Comments on: Neatorama and mental_floss: Show off your smarts!

By: Elizabeth H

Elizabeth H — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:00:44 +0000

When Frank Capra wrote the screenplay for "It's a Wonderful Life", his office faced Gower Street, which inspired the name of the pharmacist, Mr. Gower.

By: majiclyDlishus

majiclyDlishus — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:32:23 +0000

Santa Claus's origins are from neolithic hunter-gatherer societies in Scandinavia. His red and white outfit is actually what was worn by shaman from this part of the world for thousands of years- but that's not all. Ever wonder what those flying reindeer are about? Well, reindeer actually eat a form of lichen, which after passing through their systems turns their urine into a psychedelic liquid that, when imbibed, gives the partaker a weightless sensation- like flying. This liquid was used by the shaman for divination, and throughout the history of Scandinavian artifacts, we find a Santa look-alike with flying reindeer! Merry Christmas!

By: tomtheman5

tomtheman5 — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 15:09:23 +0000

If Santa's toy factory was located at the North Magnetic Pole, he'd probably spend more time packing up and moving than making toys. The North Pole is currently moving 41 kilometers a year - over a football field a day!

By: Megan

Megan — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 07:33:34 +0000

The reason that Santa Claus comes down a chimney is because of a story wherein a destitute and desparate father somewhere in Greek-speaking Turkey (circa 300 CE) was going to sell his three young daughters into prostitution. A local priest named Nicholas found out about this, and for three nights in a row, secretly tossed bags of gold into the man's chimney (chimneys weren't so high up in those days; they opened directly above the woodstove). Thus, Saint Nicholas has not only evolved into our gift-giving Santa Claus, but is additionally the patron saint of prostitutes. Or so goes the story.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:37:25 +0000

In 1966, decades after his career-defining role as Frankenstein, Boris Karloff voiced the Grinch in the animated version of "How the Grinch stole Christmas".

By: Leslie

Leslie — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 06:28:39 +0000

There's actually a lovely holliday film I'm sure many are unaware of called "War Monkeys" it's about millitary-trained Rhesus monkeys who start attacking and killing people durring Christmas.

By: Vako

Vako — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 05:54:14 +0000

The famous "Sea Monkeys" toy was invented by Harold von Braunhut, a fervent Neo-Nazi.

By: Cass

Cass — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:39:02 +0000

"O Christmas Tree (O tannenbaum)" shares the same melody as the state Song for Maryland ("Maryland, my Maryland"). The State song was written in 1861 during the Civil war as a poem. "Florida, my Florida" and "Michigan, my Michigan" soon followed.

By: Cass

Cass — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:30:15 +0000

The great Christmas song "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" was recorded in 1953. It was recorded as a fund-raiser to bring the Oklahoma City zoo a hippo. Once the song was released nationally, it shot to the top of the charts, and the zoo got a baby hippo named Matilda.

By: Cass

Cass — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:22:51 +0000

The song "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron" is a fictional story with a very factual background. In 1914, "The Christmas Truce" did infact take place between the Germans and the British, initiated by the soldiers themselves. In the song, Snoopy has to go fight the Red Baron on Christmas eve. However, the Red Baron initiated a truce and shared a holiday toast. The song even has the initiator correct as it was generally the German soldiers who called over to the British and initiated the truce. In the song, it is the Red Baron (a German WWI hero) who extends the hand of Christmas friendship to Snoopy.

By: Orion

Orion — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 04:21:09 +0000

In the satirical comedy Hebrew Hammer, most scenes depicting reindeer were animatronic, however, in a few cases, live animals were used. As in most films that depict animals, the producers attempted to follow the film with an assurance that "No animals were harmed in the making of this film." The film was sued, however, during post-production to have the disclaimer removed, because one reindeer was injured in between shots, when it wandered into a ladder holding a cameraman, who fell and dropped the camera on the reindeer, breaking its clavicle, and destroying the 5,600 dollar camera. The cameraman was not injured.

By: Erica

Erica — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 02:21:11 +0000

Everyone knows that the best-known Christmas carol is "Jingle Bells." But, did you know that the author, James Lord Pierpont, originally wrote it for a Thanksgiving play? People liked it so much, he put it in a Christmas play, too, and it's since been a Christmas carol.

By: nick

nick — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 23:23:27 +0000

i think either #42 0r #58 should win. just my vote.

By: Terry T.

Terry T. — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:58:32 +0000

"National Lampoon's Christmas Vacaction" was the final screen appearance of Mae Questel (Aunt Bethany), who's film career began in 1930 as the voice of Betty Boop.

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:48:09 +0000

In National Lampoons Christmas Vacation
The Griswold's neighbor's house is the same house Murtaugh and his family lived in all the Lethal Weapon movies. The houses on this street are on the Warner Brothers Studios back lot

By: PancakeMan

PancakeMan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:46:17 +0000

The screenplay for the 2003 movie Elf, with Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf, was originally written in the early 90s, and the role of Buddy was intended for Jim Carrey.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:32:35 +0000

Matt Dillon cites playing a police officer in the music video for the Pogues "fairy tale of New York" as his favorite moment in his long career. Link provided, last paragraph.

http://living.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=2228162005

thanks wiki, Fairy Tale of New York is my favorite christmas song and i knew there had to be some interesting facts surrounding it!

