Christmas

The Twelve Days of Christmas (carol)

The following table shows what was given on the 12th day of Christmas. This is back to front in a sense, but I find it easier to remember this way as it's how you actually sing it (in the last verse).

12		Drummers drumming	11		Pipers piping	10		Lords a–leaping
9		Ladies dancing	8		Maids a–milking	7		Swans a–swimming
6		Geese a–laying	5		Gold rings	4		Colly (calling) birds
3		French hens	2		Turtle doves	1		Partridge in a pear tree

"Colly bird" is an archaic name for the		Blackbird
Total number of gifts given on the 12th day		78
Total number of gifts given over all 12 days (taking the song at its word: i.e. a partridge in a pear tree (1 gift) on Day 1, a partridge in a pear tree and two turtle doves (3 gifts) on Day 2, etc.)		364

Dates

Epiphany, or Old Christmas Day		6 January
King's College, Cambridge, holds its Christmas Eve 'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' for the first time		1918
The BBC broadcasts King's College, Cambridge's Christmas Eve 'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' for the first time		1928
The only year since 1928 when the BBC didn't broadcast King's College, Cambridge's Christmas Eve 'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols'		1930
George V broadcasts the first Christmas Message		1932
Christmas tree donated by the people of Oslo, Norway, is erected in Trafalgar Square, London, for the first time		1947
King's College, Cambridge's 'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols' is televised for the first time (on 23 December)		1954
The Queen's Christmas speech first televised		1957
GPO first issued Christmas stamps		1966
Christmas message not broadcast		1969
Christmas message first broadcast by ITV		1997

People

Popularised the Christmas tree in Britain			Prince Albert
Played Kris Kringle (a.k.a. Santa Claus) in Miracle on 34th Street (1994 version)			Richard Attenborough
Choirboy who sang Walking in the Air in the original animated cartoon film of Raymond Briggs's The Snowman (first shown on Channel 4, Christmas Eve 1982)			Peter Auty
Hits rock bottom in a Santa suit, after being tricked into swapping lives with Eddie Murphy, in Trading Places (1983)			Dan Aykroyd
Christmas Oratorio: composer			J. S. Bach
White Christmas (song): words and music			Irving Berlin
The Snowman, Father Christmas: author and illustrator			Raymond Briggs
Actress whose only hit was All I want for Christmas is a Beatle, 1963			Dora Bryan
Played Scrooge in A Muppet Christmas Carol			Michael Caine
Dictator of Romania, executed with his wife Elena on Christmas Day 1989			Nicolae Ceaucescu
Christmas Island: discovered 1777 by			Captain Cook
Title role in Scrooge (1970 muscal version, film only)			Albert Finney
National leader who resigned on Christmas Day 1991			Mikhail Gorbachev
Voiced the Grinch in a 1966 TV special version of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas ("his best–known non–horror role" – Wikipedia)			Boris Karloff
Santa Claus: The Movie (1985): starred as an elf called Patch			Dudley Moore
Title role in Scrooged (1988)			Bill Murray
How the Grinch Stole Christmas (children's book): author			Dr. Seuss
Title role in Scrooge (1951)			Alastair Sim
Inventor of the Christmas cracker (Yorkshire sweet manufacturer – 1846)			Tom Smith
Title role in Bad Santa (2003)			Billy Bob Thornton
The Father Christmas Letters: author			J. R. R. Tolkien
US jazz singer, wrote The Christmas Song ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire") – in collaboration with one Bob Wells			Mel Tormé
Bob Geldof's collaborator in forming Band Aid, and in writing Do They Know it's Christmas?			Midge Ure
Played Susan Walker in the 1947 version of Miracle on 34th Street – aged 8			Natalie Wood

'Twas the Night Before Christmas ...

