The Everything Family Christmas Book (45 page)

Based on a true story, this Hallmark movie, set on Christmas Eve in 1944, stars Linda Hamilton as a German mother who convinces six warring American and German soldiers to declare a truce.

The Man Who Saved Christmas

The true story of toy manufacturer A. C. Gilbert, played by Jason Alexander, who convinces the U.S. government to resume toy production for Christmas during World War I.

Christmas Eve, 2003

Jack Frost

Michael Keaton comes back to life as a snowman in this family film from 1998.

Stealing Christmas

Will Tony Danza—as a bank robber—hit the local bank at Christmas, or is love and the holiday spirit enough to turn him away from crime?

Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street

Disney full-length animated movie about what happens when Principal Prickly gets his car stuck in a snowdrift.

Christmas Eve, 2004

Miracle on 34th Street

Released in 1947, there are few more heartwarming stories than this one about believing in Santa and in hope.

How I Met Your Mother

The sitcom gang head out in style (that is, a rented limo) to find the perfect New Year’s Eve party.

Angel in the Family

A Hallmark movie in which a family experiences a holiday miracle when a wife and mother returns to them as an angel.

Christmas Eve, 2005

The White House Christmas 2005

HGTV peeks inside the White House to see how it’s decorated for the holidays.

The Berenstein Bears’ Christmas Tree

The furry family first headed into the woods to find a Christmas tree in 1979, but the TV cartoon is just as cute now as it was then.

ER

Doctors Pratt and Weaver are hoping for a miracle when they operate on a young girl who’s suffering from gunshot wounds on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve, 2006

The Happy Elf

Harry Connick Jr. has his work cut out for him to bring holiday happiness to Bluesville.

The Polar Express

The 2004 movie shines even on the smaller screen, with Tom Hanks as a train conductor en route to Santa and the North Pole.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

Burl Ives is the distinctive voice behind the animated gem from 1964 about a reindeer who saves the day for Santa.

The Everything Silver Screen Christmas Trivia Quiz

How much do you know about holiday-season viewing? Here’s the ultimate trivia quiz about the Christmas songs, films, television programs, and movies you’re likely to come across. Grab a sheet of paper and jot down your answers—or turn it into a Christmas-party trivia game!

1. What role does Cary Grant play in 1947's
   The Bishop’s Wife?
   (a) A hard-boiled newsroom editor
   (b) A befuddled collector of dinosaur bones
   (c) A dashing, sophisticated man about town who is being pursued by a sinister international espionage ring
   (d) A debonair angel
   
2. What is it that the little girl wants for Christmas in the 1991 film
   All I Want for Christmas?
   (a) Her two front teeth
   (b) A life-size poster of Keanu Reeves
   (c) For her divorced parents to get back together
   (d) An end to the blood feud that has set her town against itself for seven years
   
3. In what year was the Gian-Carlo Menotti operetta
   Amahl and the Night Visitors,
   in which a young boy encounters the Three Wise Men on the eve of Christ’s birth, first broadcast on network television?
   (a) 1950
   (b) 1951
   (c) 1955
   (d) 1968
   
4. In the movie
   A Christmas Story,
   why is the boy’s mother afraid to let him have a BB gun?
   (a) She’s afraid he’ll forget all about his other Christmas toys.
   (b) She’s afraid he’ll shoot his eye out.
   (c) She’s afraid he’ll run away from home, secure in his newfound power.
   (d) She’s afraid he’ll have an accident while cleaning the gun.
   
5. How did
   Amahl and the Night Visitors
   come to be written?
   (a) It was composed by a medieval monk who left the score behind a stone wall in a monastery, where it would rest undisturbed for two-and-a-half centuries.
   (b) It was written at the request of His Royal Highness, King Edward II.
   (c) It was commissioned for a special Christmas television broadcast.
   (d) It was composed for the London stage in the early 1930s.
   
