4) 2023 CHRISTMAS QUIZ!
We have for you, now, as light amusement, the following SF/F-flavoured Christmas quiz—25 questions in honour of December 25, Christmas Day! Answers will be provided in our final post of the afternoon, at 4:00PM. Good luck!
1) In what town is set the classic Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)?
A) Pine Tree, VT; B) Lake George, NY; C) Stepford, CT; D) Seneca Falls, NY; or E) Bedford Falls, NY
2) Edmund Gwenn, Thomas Mitchell, Ed Wynn, Sebastien Cabot, and Richard Attenborough—these five actors played the same character in five different productions of which feel-good Christmas story?
3) Name the character they all played?
4) The first published mention of Santa Claus’ sleigh and reindeer appeared in the 1821 illustrated poem “Old Santeclaus with Much Delight.” In said poem, how many reindeer are depicted as pulling Santa’s sleigh?
A) Four, B) Two, C) Eight, D) One, or E) Six
5) In the 1989 Christmas fantasy film Prancer, what was the name of the reindeer appearing in the movie as the titular character?
A) Canada, B) Olive, C) Boo, D) Rudolph, or E) Winter
6) In which year did the military begin its annual “tracking” of Santa Claus’ sleigh on its Christmas Eve flight?
7) Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story, “The Greatest Gift,” was self-published as a booklet in 1943 and given as a Christmas present to family and friends before it was sold to a magazine in 1944, then published as an illustrated book that same year. “The Greatest Gift” served as the source material for which beloved Christmas movie?
8) What is the name of Stern’s protagonist in “The Greatest Gift”?
A) George Taylor, B) George Hegerman, C) George Milton, D) George Pratt, or E) George Jetson
9) In an episode of the original Twilight Zone, a group of nameless individuals, having no memory of who they are or how they came to find themselves trapped in a giant metal cylinder with no apparent exit, contemplate the mystery of their situation, formulate a desperate plan of escape, and make the attempt. This group of characters numbers how many?
10) The dark twist-ending of the above described episode—spoiler!—reveals that these characters are all, in fact, different sorts of dolls that have been dropped into a Christmas donations barrel collecting toys for an orphanage! What kinds of dolls are they?
11) What was the title of this rather bleak Christmas Twilight Zone episode?
12) Who was Harry Shoup and what unique association did he have to Christmas?
13) The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (1902) is a children’s book penned by Wizard of Oz author L. Frank Baum, offering a markedly different take on the story of Santa Claus. For example, rather than Clement C. Moore’s familiar team of eight reindeer, featured in his poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas”—also known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”—Baum’s story identifies ten reindeer. Name them.
14) Name the two reindeer that Baum’s Santa Claus relies on as his principal sleigh-pulling team in The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.
15) Match these servings of Christmas cuisine to their country of origin.
A) Multekrem 1) Iceland
B) Pandora 2) Germany
C) Colemono 3) Poland
D) Hangikjöt 4) Norway
E) Kruidnoten 5) Venezuela
F) Bolo de mel 6) Sweden
G) Bigos 7) Japan
H) Hallacas 8) Chile
I) Christmas Pudding 9) Italy
J) Kentucky Fried Chicken 10) Netherlands
K) Knäck 11) Portugal
L) Springerle 12) England
16) In the perennial Christmas favourite It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), how much cash does George Bailey’s building and loan business find itself short on Christmas Eve as a result of hapless Uncle Billy’s absentmindedness while visiting the bank to make a deposit, and greedy, underhanded banker Potter’s taking full advantage of the situation to surreptitiously misappropriate that money?
17) What is Potter’s first name?
18) The Martian weapons brandished in the sci-fi/Christmas movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) were simply off-the-shelf, store-bought toy guns! Which of these served as the Martians’ handgun?
A) Wham-O Airblaster, B) Daisy Buck Rogers XZ-38 Disintegrator Pistol, C) Topper Toys Johnny Seven O.M.A. (One-Man Army), D) Mattel Agent Zero M Snap-Shot (Camera to Safe Cap Pistol), or E) Rayline Rapid-Fire Tracer Gun
19) In It’s a Wonderful Life, what is the maiden name of George Bailey’s wife, Mary?
20) A pivotal sequence in the film shows George, despondent over his Building and Loan’s missing money, contemplating suicide, convinced that his family and friends would be better off without him! By way of Heavenly intervention, he is shown the dark and disturbing reality that would have been were he never born so that he may know the very important and positive impact he has had on his hometown, and the lives of his loved ones. The hope is that he will thus appreciate the life he has lived, and change his mind about throwing it all away by killing himself. In this unsettling alternate history, much is distressingly different, including the name of the town! What is that name?
21) What is Mary’s occupation in the alternate timeline?
22) In his novelty Chanukah Song, comedian Adam Sandler’s list of fellow Jewish celebrities who celebrate Chanukah includes two superstars of sci-fi television, or rather, the iconic characters they portrayed. Name these two, with whom, sings Sandler, “you can spin a dreidel.”
23) Scrooged (1988) is a modern, comedic take on Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in which star Bill Murray’s character—the Ebenezer Scrooge of the piece—is visited by the familiar Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. Carol Kane plays the petite, delicate, fairy-like Ghost of Christmas Present, who proceeds to kick, slap, punch and generally batter Murray throughout their encounter. In a parting blow, she clocks him hard in the chops with a toaster! Was that toaster a two-slice or four-slice model?
24) The animated film Gotta Catch Santa Claus (2008) is about a young boy who sets out to capture Santa Claus in order to prove to his friends, and to the world, that Santa really does exist! Who voiced Santa Claus in this production?
25) In the celebrated, uplifting Twilight Zone Christmas episode “The Night of the Meek” (1960), Art Carney plays an unemployed drunkard who, once a year, works as a department-store Santa. He finds an enchanted bag in a back alley on Christmas Eve, and from this bag is able to magically draw the Christmas gifts wished for by his fellow derelicts, and the poor children of the neighbourhood! His own Christmas wish is granted, too—spoiler!—that of being able to distribute presents in this manner every year. The episode ends as a reindeer-drawn sleigh arrives and whisks him off into the night sky to become the real Santa Claus! What is this character’s name?
Our next post will come up at 2:30PM.