"'Twas the night before Christmas …" is the first line of (poem first published anonymously in 1823 in the Sentinel newspaper of Troy, New York)		A Visit from Saint Nicholas
The poem was later attributed to (but still disputed by some)		Clement C. Moore

Santa Claus's reindeers (originally in A Visit from St. Nicholas):

	Dasher		Dancer		Prancer		Vixen
	Comet		Cupid		Dunder (Donner)		Blixem (Blitzen)

A Christmas Carol

First sentence (six words)		Marley was dead, to begin with.
Number of ghosts that appear		4
Scrooge's deceased partner, and the first ghost to appear		Jacob Marley
"God bless us, every one"		Tiny Tim
Scrooge's good–natured clerk, father of Tiny Tim		Bob Cratchitt

Morecambe & Wise

For most of the 1970s (up to 1977, after which they moved to ITV), Christmas in the UK wouldn't have been Christmas without the Morecambe & Wise TV special. The following table lists the classics, and summarises their highlights. (For more details, refer to Wikipedia).

Their first Christmas special (consisting mainly of extracts from shows previously broadcast earlier in the same year): guest star Frankie Vaughan			1969
Peter Cushing appears, for the first time in what would become a running gag, to complain about not being paid for his appearance in July 1969			1970
William Franklyn suffers much mickey–taking over his Schweppes adverts ("Schhh ... you know who") and appears in Eric's play about the Three Musketeers
Edward Woodward sings The Way You Look Tonight
Shirley Bassey sings Smoke Gets In Your Eyes while Eric & Ernie rearrange the furniture around her; she also sings Diamonds are Forever			1971
Glenda Jackson performs a dance routine in "the Hollywood Melody"
Eric mangles Grieg's Piano Concerto, with André Previn attempting to conduct
Various previous guests appear in cameos: "I worked with Morecambe & Wise, and look what happened to me!", with the camera then zooming out to show them in various menial jobs: Ian Carmichael as a news vendor, Fenella Fielding as a railway guard, Eric Porter as a binman, André Previn as a bus conductor, Dame Flora Robson as a tea lady			1972
Yehudi Menuhin, Rudolf Nureyev, Laurence Olivier and André Previn appear in cameos, making excuses not to appear			1973
Vanessa Redgrave appears in the Latin American Extravaganza, and in Ernie's Napoleon & Josephine play
Hannah Gordon sings The Windmills of Your Mind against a wind generator

There was no show in 1974 (just a Parkinson interview showing clips from previous shows).

The much–maligned Des O'Connor appears in the opening routine		1975
Diana Rigg stars in Ernie's version of Nell Gwynne
Robin Day's "friendly discussion" turns into a brawl
Angela Rippon shows her legs and dances		1976
Michael Parkinson, Michael Aspel, Richard Baker, Frank Bough, Philip Jenkinson, Barry Norman, Eddie Waring, Richard Whitmore and Peter Woods join Eric & Ernie to perform There Is Nothing Like a Dame (Woods singing the final line); Kenneth Kendall appears as a newsreader		1977
Various stars from Dad's Army and The Good Life appear; Elton John and Angharad Rees sing Baby, It's Cold Outside; Eric & Ernie appear in a Starsky & Hutch spoof

Morecambe & Wise moved to ITV in 1978, and their Christmas specials were never the same again. (If you think this is just my opinion, check them out on Wikipedia.)

Films (titles)

1942: in which the song White Christmas first appeared (winning the Oscar for Best Original Song)		Holiday Inn
1984: begins with a small boy (Billy Peltzer) being given a weird pet named Gizmo as a Christmas present (Gizmo is a mogwai — Cantonese for "evil spirit")		Gremlins
1988: set on Christmas Eve in the Los Angeles headquarters of the (fictional) Nakatomi Corporation; consistently voted as one of the best Christmas films of all time, despite (or perhaps because of) its violent content		Die Hard
1993 Tim Burton stop–motion animation – a "dark fantasy musical" (Wikipedia): central character Jack Skellington (who lives in Halloween Town) accidentally opens a portal to Christmas Town		The Nightmare Before Christmas
1994: stars Tim Allen as Scott Calvin, a divorced businessman and cynical workaholic father, who becomes a reluctant new Santa Claus after he accidentally causes the real Santa Claus to fall from his roof on Christmas Eve		The Santa Clause
2003: stars Will Ferrell as one of Santa's elves, who learns that he's really human and goes to New York to meet his biological father (played by James Caan)		Elf
2004: computer–animated fantasy – directed by Robert Zemeckis, based on a 1985 book of the same title by Chris Van Allsburg. Tom Hanks voices six parts, including the central character – a boy (known only as Hero Boy) who has lost faith in Santa Claus		The Polar Express
2022: short animated film, based on a book of the same title by Charlie Mackesy (which was Waterstones' Book of the Year in 2019); premiered on BBC One on Christmas Eve 2022, and outside the UK on Apple TV on Christmas Day 2022; won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film (2023)		The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Other

