Which Australian sporting event sets off every year on Boxing Day?

The Sydney to Hobart yacht race began in 1945 as a planned cruise, until a visiting British naval officer, John Illingworth, suggested racing instead; a cricket Test also starts in Melbourne that day.

What do Buddhist temples do 108 times as the New Year arrives?

Ring a bell: in the Joya no Kane ritual the 108 strokes are usually explained as one for each of the worldly desires that Buddhism says trouble people.

In 1843, Sir Henry Cole commissioned the first commercial example of which item?

A Christmas card: with unanswered mail piling up, Cole had the artist John Callcott Horsley design one he could send instead of letters, and he had helped set up the Penny Post that made posting it cheap.

Who is sometimes called the 'father of the American Christmas card'?

Louis Prang, a Prussian-born Boston lithographer, first tried his Christmas cards on the English market and only then began selling them in the United States.

What did the Keller Machine, invented by a Catholic priest in the 1950s, automate?

Father Gregory Keller's machine took over twisting and cutting candy canes, letting his family's firm, Bobs Candies of Albany, Georgia, mass-produce a sweet whose hook had been bent by hand.

Which festive drink's name may come from an old East Anglian word for strong beer?

Eggnog may take its 'nog' from a strong ale once brewed in East Anglia, though some point to 'noggin', a small wooden mug; in 1826 West Point cadets smuggled in whiskey to make it, setting off the Eggnog Riot.

Botanically, mistletoe is which kind of plant?

A hemiparasite: mistletoe draws nutrients from its host tree through a root-like haustorium, yet it stays green and makes its own sugars by photosynthesis.

Which charity's bell-ringers collect donations in red kettles outside shops each December?

The Salvation Army's kettles go back to 1891, when Captain Joseph McFee set out a pot at a San Francisco ferry landing to pay for a Christmas dinner for the city's poor.

How was Johnny Marks, who turned Rudolph into a 1949 hit song, related to the story's author?

Brother-in-law: Johnny Marks had married the author's sister Margaret. Gene Autry at first turned the song down, and recorded it only after his wife talked him round.

Which confectioner is traditionally credited with inventing the Christmas cracker in the 1840s?

Tom Smith, a London sweet-maker, developed the cracker in the 1840s from French bon-bon wrappers, adding the snap; his son Walter later introduced the paper hats.

In the 1950 Christmas song, what brings Frosty the Snowman to life?

An old silk hat does it; the song was pitched to Gene Autry a year after his Rudolph record topped the charts, and he recorded it in the hope of a second seasonal hit.

US Advent calendar demand surged after Newsweek printed a 1953 photo of whose grandson with one?

President Eisenhower's grandson was pictured with a calendar from Stuttgart publisher Richard Sellmer, who had begun printing them in 1945 under a licence from the American occupation authorities; US orders then soared.

In the English tradition, a portion of the Yule log is burned each evening until which date?

Twelfth Night (January 6) ended the burning; whatever was left of the log was then kept in the house, often under a bed, as a charm against lightning and fire until the following Christmas.

Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell self-published which Christmas picture book in 2005?

The Elf on the Shelf began as the Aebersold family's own Christmas custom; mother and daughters then spent three years taking their self-published book to signings and trade shows.

Which German city is often called the 'gingerbread capital of the world'?

Nuremberg guarded its recipe: for centuries only members of the city's bakers' guild were allowed to make its gingerbread, which today carries a protected name tied to the city.

In the Christmas stocking legend, what did Saint Nicholas throw for three sisters?

Bags of gold gave each sister a dowry; in one telling a bag landed in a stocking hung by the fire to dry, and the orange in a stocking's toe is said to stand for that gold.

Which New York Times owner organised the first Times Square ball drop on December 31, 1907?

Adolph Ochs had welcomed each New Year since 1904 with fireworks from his paper's new tower; for the arrival of 1908 he swapped them for a lit ball lowered down the building's flagpole.

Which crystal maker built the Times Square ball unveiled for the 2000 millennium celebration?

Waterford Crystal built the ball that welcomed 2000, and its crystal panels have covered the ball in most years since, engraved with a new theme each time.

The poinsettia is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, who held which post?

Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first US Minister to Mexico from 1825, sent cuttings of the plant home to South Carolina in 1828, and it took his name in English.

