Holiday Trivia Quiz
BY LIZ GOFF

Here’s a pop quiz for holiday trivia buffs.

When and where did audiences first hear the holiday song, “Silver Bells”?

If you guessed “Silver Bells” was introduced to audiences by Bing Crosby in the holiday flick, “Holiday Inn”, guess again! Don’t feel bad. Most people get this one wrong. “Silver Bells” was first crooned by Marilyn Maxwell and Bob Hope in the unlikely 1951 holiday movie, “The Lemon Drop Kid”. “Silver Bells” became an instant hit.

Who are Santa’s elves?

Fact: Elves are the longest-living people in the world, and are known for their natural ability to “make magic”.

Tales woven throughout history tell that some of the most magical elves are those who live and work at the North Pole. The elves care for Santa’s reindeer, sort letters from children, make the toys Santa delivers on Christmas Eve and keep Santa’s list of “good and bad” children.

The elves also choose the route Santa will follow on Christmas Eve to make sure he has enough time to deliver toys to every child in the world on that one night.

Here’s some elf advice: if you ever run into an elf, don’t ask too many questions! Legend has it they’re very stingy when asked to share details about their personal lives.

What little-known U.S. holiday is celebrated on December 26?

It’s National Candy Cane Day! Here’s some candy cane history:

The history of candy canes dates back to December 1670, when the choirmaster of the Cologne Cathedral in Germany gave sugar sticks in the shape of shepherds’ crooks to his young singers to keep them silent during a long performance of a nativity pageant. In 1847, German immigrant August Ingaid unknowingly started a holiday tradition when he decorated a small spruce tree in his Wooster, Ohio home with the “bent” sticks. But it wasn’t

until the turn of the century

that red and white

stripes and peppermint

flavors were added to the

sticks, and they were renamed candy canes.

In the mid-1920s, Robert McCormack of Albany, Georgia made candy canes for his children as Christmas treats, shaping the sticks by hand, adding the peppermint flavor and painting them with red, food-color stripes.

The sticks were first mass produced in the late 1950s. That’s when McCormack’s brotherin law, Gregory Keller, invented a machine to produce candy canes. Months later, Keller engineered the packaging used to ship the candy canes on a large scale without breaking. Months later, Keller designed packaging that prevented the candy canes from breaking during shipment to retailers, and the rest is history.

Manufacturers in the new millennium produce more than 1.76 billion candy canes each year, enough to line the route to and from Santa’s North Pole Workshop 32 times.

How big was the biggest candy cane ever made in the U.S.? What did it weigh and how tall did it measure?

The biggest candy cane weighed more than 100 pounds, and stood a whopping 5 feet, 2 inches tall.

When did Rudolph first appear to lead Santa’s sleigh with his “very shiny nose”?

“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” started life as a poem created by Robert May, an American advertising executive. He was requested to produce a poem that could be given away to children by the Santa Claus employed by Montgomery Ward Department Stores at Christmas. May first named the reindeer “Roland”, but changed the name to Rudolph at the suggestion of his young daugter. Approximately 2.5 million poems were given away in the first year of its publication. In 1949 singer Gene Autry recorded a musical version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” sung to a melody composed by Johnny Marks.

Another version of the song was recorded in 1970 by folk singer Burl Ives for the animated, made-for-television “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”, which has since earned a reputation as a holiday tradition.