Country that administers Christmas Island (Indian Ocean)			Australia
Plant known as Christmas, Easter or Crab			Cactus
Traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve in Poland			Carp
Decorative object, associated with Advent, typically consisting of an orange decorated with ribbon, dried fruits or sweets, silver foil and a candle; symbolises Jesus as the light of the world; first made in Germany in 1747, popularised in the UK in the late 20th century			Christingle
Latin name: Helleborus niger			Christmas rose
Described by Charles Dickens as "that pretty German toy" (in his essay for the 1850 Christmas edition of his journal Household Words)			Christmas tree
Germany's oldest Christmas Market – the Striezelmarkt – has been held since the 1430s in (city)			Dresden
The German word for 'eleven'			Elf
Rovaniemi (pop. 62,945 in 2019, and home to Santa Claus Village – "the official hometown of Santa Claus") is the 16th largest city in (country)			Finland
Christmas disease is an alternative name, after the first patient in whom it was described, for (disease caused by a deficiency of factor IX – nine – in the blood)			Haemophilia B
Christmas carol: words by Christina Rossetti, tune by Gustav Holst			In the Bleak Midwinter
Name of the character who may (or may not) be Santa Claus, in Miracle on 34th Street – played by Edmund Gwenn in the 1947 version, and Richard Attenborough in 1994			Kris Kringle
"Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents" is the first line of			Little Women
Fictional world where it was winter for 100 years, but never Christmas			Narnia
British heavy cruiser: engaged with the Scharnhorst on its way to the North Cape on Christmas Day 1943 – inflicting damage, but suffering damage itself			HMS Norfolk
Country that has sent a Christmas tree to London every year since 1947 (to be erected in Trafalgar Square)			Norway
Carol that opens King's College, Cambridge's Christmas Eve 'Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols'			Once in Royal David's City
Sweet bread loaf, originally from the Milan area, popular at Christmas and New Year			Panettone
Name of the elf played by Dudley Moore in Santa Claus: the Movie (1985)			Patch
"A good–humoured Christmas chapter, containing an account of a wedding, and some other sports beside, which, although in their way even as good customs as marriage itself, are not quite so religiously kept up in these degenerative times". This is the title of Chapter 28 of			The Pickwick Papers
Also known as the Christmas star, Mexican flame leaf, winter rose, noche buena, or Pascua; native to Mexico, introduced to the USA in 1825 by the US Minister to Mexico			Poinsettia
Socialist anthem sung to the tune of the German carol O Tannenbaum (O Christmas Tree)			The Red Flag
The Simpsons' pet greyhound			Santa's Little Helper
Traditional German bread–like fruit cake, particularly associated with Christmas			Stollen
Toy, shortages of which at Christmas 1992 prompted Blue Peter to create a make–it–yourself version, which became their best–selling 'make' ever			Tracy Island
The ruins of the city of Patara – home of St. Nicholas (AD 270–343 – whose legendary habit of secret gift–giving gave rise to the folklore of Santa Claus, through Sinterklaas) are in (modern country)			Turkey
TV drama series, piloted in a TV movie called The Homecoming: a Christmas Story (1971)			The Waltons
English king, crowned on Christmas Day			William I
Pagan winter festival of the Germanic people – absorbed into Christmas			Yule

© Haydn Thompson 2017–24