Christmas -- Quizzes for Aficionados

By Anura Guruge

These quizzes, quite a few notches above the banal ones found online, will scintillate your Christmastide (and if you so wish, your Advent as well) with sizzle and spice. You will have fun. Your Christmas will graduate from just 'Merry' to definitely 'Rollicking'. You will also be intrigued and come away better informed. As it states in the Preface, this book will entertain and educate.

This book is for those that appreciate, at their core, that Christmas is way more than just a day, or even a frame of mind. It is for those that cherish, savor, and embrace it as a way of life. [SMILE]

Not much more that needs to be said, other than 'go for it'. Have fun. Enjoy. Rollick. Spread cheer. Peace and Goodwill to All.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anura Guruge
• Release date: Nov 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223648024

Anura Guruge

Anura Gurugé is an independent technical consultant who specializes in all aspects of contemporary networking, corporate portals and Web services – particularly if they involve IBM host systems. He has first hand, in-depth experience in Web-to-host, SNA, Frame Relay, Token-Ring switching and ATM. He was the founder and Chairman of the SNA-Capable i·net Forum in 1997. He also teaches graduate and post-graduate computer technology and marketing at Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU) – Laconia/Gilford and Portsmouth campuses. He is the author of Corporate Portals Empowered with XML and Web Services (Digital Press, 2002). In addition, he has published over 320 articles. In a career spanning 29 years, he has held senior technical and marketing roles in IBM, ITT, Northern Telecom, Wang and BBN. His Web sites are: www.inet-guru.com and www.wownh.com.

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A blue christmas tree with stars and text Description automatically generated

Copyright

Copyright © 2023, Anura Gurugé.

All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published in December 2023.

WOWNH LLC

New Hampshire

USA

www.wownh.com

A black and white sign with white text Description automatically generated

Photographic credits: All the photographs and images in this book are either from the public domain (e.g., Wikipedia and pixabay.com) or taken by the author (an avid, daily photographer). The Wikipedia & Pixabay images are used (with sincere thanks) subject to all of their licensing and attribution requirement rights, with nothing added, modified, or excluded. Cover images are from Pixabay.

‘Lion in shades’ icon – licensed from ‘Julia’ (‘BogeliaVector’), on Etsy.

Dedication

In remembrance of

‘Massy Mamma’,

(G.J.M. Wijesinghe),

another of my uncles,

my year-round

stealth Santa,

with a penchant for

wristwatches,

thus getting me hooked,

very young, on fancy watches

(and now smartwatches)..

Table of Contents

Preface...............................................................5

I. Some (Hopefully) Easy Ones To Get Started............................7

II. A Few Challenging Ones to Level the Playing Field.....................8

III. Hazard a Guess....................................................9

IV. Santa Claus.......................................................10

V. Christmas Trees...................................................11

VI. Christmas Traditions...............................................12

VII. Around the World.................................................13

VIII. Food and Drink...................................................14

IX. Cards, Stamps and Greetings.......................................16

.X. Books and Movies.................................................18

.XI. Carols and Songs.................................................20

.XII. Lights and Ornaments............................................22

.XIII. Advent and the Twelve Days......................................24

.XIV. A Few Final Ponderables.........................................26

.The Answers........................................................27

Preface

‘Oh, Christmas isn't just a day, it's a frame of mind....’

—Kris Kringle

‘At Christmas play and make good cheer,

for Christmas comes but once a year.’

—Thomas Tusser

‘Merry Christmas’, or more to my preference, ‘Have a very rollicking Christmas, a boisterous Boxing Day, a rousing Hogmanany, a bountiful New Year, and a buoyant Epiphany’. If you are into celebrating some of the others, such as St. Nicolas Day or St. Lucia Day, I extend my greetings to cover those, and basically the entire 36 days of cheer. But, I don’t want to detain you in this section. I want you to start having fun with this book. That is the express purpose of this book. To add sizzle and spice to Christmastide.

This book is meant to entertain and enlighten. The ‘quizzes’ at the front of the book will provide the entertainment, while the ‘answers’ that follow should enlighten. While there will always be exceptions, the chances are that most of you will be stumped by a few (or maybe a bit more than a few). But, you will not be kept in suspenders. Gratification is guaranteed.

This book is very straightforward. 14 separate quizzes, each per the theme specified in the title. You can tackle them in whatever order you wish. Each question, in each quiz, is stand-alone. So, feel free to pick and choose, at will.

The quizzes in this book are ideal for Christmas group settings – even Christmas dinner. With this book YOU can scintillate. Be a star. Bone up on a few choice questions and make out that you just happen to know about this stuff – given that you are an aficionado