Christmas Quiz Answers

Happy Christmas everyone.  See you next year.





Answers:

  1.  Haddon Sundblom:  Sundblom is best remembered for his advertising work, specifically the Santa Claus advertisement.It was he who drew Santa Claus in a red suit during the twenties and he painted for The Coca-Cola Company starting in 1931.[1][2] Sundblom's Claus firmly established the larger-than-life, grandfatherly Claus as a key figure in American Christmas imagery. So popular were Sundblom's images of Claus (Sundblom's images are used by Coca-Cola to this day) that Sundblom is often credited as having created the modern image of Santa Claus.[
  2. The Greedies, originally The Greedy Bastards, formed as a part time band with members of Thin Lizzy and Sex Pistols combining with sometime members from Dublin act The Boomtown Rats and even one time Nucleus guitarist Chris Spedding dropping by for the odd gig. The idea was to play small gigs and get paid cash in hand so as to avoid paying tax, which possibly led to the name. They played sporadically around the UK and Ireland during 1978 and 1979 releasing one single, "A Merry Jingle / A Merry Jangle", a Punk Rock hybrid of two Christmas favorites "We Wish You a Merry Christmas and "Jingle Bells".
  3. Paul McCartney has been top eight times with various acts. Cliff Richard has spent four Christmasses at number one; two as a solo act, one with The Shadows and one as part of Band Aid II. The Spice Girls later equalled the record of having three consecutive Christmas number ones, from 1996 to 1998.
  4. The chances of a White Christmas are just 1 in 10 for England and Wales, and 1 in 6 for Scotland and Northern Ireland. For a Christmas to be officially classified as “white” a single snow flake needs to be observed falling in the 24 hours of 25th December on the rooftop of the Met Office HQ in London (Belfast International Airport is the NI equivalent).
  5. The first song ever broadcast was a Christmas Carol. On Christmas Eve, 1906, the Canadian inventor Reginald Fessenden (1866-1932) played “O Holy Night” on the violin and sang the final verse while broadcasting from his Brant Rock radio tower in Massachusetts.
  6. In Home Alone 2 - Lost in New York, future president Donald Trump makes a (thankfully brief) appearance when Kevin first arrives at the Plaza Hotel.
  7. The most expensively dressed Christmas tree was valued at just under £7,000,000 and was erected and displayed by the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 16 to 29 December 2010.
  8. It’s A Wonderful Life:   This Christmas movie favourite had an FBI file. In 1947 some thought the movie was a communist ploy and that its purpose was to undermine bankers.

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