Who put up Rockefeller Center's first Christmas tree, in 1931?

Construction workers building the complex set up a small tree on the site in 1931, in the depths of the Depression; the first official tree, strung with lights, followed two years later.

Pope Innocent VIII's 'Butter Letter' permitted the use of butter in which Christmas bread?

Stollen had been baked with oil because the Church banned butter during Advent; Saxon princes petitioned Rome for decades before the letter came, and at first it covered only the prince's own household.

In the 1950s, Austria's government handed out pamphlets warning that which folk figure 'Is an Evil Man'?

Krampus had been suppressed before: the Church forbade the rowdy celebrations and Austria's 1930s government banned the tradition outright, yet Krampus runs through Alpine towns are booming again.

On 'Stir-up Sunday', British families traditionally take turns stirring the mixture for which festive dish?

Christmas pudding is made well ahead of the day, and the prayer read in church on the last Sunday before Advent begins 'Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord', a handy reminder to start; each stirrer makes a wish.

In Aberdeenshire, the town of Stonehaven marks Hogmanay with what fiery custom?

Swinging burning fireballs means whirling cages of chicken wire, packed with paper and rags, around the head on a parade down the High Street; at the end the balls, still alight, are thrown into the harbour.

In orchard wassailing, why do villagers sing to the apple trees?

To bring a good harvest, wassailers wake the trees with song and noise and hang cider-soaked toast in the branches.

Panettone, the tall Christmas sweet bread, is associated with which Italian city?

Milan's Angelo Motta gave panettone its tall dome in 1919 by letting the dough rise three times before baking; the name is simply a 'big' form of an Italian word for a small loaf.

In 'It's a Wonderful Life', what is the name of George Bailey's guardian angel?

Clarence Odbody is an 'angel second class' who has to save George to finally earn his wings. Frank Capra called the 1946 film his favourite of all he directed.

In 'Home Alone', Kevin's family flies off without him to which city?

Paris was the plan; the Miami trip came in the 1992 sequel, when Kevin boarded the wrong plane to New York.

In 'Die Hard', the Christmas Eve party is held in which corporation's Los Angeles tower?

Nakatomi Plaza was really Fox Plaza, the studio's own new Los Angeles headquarters. The film entered the US National Film Registry in 2017.

In the 1964 'Rudolph' TV special, the misfit elf Hermey dreams of becoming what?

Hermey the elf dreams of being a dentist, and his ambition pays off when he pulls the teeth of the Abominable Snow Monster in the 1964 Rankin/Bass stop-motion special.

The storylines of 'Love Actually' converge at which London airport?

Heathrow's arrivals gate bookends the film: the opening narration holds up its reunions as proof that love is all around, and a month after Christmas the characters gather there again.

In the 1914 Christmas truce, British and German soldiers played which game between the trenches?

Football turns up in soldiers' letters and diaries from the truce, mostly as kick-abouts rather than set matches; commanders then issued orders against any repeat.

The 'X' in 'Xmas' is the first letter of 'Christ' in which alphabet?

Greek: chi (Χ) is the first letter of Χριστός, so the X stands for Christ rather than crossing him out, and the abbreviation has been written in English since the 16th century.

Sydney's New Year's Eve fireworks use which landmark as their main focal point?

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the centrepiece of the midnight display; the idea of firing pyrotechnics from the bridge was borrowed from the Brooklyn Bridge's 1983 centenary celebrations.

In 'Gremlins', Gizmo spawns more mogwai when he comes into contact with what?

Water makes Gizmo sprout new mogwai, breaking one of the pet's three rules; Chris Columbus got the idea in a loft apartment where he lay awake listening to mice scurrying about in the dark.

The words of 'Auld Lang Syne' come from a 1788 poem by which Scottish poet?

Robert Burns admitted he 'took it down from an old man'; a 1711 ballad called 'Old Long Syne' shares its first verse and chorus.

On Saint Lucy's Day, Scandinavian girls playing Lucy wear what on their heads?

The girl playing Lucia wears a crown of candles set in a wreath of lingonberry twigs; her white dress stands for a baptismal robe and the red sash for martyrdom.

Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night 1776 to attack which town?

