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Holiday Puzzlers, Jokes and Games
dot-matrix:
--- Quote from: Dre on December 10, 2006, 05:08:27 pm ---Hey, Holiday Dottie, full of incredible Xmas information!!
In Santa's reindeer trivia You mention two reindeers names were changed Donner and Blitzen. At the end You say Donder (that one I get why) and Vixen. So is it Blitzen or Vixen and what was it changed from??
Dre ;) and thanks for your pmail re ABCz "W".
--- End quote ---
Hi Dre! I love Christmas and I love my neices..so I'm always gathering info to play games with them...hence all this trivia. As for the reindeer: Ooops typo on my part, the problem was with Blitzen, in the first renditions of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Blitzen was sung and published as Blixen (sounds like Vixen) ::) Sorry for the confusion.
dot-matrix:
Play Dress the Snowman
http://www.allthingschristmas.com/northpole/games/snowman/snowman.html
dot-matrix:
Did you know:
The twelve days of Christmas are the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6th), which is when the three wise men supposedly arrived on the scene. It is NOT the twelve days before Christmas as many erroneously believe.
The tradition of giving a gift on each of the twelve days is pretty much gone, at least as practiced in the USA. However, in some families, the tradition of giving Christmas gifts on each of those twelve days persists.
Most people know of The Twelve Days of Christmas from the song of that name.
ORIGIN OF "THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS"
Below is printed a popular urban myth about "The Twelve Days of Christmas" that first hit the net in 1995 via an article from Catholic Information Network (by Fr. Hal Stockert of Fishnetsite) that later withdrew its page. However, the urban myth has spread through the net like DNA, though the original source as long withdrawn its claim to the story. (Don't feel bad. We were taken by that page, too!) However, according to A Celebration and History(ISBN 0-679-74038-4), by Leigh Grant, the written lyrics to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" first appeared in Mirth without Mischief in the early 1780s in England. Grant states that the tune to which these words are sung apparently dates back much further and came from France. Mirth without Mischief describes "The Twelve Days of Christmas" as a type of memory game played by children at that time. A leader recited the first verse, the next child recited the second verse, and so on until someone missed a verse and had to pay some kind of penalty in the game. There was no religious significance. At anyrate the popular urban myth makes a good story... at least as good as the song itself, so here is a slice of urban myth culture for you:
An Underground Catechism (**an urban myth**)
Most folks, I believe, are familiar with the Christmas song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas". If you listen to the words carefully, it seems like nonsence set to rhyme and music. However, it was written with a serious purpose.
It is more than just a list of twelve silly gifts. Catholics in England during the period 1558 to 1829 were prohibited by law to practice their faith either in public or private. It was illegal to be Catholic. [Note: Parliament finally emancipated Catholics in England in 1829.]
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" was written in England as one of the "catechism songs" to help young Catholics learn the basics of their faith. In short, it was a memory aid. Since the song sounded like rhyming nonsense, young catholics could sing the song without fear of imprisonment. The authorities would not know that it was a religious song. Actually, the catecism to which it referred was rather ecumenical so could probably be claimed to be protestant if cornered.
The song's gifts had hidden meanings to the teachings of the Catholic faith. The "true love" mentioned in the song doesn't refer to an earthly suitor, but it refers to God Himself. The "me" who receives the presents refers to every baptized person. i.e. the church. The partridge in a pear tree is Christ Jesus, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother partridge in memory of the expression of Christ's sadness over the fate of Jerusalem: "Jerusalem! Jerusalem! How often would I have sheltered thee under my wings, as a hen does her chicks, but thou wouldst not have it so..."
Here is a complete list of the 12 symbols with their meanings*:
1 Partridge in a pear tree = The One true God revealed in the person of Jesus Christ
2 Turtle Doves = The Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens = Faith, Hope and Charity
4 Calling Birds = the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings = The first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch" which contain the law condemning us of our sins.
6 Geese A-laying = the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming = the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments of the Catholic faith
8 Maids A-milking = the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing = the nine Fruits of the Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping = the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping = the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming = the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
*original source of symbol meaning: an article from Catholic Information Network that we discovered in 1995 by Fr. Hal Stockert of Fishnet. We then discovered some other resources that backed-up this article, but later discovered that these all linked back to Stockert's article. In actuality, it seems that the words originated around 1780 in England and the music much earlier from France. The song was merely a child's game with no religious significance.
David In Indy:
Thanks for posting this Dottie. I have ALWAYS wondered what this song meant. I always thought "somebody is getting an awful lot of presents" and who would want a bunch of swans, geese, turtle doves and partridges?
It's also interesting you mentioned Jesus revealed as a partridge. I have seen him dipicted as a stork too. The Catholic church I went to as a child had a large stork etched into the front of the altar. He had his wings spread out wide, and blood dripping from his breast where his heart had been pierced. Jesus is often depicted as another animal - the lamb, but rarely a stork. I wish I could remember the story behind the stork the nuns told us in Catholic school. It was very beautiful! :D
Thanks for posting this Dottie!
dot-matrix:
7 Sinful Santas
Wrath, sloth, greed, lust... These Kris Kringles have a ho-ho-whole lotta explaining to do ~by Michael Slezak from EW
Sloth
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974)
Dude literally works one day per year, gets a case of the sniffles, and thinks he's gonna call in sick? Hell to the Noel!
Envy
Dr. Seuss' How The Grinch Stole Christmas (1966)
Santa, or rather the Grinch in Santa's clothing, was literally green with envy when he stole the Whos' holiday booty in the beloved animated TV special.
Wrath
Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984)
He knows if you've been bad or good, and in this 1984 horror flick, Santa took an ax to folks who fell into the latter category. Thankfully, blood went well with his classic crimson suit.
Greed
Bad Santa (2003)
Okay, so Billy Bob Thornton's title character could've been the poster child for any number of deadly sins, but using his job as a shopping-mall Santa to case the joint definitely qualifies as greedy.
Lust
The Santa Clause 2 (2002)
We just made ourselves a little queasy associating Tim Allen's Kringle with holiday lovin', but then again, he did attempt to get his sexy on with the local principal (Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell) in the second chapter of Disney's holiday trilogy. Sorry, that was horrible; we'll never say anything like it again.
Hubris
The Spirit of Christmas (1995)
If Merriam-Webster were up-to-speed on profanity-laden animated shorts, it would certainly illustrate the word ''hubris'' with a picture of Santa from this South Park precursor — perhaps one of him tossing Jesus over his head like a rag doll.
Gluttony
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Far be it from us to ridicule anyone for packing on some extra insulation during the chilly holiday season, but the St. Nick of Rankin/Bass' 1964 special was a few pounds away from eligibility on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club. We totally blame that enabler, Mrs. Claus.
http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1568789_1%7C%7C249578%7C0_0_,00.html
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