By: Carla

Carla — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:31:45 +0000

In the original broadcast of 'Rudolph', Santa didn't return to the Island of Misfit Toys, to fulfil his promise to King Moonracer. Viewers complained so vehemently, that a new scene was produced with Santa and Rudolph returning to the Island for future broadcasts.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:26:28 +0000

If you lived in banpo 1-dong, Seocho-ku, Seoul, South Korean in 2000, you could have found a copy of Bing Crosby's White Christmas within 4 hrs by taking 3 taxis and 2 separate trips on the subway (not including return trips). You would also have been able to take a slight detour to the black market in I'taewon (marked by a red door, I swear) and found boxed mashed potatoes and stuffing to fully complete your holiday festivities.

By: JaneM

JaneM — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:17:01 +0000

Alastair Sim was 1 of only 2 people (Sir Seymour Hicks) who played Ebenezer Scrooge in more than one separate production of Scrooge/A Christmas Carol

By: Carla

Carla — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:10:10 +0000

Paul Soles, who provided the voice of Hermie the Elf in the 1964 'Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer' Christmas special, also provided the voice for Spider-man in the 60s animated series.

By: Tanya

Tanya — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:01:08 +0000

Another interesting fact linked to "It's a Wonderful Life": It was such a failure at the box office that the producers of "Miracle on 34th Street" pushed the release date of the movie, which was originally slated for the 1947 holiday season back to May of 1948...so there was a Christmas movie in the middle of the year in 1948.

By: Tanya

Tanya — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:57:33 +0000

The snowflakes in "It's a Wonderful Life" were really corn flakes that had been painted white.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:38:27 +0000

When "It's a Wonderful Life" debuted in 1946, it was a box office flop. The entire midwest of the United States was slammed with a snowstorm the weekend it opened. This caused the studio, Liberty Films to go bankrupt.

Now it is the most aired Christmas show ever.

By: KickItKitsune

KickItKitsune — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:36:19 +0000

Just in case you hadn't heard it...

Regis Philbin and Donald Trump made a recording of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

Oh yes. The Donald. The Philbin.

And here it is.

http://www.hostropolis.com/april/mp3/xmas/Rudolph_Trump.mp3

By: KickItKitsune

KickItKitsune — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 20:29:27 +0000

http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/11/let_it_snow_ind.html

Just in case you didn't get enough Billy Idol the other 364 days of the year.

Billy Idol, the Christmas album: Happy Holidays.

By: Mano3

Mano3 — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:27:30 +0000

In "It's A Wonderful Life", Jimmy Stewart is really crying when he's at Martini's Bar. Frank Capra did not really like the actual pan of the shot, but he knew he couldn't get Stewart to recapture the moment, so the shot stayed in the film. You'll notice that the scene is a bit grainy when compared to the rest of the movie.

By: Sass

Sass — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:46:43 +0000

"Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" is a holiday standard, which graces practically every Christmas concert or album. I hear it in the grocery store or the mall at least a dozen times leading up to the big day.

A very interesting fact about this song - the original lyrics are incredibly depressing. It's from the musical film classic Meet Me in St. Louis, and the song comes at a point when Judy Garland's character is sad that her family is moving, leaving everything she knows and loves behind. The song originally reflected this fact, and was not a happy, nostalgic song, but more a lament. Her life is changing and she's incredibly depressed about it. The classic lyrics ORIGINALLY went, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas/It may be your last...Faithful friends who were dear to us/Will be near to us no more."

They changed this line, and a few others, at the request of Judy Garland herself, who felt it was too dark for a holiday song (which the character is singing to her very small younger sister, played by Margaret O'Brian).

(Wiki article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Yourself_a_Merry_Little_Christmas)

By: Evan

Evan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:38:46 +0000

Though it's commonly believed that Thomas Edison's "A Christmas Carol" was the first adaptation of Dickens classic in 1908, the British Film institute had produced their version seven years earlier in 1901 entitled "Scrooge; or Marley's Ghost".

By: KickItKitsune

KickItKitsune — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 17:38:23 +0000

Here's a double whammy-- movies and music: At midnight on Christmas Eve 1914 (in the middle of WWI,) firing from the German trenches suddenly stopped. A German brass band began playing Christmas carols, most notably, "Stille Nacht" (Silent Night). They then began to sing English carols, in an attempt to create a truce with the allies. Early, Christmas morning, the German soldiers came out of their trenches, approaching the allied lines, calling "Merry Christmas". At first the allied soldiers thought it was a trick, but they soon climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the German soldiers. The truce lasted a few days, and the men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings, sang carols and songs. They even played a game of Soccer. (Apparently, the Germans won, 3-2.) This has been turned into a movie recently, "Joyeux Noël"-- which was nominated for Best Foreign Language film-- and it's beautiful. A lovely testement to the power of love and humanity over war. Especially at Christmas!