Washington's army surprised the Hessian garrison at Trenton on the morning of 26 December 1776, taking about 900 prisoners, then recrossed to Pennsylvania before returning to win at Princeton on 3 January.

Trafalgar Square's Christmas tree has been an annual gift from which city since 1947?

Oslo first sent a Norwegian spruce in 1947 in thanks for Britain's wartime support, and the gift became annual; a forerunner arrived in 1942, cut on a commando raid and smuggled to King Haakon VII in London.

What is the nickname of the first prize in Spain's famous Christmas lottery?

'El Gordo', the fat one, is the top prize of the Sorteo de Navidad, which dates to 1812 in Cádiz; the winning numbers are sung aloud by pupils of Madrid's San Ildefonso school.

'Carol of the Bells' is based on 'Shchedryk', a New Year song from which country?

Ukraine's Mykola Leontovych built the piece on a four-note folk motif; the original has no bells at all, telling of a swallow that flies into a house to promise the family a bountiful year.

Icelandic children leave what on the windowsill for the 13 Yule Lads to fill?

A shoe goes on the windowsill on each of the 13 nights before Christmas as the Lads arrive one by one; a child who has misbehaved finds a potato in it instead.

Which Swedish town's giant straw goat has been a favourite target for arsonists since 1966?

Gävle's first goat, 13 metres tall, was burnt down on New Year's Eve 1966; by December 2025, 43 of 60 goats had been burnt or otherwise damaged, though destroying one is a crime and the fire station is nearby.

Under what title was 'Jingle Bells' first published in 1857?

The One Horse Open Sleigh has no link to Christmas in its words: it was first sung in a Boston minstrel hall in September 1857 and joined the holiday repertoire only in the decades that followed.

Irving Berlin wrote 'White Christmas' for which 1942 film?

Holiday Inn, in which Bing Crosby sings the song, later lent its name to a hotel chain: the founder's architect wrote the film's title on his plans as a joke, and it stuck.

Bob Geldof co-wrote Band Aid's 1984 charity single with which musician?

Midge Ure, the Ultravox frontman, also produced the track, recorded in a single day at Sarm West Studios; it raised £8 million within a year.

Who voiced the Grinch and narrated the 1966 TV special of Dr. Seuss's 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'?

Boris Karloff both narrated and voiced the Grinch; engineers stripped the high tones from his voice for the Grinch's gravelly lines, and the song was sung, uncredited, by Thurl Ravenscroft.

Tchaikovsky's 'Nutcracker' score is famous for its use of which bell-like instrument?

The celesta, a keyboard invented only a few years earlier, gave the Sugar Plum Fairy her sound: choreographer Marius Petipa had asked for music like droplets shooting from a fountain.

Thomas Nast's influential 1863 Santa Claus illustration appeared in which publication?

Harper's Weekly ran the picture in January 1863, in the middle of the Civil War: Nast's Santa wears the Stars and Stripes and dangles a puppet labelled 'Jeff', for Confederate president Jefferson Davis.

NORAD's Santa tracking began in 1955 after which store's ad invited kids to phone Santa?

Sears invited Colorado Springs children to phone Santa; as the air-defence command tells it, one call reached Colonel Harry Shoup's operations desk instead, he played along, and NORAD took over the tracking in 1958.

Apollo 8's Christmas Eve 1968 broadcast included a reading from which book of the Bible?

Genesis, its first ten verses, was read in turn by the three astronauts as they orbited the Moon; atheist campaigner Madalyn Murray O'Hair sued over the reading, and the courts dismissed her case.

In the Catalan Tió de Nadal custom, children beat a log with sticks so it will do what?

Children beat the log and sing so that it will poop out presents and sweets; families 'feed' it for days beforehand and tuck it under a blanket, and it is popularly called Caga Tió.

Lincoln's 1863 Thanksgiving proclamation followed lobbying by which magazine editor?

Sarah Josepha Hale, who also wrote 'Mary Had a Little Lamb', campaigned for years and wrote to one president after another before Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving.

Simbang Gabi, nine dawn Masses before Christmas, is a tradition of which country?

The Philippines took up the custom under Spanish rule: priests said Mass before dawn so that farmers could attend and still be in the fields by sunrise.

In Russia's New Year tradition, Snegurochka accompanies the gift-bringer Ded Moroz as his what?