6. Who plays Bob Cratchit in 1992's
   The Muppet Christmas Carol?
   (a) Michael Caine
   (b) John Denver
   (c) Bob Denver
   (d) Kermit the Frog
   
7. Charles Dickens himself makes an appearance in
   The Muppet Christmas Carol.
   Who plays him?
   (a) Hunter S. Thompson
   (b) Michael J. Fox
   (c) George C. Scott
   (d) The Great Gonzo
   
8. In the 1949 classic
   Holiday Affair,
   which two actors played suitors to Janet Leigh?
   (a) Robert Mitchum and Wendell Corey
   (b) Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
   (c) Bud Abbott and Lou Costello
   (d) Bob Hope and Bing Crosby
   
9. Why does Ernest want to find a replacement for Santa in 1988's
   Ernest Saves Christmas?
   (a) Ernest has it on good authority that Santa’s best days are behind him, although the old man refuses to face it.
   (b) Santa has decided that it’s time to retire.
   (c) The reindeer won’t work on Christmas Eve anymore because Santa refuses to pay them time and a half.
   (d) Santa is missing.
   
10. Who plays the handyman in 1984's
    Christmas Lilies of the Field?
    (a) Billy Dee Williams
    (b) Sidney Poitier
    (c) Clarence Williams III
    (d) Carroll O’Connor
    
11. For which of the following films did Irving Berlin compose the song “White Christmas"?
    (a)
    White Christmas
    (b)
    Holiday Inn
    (c)
    It’s a Wonderful Life
    (d)
    Last Tango in Paris
    
12. What is the request made to heaven by a recently dead police officer (played by Mickey Rooney) in 1984's
    It Came Upon a Midnight Clear?
    (a) That he be allowed to put on one last show in the barn
    (b) That peace on earth and goodwill among men by made manifest
    (c) That Santa be allowed to make his annual trip despite the evil designs of the Anti-Christmas League
    (d) That he be allowed to spend one final Christmas with his grandson
    
13. Who played the hapless slogan composer in 1940's
    Christmas in July?
    (a) Ronald Reagan
    (b) Jimmy Stewart
    (c) Preston Sturges
    (d) Dick Powell
    
14. Of the following, which was a slogan that was actually used in
    Christmas in July?
    (a) "If you can’t sleep, it’s not the coffee, it must be the bunk.”
    (b) "Make it a special Christmas. Make it a regular Christmas. Chew Simulax tablets.”
    (c) "Coffee the way it was meant to be.”
    (d) "Good to the last drop.”
    
15. In what year was
    A Charlie Brown Christmas
    first broadcast?
    (a) 1963
    (b) 1964
    (c) 1965
    (d) 1966
    
16. In the 1954 movie
    White Christmas,
    why was the old New England inn in such desperate financial straits?
    (a) The previous owner had been subject to a lawsuit, but had concealed this fact from prospective buyers.
    (b) The town suffered a major blow when a local shoe factory closed.
    (c) The inn was a ski resort, and there hadn’t been any snow for a year.
    (d) The tourist guides had their doubts about the kitchen help.
    
17. Which of the following Christmas personages did not appear in an eponymous animated Christmas special?
    (a) Linus van Pelt
    (b) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
    (c) Frosty the Snowman
    (d) The Little Match Girl
    
18. What’s the name of the character Bing Crosby plays in
    Holiday Inn?
    (a) Winston Smith
    (b) Jim Hardy
    (c) Charles Foster Kane
    (d) Mike Cleary
    
19. Why was Macaulay Culkin exiled to his room in 1990's
    Home Alone?
    (a) He set an elaborate trap in his smug older-brother’s room.
    (b) He was discovered attempting to tape his weird uncle while the uncle was taking a shower.
    (c) He had been watching too many old movies on video.
    (d) He was being punished for a disastrous kitchen spill.
    
20. Name the two bad guys in the
    Home Alone
    movies who eventually became famous as the “Wet Bandits.”
    (a) Joe and Ratso
    (b) Harry and Marv
    (c) Harry and Tonto
    (d) Melvin and Howard
    
21. In the first
    Home Alone
    movie, where was the family headed for Christmas?
    (a) Paris
    (b) Barcelona
    (c) Florida
    (d) San Juan
    
22. How is Joe Pesci disguised as he scopes out the neighborhood in the early scenes of the first
    Home Alone
    movie?
    (a) As a mobster
    (b) As a policeman
    (c) As a mailman
    (d) As an exterminator
    
23. In the first
    Home Alone
    movie, why did Macaulay Culkin butt his head into his older brother’s stomach?
    (a) The brother wouldn’t let him have a turn with the Nintendo game.
    (b) The brother took the last of the cheese pizza.
    (c) The brother was threatening to squeal about a lousy grade on a spelling test.
    (d) The brother was choking on something.
    
