Test your Christmas knowledge

By By Michelle Blaylock, Mom’s Corner
With Christmas being only three weeks away, I thought it would be a great time to share some unusual Christmas facts. Better yet, let us have a quiz. Don’t worry the answers are at the bottom.
1. About what year did a Christmas Club Savings Account appear?
2. What was the first movie made in “Vista Vision?” (Hint: It’s a Christmas movie staring Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.)
3. What was the first state to recognize Christmas as an official holiday?
4. What are the two busiest shopping days of the year?
5. In 1969, what American businessman tried to airlift 28 tons of medicine and Christmas gifts to POW’s in North Vietnam?
6. What is America’s official Christmas tree and where is it located? (Bonus: Do you know when it was made our official Christmas tree?)
7. Why do the Barnum’s Animal Crackers boxes have a string on them?
8. What were the other names Charles Dickens considered for his character of Tiny Tim in “A Christmas Carol?”
9. On the average, how many times a minute during the Christmas season are Visa cards alone used in the United States?
10. Who was the first president to decorate an official White House Christmas Tree?
Answers:
1. According to Wikipedia, the first known Christmas Club was started in 1909 by the Carlisle Trust Company. About 350 people participated and each person saved around $28.
2. The movie was “White Christmas” in 1954. However, this is not the first movie that had the song “White Christmas” in it. The song debuted in the movie “Holiday Inn” in 1947.
3. Alabama did in 1836! In 1907, Oklahoma became the last state to make Christmas an official holiday.
4. Actually, it is not “Black Friday.” The two busiest shopping days of the year are the Friday and Saturday before Christmas.
5. Ross Perot
6.America’s Christmas Tree is the “General Grant Tree” located in Kings Canyon National Park outside of Sanger, California. 7. The string was so the box could be hung from a Christmas tree. They kept the 1902 string, unfortunately they couldn’t keep the 1902 price – 5 cents!
8. Charles Dickens other ideas for Tiny Tim’s name were: Little Larry, Puny Pete and Small Sam.
9. If you are not sitting down you might want to, before you read this answer. On the average Visa cards alone are used 5,340 times a minute in the United States during the Christmas buying season.
10. In 1889, President Harrison had the first Christmas tree in the White House.
His wife, an artist, helped to decorate it. Leading to the tradition of the First Ladies having the honor of trimming the tree. However, not all Presidents after President Harrison had Christmas trees. It wasn’t until 1929 that Christmas trees became an unbroken tradition with First Lady Lou Henry Hoover overseeing the first official White House Tree.
I hope you enjoyed this Christmas trivia. If you did here are some web sites that you might enjoyed http://www.corsinet.com/braincandy/xmastrivia.html, http://www.christmas-decorations-gifts-store.com/christmas_trivia.html, http://www.worldpath.net/~hiker/ChristmasTrivia.htm
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