His granddaughter and helper since Soviet times; older stories tell it differently, with the Snow Maiden as the daughter of Frost and Spring, or as a girl shaped from snow by a childless couple.

The Welsh wassailing figure Mari Lwyd is built around the skull of which animal?

A horse's skull is carried on a pole under a sheet; the party sings rhyming challenges, the pwnco, at each door until the householders give up and let them in for ale.

Iceland's Yule Cat is said to eat anyone who did not receive what before Christmas Eve?

The Yule Cat (Jólakötturinn) devours anyone who has no new clothes by Christmas Eve; the threat, tied to the ogress Grýla's household, was a handy way to get the autumn wool spun.

Which act kept the Pogues' 'Fairytale of New York' off the 1987 UK Christmas number one?

Pet Shop Boys' synth cover of 'Always on My Mind' held the Pogues and Kirsty MacColl at number two; their song has never topped the UK chart, yet it climbed back into the top 20 every Christmas from 2005 to at least 2020.

Which act scored five consecutive UK Christmas number ones from 2018 to 2022?

LadBaby, YouTubers Mark and Roxanne Hoyle, did it with charity parodies for the Trussell Trust's food banks, most of them about sausage rolls; the run passed the Beatles' four, and the couple sat out 2023.

KFC's 'Kentucky for Christmas' campaign made fried chicken a Christmas tradition in which country?

Japan had few Christmas customs of its own when Takeshi Okawara, who ran the country's first KFC, began selling 'party barrels' in 1970 as a stand-in for an American turkey dinner.

The name of Finland's gift-bringer, Joulupukki, literally means what?

Joulupukki means 'Yule goat' (joulu, Yule; pukki, goat); the figure descends from the nuuttipukki, men in goat masks and fur who toured villages after Christmas demanding leftover food and drink.

The first royal Christmas broadcast (George V, 1932) was scripted by which author?

Rudyard Kipling wrote the short script; George V, wary of radio, read it from a temporary studio at Sandringham after BBC chief John Reith had first pitched the idea a decade earlier.

Which president lit the first National Christmas Tree, near the White House, in 1923?

Calvin Coolidge was talked into it by an electrical-industry group that wanted Christmas lights to catch on; the fir came from his home state of Vermont, a gift from Middlebury College.

Which saint is credited with staging the first live nativity scene?

Francis of Assisi, who had visited the Holy Land, set up a manger with hay, an ox and a donkey at Greccio in 1223 to put the scene of the birth before people's eyes.

Pastor Johann Hinrich Wichern built the first Advent wreath in 1839 from what object?

Wichern fixed small red candles for the weekdays and four large white ones for the Sundays to an old cartwheel, so the children at his Hamburg mission school could count the days to Christmas.

The seven candles lit during Kwanzaa come in which three colours?

Black, red and green are the colours of the Pan-African flag: one black candle stands in the middle of the holder, with three red on one side and three green on the other.

In Greece, what is left out to distract the kallikantzaroi goblins at Christmastide?

A colander is left on the doorstep; the kallikantzaroi stop to count its holes but cannot count past two, since three is holy. The rest of the year they saw at the tree that holds up the earth.

Which 1947 film about a department-store Santa on trial was released in early summer, its Christmas setting hidden in the publicity?

Miracle on 34th Street opened in June 1947 because studio chief Darryl Zanuck argued that more people go to the cinema in warm weather; Edmund Gwenn's Kris Kringle still won him an Oscar.

Which American colony outlawed Christmas in 1659, fining anyone caught celebrating five shillings?

Massachusetts Puritans held that Christmas had no warrant in Scripture; even after the ban was lifted, keeping the day stayed unfashionable around Boston until the middle of the 19th century.

In a custom sold as German, families hide a tree ornament shaped like which food?

A pickle goes on the tree, and the first to spot it wins an extra present; the German pedigree is doubtful, since few Germans have even heard of the custom.

Edward Johnson, who put the first known electric lights on a Christmas tree, worked alongside which inventor?

Thomas Edison's colleague hand-wired 80 red, white and blue bulbs the size of walnuts and stood the tree on a box that turned six times a minute; a Detroit reporter wrote the stunt up.