24. What is the name of Macaulay Culkin’s character in the
    Home Alone
    movies?
    (a) Kevin McAllister
    (b) Kevin McReynolds
    (c) Kevin MacArthur
    (d) Kevin McCall
    
25. What is the name of the scary old guy in the first
    Home Alone
    movie?
    (a) Cratchit
    (b) Bob
    (c) Marley
    (d) Marlon
    
26. Who does Macaulay Culkin go to in order to plead for the return of his family in the first
    Home Alone
    movie?
    (a) The pigeon lady
    (b) Santa Claus
    (c) A hotel employee
    (d) A policeman
    
27. In
    Home Alone II,
    where was the family headed for Christmas?
    (a) Paris
    (b) Barcelona
    (c) Florida
    (d) San Juan
    
28. Which of the following occurs in
    Home Alone II?
    (a) Joe Pesci’s hair is set on fire.
    (b) A rope Joe Pesci is climbing is doused with kerosene and set on fire.
    (c) Joe Pesci is struck in the head by a huge lead pipe.
    (d) All of the above.
    
29. What is the first image, after the opening credits, in Frank Capra’s 1946 classic
    It’s a Wonderful Life?
    (a) A sky full of stars, three of which blink as a number of angels speak
    (b) George Bailey sledding down a hill on a snow shovel
    (c) George’s younger brother, Harry Bailey, sledding down a hill on a snow shovel
    (d) A sign reading “You Are Now in Bedford Falls”
    
30. What is the name of the angel who is assigned the task of saving George Bailey’s life in
    It’s a Wonderful Life?
    (a) Lumen Phosphor
    (b) Fluor Candle
    (c) Clarence Oddbody
    (d) Tom Sawyer
    
31. Which two characters have this exchange in
    It’s a Wonderful Life
    ? “A lot of these people are out of work!”
    “Well, then, foreclose.”
    “I can’t do that. These families have children.”
    “They’re not my children.”
    “They’re somebody’s children …”
    “Are you running a business or a charity ward?”
    (a) George Bailey and Henry Potter
    (b) George Bailey and Uncle Billy
    (c) Peter Bailey and Henry Potter
    (d) George Bailey and Mr. Gower
    
32. Had George Bailey, the main character in
    It’s a Wonderful Life,
    never been born, what would Bedford Falls have been called?
    (a) Morgantown
    (b) Pottersville
    (c) Gowerville
    (d) Robinwood
    
33. In
    It’s a Wonderful Life,
    why was young George Bailey hit by his boss?
    (a) He was late for work.
    (b) He’d been neglecting his duties, paying too much attention to the girls at the soda counter.
    (c) He hadn’t delivered a prescription as he’d been specifically ordered to do.
    (d) He kept daydreaming about traveling to foreign lands.
    
34. What are the names of the policeman and the taxi driver in
    It’s a Wonderful Life?
    (a) Bert and Ernie
    (b) Tom and Jerry
    (c) Mike and Terry
    (d) Billy and Rick
    
35. Which of the following A-level Hollywood scriptwriters toiled on early drafts of
    It’s a Wonderful Life,
    only to have his work rejected?
    (a) Dalton Trumbo
    (b) Marc Connelley
    (c) Clifford Odets
    (d) All of the above
    
36. In
    It’s a Wonderful Life,
    what is the nickname of the little girl whose flower-petals wind up in George Bailey’s pocket on the night he considers killing himself?
    (a) Daisy
    (b) Zuzu
    (c) Pitter-Pat
    (d) Bunkadoodle
    
37. What, according to a child in the Bailey family, does it mean when you hear bells ringing?
    (a) You’ve been knocked out.
    (b) You’ve just won the final round of
    Jeopardy.
    (c) You have tinnitus.
    (d) An angel has just gotten his wings.
    
