December 2020
HAPPY Holidays

As we enter the Advent Season, the IHMCC Staff wish you a season full of hope, love, and joy. May we all grow closer to our Savior during this time of waiting. Enjoy our featured content for the month of December and have a little fun with our Christmas trivia too :)!

 

Featured Content

Mental Health Minute Video: Managing Mental Health Over the Holidays

Mental Health Minute Video: Holiday Traditions

Southern Nebraska Register: CSS, IHMCC offers tele-counseling during the holidays

Advent Resources

 
 

13 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS…. TRIVIA!

Day 1 - What popular Christmas song was actually written for Thanksgiving?

Answer: Jingle Bells!! The man behind the popular tune was James Lord Pierpont. In the early 1850s, Pierpont was watching the sleigh races in Medford, Massachusetts, and they inspired him to write a “sleighing song.” He wrote the song, which he named “One Horse Open Sleigh,” for his father’s Sunday school class to perform—on Thanksgiving.
So how did the song become a Christmas staple? Well, the Thanksgiving performance of the song was so successful that the Sunday school performed it again at Christmastime. In 1859, it was published a second time, with the much more “Christmas-y” sounding title, “Jingle Bells.”

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Day 2 - The movie Miracle on 34th Street is based on a real-life department store. What is it?

Answer: Macy’s!
In the 1947 original film of Miracle on 34th Street, Natalie Wood portrayed Susan Walker, a precocious little girl whose well-meaning mother (played by Maureen O'Hara) raised her not to believe in Santa Claus. When their lives intersect with that of Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn), an elderly man hired to play Santa at New York City's famous Macy's department store, Susan begins to suspect he may be the real St. Nick!

Day 3 - In which modern-day country was St. Nicholas born?

Answer: If you guessed Turkey, you are correct!
It is believed that St. Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. in Patara, near Myra in modern-day Turkey.

Day 4 - Which country started the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree?

Answer: Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. Some built Christmas pyramids of wood and decorated them with evergreens and candles if wood was scarce. It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree. Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens. To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.

Day 5 - How do you say "Merry Christmas" in Spanish?

Answer: “¡Feliz Navidad!”
Fun fact - A Christmas tradition in Mexico is the tradition of posadas. This translates to mean “inn” in English, and the celebration begins on December 16th. Each night from the 16th until the 24th, children go from door to door singing and asking if there’s an open room at the “inn.” This is meant to represent the story of Mary and Joseph, but modern-day traditions feature a posada party at the end of each night.

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Day 6 - What is the best-selling Christmas song of all time?

Answer: White Christmas by Bing Crosby
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, “White Christmas”, written by Irving Berlin in 1940 is also the best-selling single in general of all time having sold more than 50 million copies. The first public performance of the song was by Bing Crosby, on his NBC radio show The Kraft Music Hall on Christmas Day, 1941. He later recorded the song with the John Scott Trotter Orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers in just 18 minutes on May 29, 1942. The song was released on July 30 as part of an album from the musical film Holiday Inn, starring Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, and Marjorie Reynolds.

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Day 7 - What is the name of George Bailey's guardian angel in "It's a Wonderful Life"?

Answer: Clarence Odbody!

day 8 - Why are candy canes red and white in color?

Answer: White=Jesus' Purity; Red=Blood shed by Jesus. Legend has it that in 1670, the choirmaster at the Cologne Cathedral in Germany handed out sugar sticks among his young singers to keep them quiet during the long Living Creche ceremony. In honor of the occasion, he had the candies bent into shepherds' crooks.

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Day 9 - After leaving Bethlehem, to which country did Joseph, Mary, and Jesus travel?

Answer: Egypt! Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem in 5 B.C. before the birth of Jesus Christ. The family then traveled to Egypt after Joseph was told in a dream to flee to the now North African country to escape the command of Herod the Great to slaughter children in and around Bethlehem. They reached Egypt, where they lived for three years until after the death of Herod in 4 B.C. when Joseph had a dream that it is safe to return to Israel.

Day 10 - What is the name of Ebeneezer Scrooge's partner from the play, "A Christmas Carol"?

Answer: Jacob Marley
In the living world, Ebenezer Scrooge's equally greedy partner. Marley died seven years before the narrative opens. He appears to Scrooge as a ghost condemned to wander the world bound in heavy chains. Marley hopes to save his old partner from suffering a similar fate.

Day 11 - In the carol, "It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas", what is the "prettiest sight to see"?

Answer: "The holly that will be on your own front door!"

A popular belief in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, holds that Willson wrote the song while staying in Yarmouth's Grand Hotel. The song makes reference to a "tree in the Grand Hotel, one in the park as well..."; the park being Frost Park, directly across the road from the Grand Hotel, which still operates in a newer building on the same site as the old hotel. It also makes mention of the five and ten which was a store operating in Yarmouth at the time.
It is also possible that the "Grand Hotel" Willson mentions in the song was inspired by the Historic Park Inn Hotel in his hometown of Mason City, Iowa. The Park Inn Hotel is the last remaining hotel in the world designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and is situated in downtown Mason City overlooking central park.

Day 12 - What was the original title of the popular Christmas song, "Silver Bells", written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans?

Answer: Tinkle Bells
Silver Bells originally appeared in the The Lemon Drop Kid, a 1951 film starring Bob Hope. Needless to say, the combination of Bob Hope and the original song title "Tinkle Bells" would have surely resulted in the song getting a few chuckles had composer Jay Livingston’s wife, Lynne Gordon, not stepped in. Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, composers of Silver Bells, never thought that "tinkle" had a double meaning until Jay went home and his wife said, "Are you out of your mind? Do you know what the work "tinkle" is?" The famed duo of Livingston and Evans originally came up with the idea for the song thanks to a little bell on Livingston’s desk. The two had been trying to come up with a Christmas song for the film, at Paramount Picture’s request.

day 13 - What country is the Poinsettia, with its red and green foliage, native to?

Answer: Mexico

 

Need a playlist while baking, wrapping presents or enjoying some hot chocolate? Try this playlist to get you in the holiday spirit!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”
— Isaiah 9:6