Christmas Island, named on Christmas Day 1643, hosts which animal's mass migration?

Red crabs in their millions leave the forest each wet season and march to the sea to spawn, carpeting the ground so thickly that the island's authorities close roads to let them pass.

Which Roman festival, opening on 17 December, treated slaves to the kind of banquet their masters enjoyed?

Saturnalia opened with a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn, then turned to feasting, gambling and gift-giving, and households chose a mock king to preside over the mischief.

Which carol was first printed around 1780 as a children's memory game with forfeits?

The Twelve Days of Christmas is thought to have begun as a forfeits game: each player repeated the growing list of gifts and paid a forfeit for any slip, and today's tune dates from Frederic Austin's 1909 arrangement.

Chocolate Hanukkah gelt, first sold by Loft's in the 1920s, is shaped like what?

Coins: 'gelt' is Yiddish for money, and the chocolate stands in for real coins that parents once gave children to pass on to their teachers.

Which soft-drink company hired Haddon Sundblom in 1931 to paint the Santa Claus used in its Christmas ads?

Coca-Cola ran Sundblom's paintings for decades, which is why people wrongly credit the company with inventing the modern Santa. White Rock Beverages had put a Santa in its own drinks ads back in 1915.

Which fruit do people in Spain eat twelve of at midnight on New Year's Eve, one for each chime?

Grapes became a nationwide habit in 1909, when Alicante vine growers pushed the custom to sell off a bumper crop. Each one stands for one of the twelve months ahead.

In 'A Christmas Story', set in Indiana around 1940, what does young Ralphie want above all else for Christmas?

A Red Ryder BB gun is all he asks for, and his mother, his teacher and a store Santa each answer, 'You'll shoot your eye out.' On Christmas morning a ricochet knocks off his glasses.

Which president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier to lengthen the Depression-era Christmas shopping season?

Franklin Roosevelt's change was mocked as 'Franksgiving', and almost half the states kept the old date. Congress ended the split in 1941 by fixing the fourth Thursday of November.

Astronaut Wally Schirra played 'Jingle Bells' from orbit in December 1965 on which smuggled instrument?

Harmonica notes followed a deadpan report of a satellite in polar orbit, heading north to south: Santa, in other words. The Smithsonian counts it among the first musical instruments played in space.

Which country's post office gives Santa Claus the postcode H0H 0H0 and answers the letters sent to it?

Canada chose H0H 0H0 because it reads 'ho ho ho' with zeros standing in for the letter O. Postal volunteers answer about a million letters each Christmas, each in the language it was written in.

Which singer's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You' took 25 years to reach number one in America?

Mariah Carey released it in 1994, but it first topped the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019. It has climbed back to number one in the holiday seasons since.

Which sitcom's episode 'The Strike' made Festivus, with its bare aluminium pole, a real December tradition?

Seinfeld got Festivus from writer Dan O'Keefe, whose father had invented it for the family in the 1960s. Their version had no pole: they nailed a clock in a bag to the wall.

Christmas gingerbread houses are popularly traced to which Brothers Grimm fairy tale, first published in 1812?

Hansel and Gretel nibble at a witch's house that, in the Grimms' own text, is made of bread with sugar decorations. Some food historians think the brothers were describing treats that already existed.

Which two-faced Roman god of doorways and beginnings gives the first month of the year its name?

Janus could see into the past with one face and into the future with the other, which suited the turn of the year. In some artworks a third face was added between them for the present.

Which carol was first sung on Christmas Eve 1818 in the Austrian village of Oberndorf, to a guitar accompaniment?

Silent Night was finished that same day: the priest Joseph Mohr took his words to schoolmaster Franz Gruber and asked for a melody for the evening mass. River flooding may have put the church organ out of action.

Which crooner's recording of 'White Christmas' does Guinness rank as the best-selling single of all time?

Bing Crosby first sang it on his NBC radio show on Christmas Day 1941, a few weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Sales of his record are put at more than 50 million copies.

In 'A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving', which Peanuts character invites herself and two friends over for dinner?

Peppermint Patty's father is out of town, so she rings up and adds herself to the guest list. Charlie Brown can barely make toast, so the feast is toast, popcorn, pretzel sticks and jelly beans.

Which department store's Thanksgiving Day parade began in 1924 with live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo?