38. Who played the lead role in
    It Happened One Christmas,
    the 1977 television remake of
    It’s a Wonderful Life?
    (a) Henry Winkler
    (b) Marlo Thomas
    (c) Jimmy Stewart
    (d) John Denver
    
39. What actor who would later portray the captain on the pilot episode of
    Star Trek,
    also played Jesus in the controversial 1961 film
    King of Kings,
    now often aired during the holiday season?
    (a) Jeffrey Hunter
    (b) William Shatner
    (c) Patrick Stewart
    (d) DeForest Kelley
    
40. In December 1968, James Mason portrayed Franz Gruber in a network television special. Who was Franz Gruber?
    (a) He was a poor German immigrant who brought the tradition of the decorated Christmas tree to the United States.
    (b) He was an Austrian immigrant to the United States who wrote dozens of classic Christmas carols.
    (c) He was a Swiss war hero who spirited hundreds of Jewish children to safety on Christmas Eve, 1943.
    (d) He was an Austrian organist.
    
41. How did Edmund Gwenn (in the role of Kris Kringle in
    Miracle on 34th Street)
    come to the notice of the management at Macy’s?
    (a) He answered an advertisement for a department-store Santa.
    (b) He saw that the Santa in the store’s holiday float was so drunk that he couldn’t stand up, and volunteered to replace him.
    (c) He started handing out presents to children in the store.
    (d) He showed up at the personnel office dressed in a Santa Claus costume.
    
42. Name the child star whose career was launched by her appearance in
    Miracle on 34th Street.
    (a) Shirley Temple
    (b) Elizabeth Taylor
    (c) Judy Garland
    (d) Natalie Wood
    
43. When was
    Miracle on 34th Street
    first released in movie theaters?
    (a) The late autumn of 1947
    (b) The winter of 1948
    (c) The late autumn of 1948
    (d) The summer of 1947
    
44. In
    Miracle on 34th Street,
    whom did Edmund Gwenn list as next of kin on his Macy’s employment application form?
    (a) His invaluable colleague, Anna Botelho
    (b) Clarence Oddbody
    (c) The children of the world
    (d) Reindeer
    
45. In
    Miracle on 34th Street,
    what precipitated Edmund Gwenn’s being committed to Bellevue?
    (a) He declared that he was not Santa after all, but rather the Tooth Fairy.
    (b) He struck a psychiatrist on the head with a cane.
    (c) He wandered the streets of New York without apparent purpose.
    (d) He failed a polygraph test administered by the New York City Police Department.
    
46. Name four actors who have portrayed Ebenezer Scrooge in the movies or on television.
    
47. Who plays Marley’s ghost in
    Scrooge,
    the 1970 adaptation of
    A Christmas Carol?
    (a) John Gielgud
    (b) Alec Guinness
    (c) Jason Robards
    (d) Martin Sheen
    
48. When does the opening sequence of the 1959 classic
    Ben-Hur
    take place?
    (a)
    A.D.
    33
    (b)
    A.D.
    30
    (c)
    A.D.
    112
    (d)
    A.D.
    1
    
49. Red Skelton and Vincent Price teamed up in a classic restaurant sketch in the hour-long Christmas special
    Red Skelton’s Christmas Diner.
    What were the names of the characters they played?
    (a) Max and Dan
    (b) Freddy the Freeloader and Professor Humperdue
    (c) Dracula and Dr. Frankenstein
    (d) Bud and Lou
    
50. Who are Santa’s incompetent assistants in the 1934 film
    Babes in Toyland?
    (a) Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton
    (b) W. C. Fields and Mae West
    (c) Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx
    (d) Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy
    
51. In the 1945 film
    Christmas in Connecticut,
    how does Barbara Stanwyck, as part of a promotional gimmick, convince the world that she’s an ideal housewife?
    (a) She rents a house, hires a secret chef, and talks Reginald Gardiner into pretending to be her husband.
    (b) She takes out an ad in the
    New York Times
    that is supposed to have been written by her husband.
    (c) She hires her sister-in-law to impersonate her.
    (d) She has her picture taken with the children of her neighbor, Shirley Booth.