Macy's staff marched in costume in that first parade. A Felix the Cat balloon replaced the zoo animals in 1927, and helium arrived a year later to make the balloons float.

Latkes, the pancakes fried in oil for the Jewish festival of lights, are usually made from which grated vegetable?

Potatoes only took over in the 19th century, once the crop had spread across Eastern Europe. Until then the usual Ashkenazi latke was made of cheese.

In 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', which Halloween Town resident has Santa kidnapped and delivers the gifts?

Jack Skellington, the town's Pumpkin King, sets off in a sleigh pulled by skeletal reindeer. His gifts cause such alarm that the military shoots him out of the sky.

Which spirit is traditionally poured warm over a British Christmas pudding and set alight before serving?

Brandy also goes into the mixture itself. Cooks once stirred small coins into the pudding too, and whoever found one in a slice could keep it.

In Dr. Seuss's 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas!', what is the name of the Grinch's long-suffering dog?

Max has to pull the sleigh down to Whoville and back up to the peak of Mount Crumpit, where his master plans to dump every stolen gift into an abyss.

Which NFL team has hosted a Thanksgiving Day game since 1934, a tradition begun as a gimmick to draw crowds?

The Detroit Lions' owner also owned a radio station, and he persuaded NBC to carry the game live across its network. The Dallas Cowboys became the second annual hosts in 1966.

In the 2003 comedy 'Elf', which actor plays Buddy, a human raised by Santa's elves at the North Pole?

Will Ferrell landed a part first written in 1993 with Chris Farley and Jim Carrey in mind. He improvised several scenes, and said the sugary food his character eats made him ill.

Which singer's trio made the first recording of 'The Christmas Song', the one that opens with chestnuts roasting?

Nat King Cole was given the song by his friend Mel Tormé, who wrote it with Bob Wells during a sweltering summer as a way of feeling cooler. The trio recorded it in June 1946.

Hoppin' John, eaten for luck in the American South on New Year's Day, usually pairs rice with which legume?

Black-eyed peas stand for pennies, and a real coin is sometimes dropped into the pot. Leftovers eaten the next day go by the name Skippin' Jenny, a sign of thrift that is meant to bring still more luck.

In 'Home Alone', which actor plays Harry, the burglar who loses a gold tooth in the McCallister house?

Joe Pesci got the part after Jon Lovitz turned it down and Robert De Niro had been considered. The film's cinematographer recalled that he was harder to work with than its child star.

In Charles Dickens's 'A Christmas Carol', which dead business partner's ghost appears first, wrapped in heavy chains?

Jacob Marley has been dead for seven years when the story opens. His chains are hung with cash boxes and ledgers, and he warns his old partner that the same fate is waiting for him.

Which British monarch delivered the first televised royal Christmas message, a quarter-century after the first on radio?

Elizabeth II had been giving her Christmas messages by radio since 1952 when the cameras arrived. In 1969 she made no broadcast at all, because a documentary about the royal family had been made instead.

Which composer's oratorio 'Messiah', source of the Hallelujah chorus, was first performed in Dublin in April 1742?

Handel's audiences still stand for the Hallelujah chorus, supposedly because King George II did so at the London premiere. There is no convincing evidence that the king was even there.

Which band of Jewish rebels won back the Temple from the Seleucids, the victory the festival of lights celebrates?

The Maccabees became notorious among the Seleucid army for their guerrilla tactics. By one explanation their name comes from the Aramaic for 'hammer', a tribute to their leader Judah's ferocity in battle.

Which seven-branched candle holder stands at the centre of a Kwanzaa display, with red, green and black candles?

Kinara candles stand for Kwanzaa's seven principles: a single black one in the middle, red to its left and green to its right. Early photographs show the first as a plain log with holes drilled in it.

Which carol's singers demand figgy pudding and refuse to go until they get some?

We Wish You a Merry Christmas comes from the English West Country, where wealthy households handed treats to carollers. A 'figgy' pudding there was a raisin or plum pudding, figs optional.

In O. Henry's 'The Gift of the Magi', what does Della sell to buy a chain for Jim's watch?

Her hair, knee-length and brown, fetches $20 from a wig maker. Jim, meanwhile, has sold the watch to buy her a set of jewelled combs.