While waiting for the holiday meal to cook, or maybe the food to settle, or in between football games, take our Cincinnati holiday history quiz and wow all your relatives with your knowledge of local trivia.
Questions
(Scroll after the questions for the answers)
1. The head of what local business family persuaded President Franklin D. Roosevelt to move Thanksgiving from the last Thursday to the fourth Thursday in November to create more shopping days for Christmas?
2. The Duke Energy Holiday Trains celebrate their 75th anniversary this year. The display was originally built as a traveling promotional model for what real railroad?
3. The live nativity scene on the lawn outside the Krohn Conservatory in Eden Park was relocated there in 1967. Sponsors Western Southern first set up the creche in 1939 at what local site?
4. What not-yet-famous actor sang “C-I-N-C-I-N-N-A-T-I” in the 1986 TV movie “Babes in Toyland” along with Drew Barrymore, rhyming Cincinnati with Maserati?
5. The 1892 painting “Fountain Square Pantomime” by Joseph Henry Sharp depicts an audience in front of the Tyler Davidson Fountain watching a Christmas performance at what department store?
6. The Ruth Lyons’ Children’s Fund, founded by the broadcast pioneer in 1939, has raised more than $22 million for gifts for patients at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. What day each year is the campaign launched?
7. Cincinnati doubled as New York at Christmastime in the 1950s for what acclaimed 2015 film?
8. Blues singer and pianist Charles Brown, who sang “Merry Christmas Baby,” was working at a Northern Kentucky nightclub when King Records founder Syd Nathan asked him to write and record a song, which became what holiday standard in 1960?
9. Illustrator Tony Sarg, who is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, incorporated puppets into his children’s illustrations, which helped him to create what famous holiday tradition in 1927?
10. “A Christmas Melody,” a Hallmark Channel movie filmed in Wyoming and Hyde Park in 2015, was the directorial debut of what famed entertainer?
11. Inspired by something his mother said when he was a kid in Covington, songwriter Haven Gillespie wrote the lyrics to what classic Christmas song on the back of an envelope in 15 minutes?
12. Shillito’s department store had the elves. Pogue’s had electronic talking reindeer. What were the reindeer’s names?
13. What local holiday event held the weekend after Christmas in Christ Church Cathedral on Fourth Street since 1939 features period costumes and has its roots as a pageant and procession originating in Oxford, England, in 1340?
14. True or false? Two Cincinnati rabbis popularized Hanukkah in America.
15. In the famous “Turkeys Away” episode of the sitcom “WKRP in Cincinnati,” why did Mr. Carlson authorize the radio station to drop live turkeys from a helicopter as a Thanksgiving promotion?
16. Humorist Jean Shepherd, who wrote and narrated the nostalgic classic “A Christmas Story,” worked in Cincinnati as a DJ from 1947-1954 at what radio station?
17. According to the children’s book, “Santa from Cincinnati” by Judi Barrett, Baby Boy Claus was born on Dec. 25 at what local hospital?
18. Gibson Greeting Cards of Cincinnati was one of the first companies to offer a line of Christmas cards in America. In 1955, the company opened a shop on what world-famous street?
19. Charles Dickens visited Cincinnati in 1842, the year before he published “A Christmas Carol.” During his trip, he stopped at what local landmark but could not get a brandy served to him?
20. “Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas” composer Albert Hague, a graduate of Cincinnati’s College of Music, was known to television audiences for his supporting role in what 1980s series?
21. In the early 2010s, the “Ring” series of CD compilations featured Christmas music by local artists raised funds for what local organization?
22. What future Oscar winner from Norwood performed as a dancer with Rosemary Clooney in the classic holiday film “White Christmas” from 1954?
23. Ruth Lyons released what album of Christmas songs in 1958 that sold 250,000 copies in just a four-city area?
24. What Cincinnati holiday institution had its own Twitter account?
25. The PNC Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden features 30-foot-tall nutcrackers of what animals?
Answers
1. Fred Lazarus Jr. of the Lazarus family, who headed Federated Department Stores.
2. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
3. Lytle Park.
4. Keanu Reeves.
5. Mabley & Carew.
6. October 4, Lyons’ birthday.
7. “Carol.”
8. “Please Come Home for Christmas.”
9. The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons.
10. Mariah Carey.
11. “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” – “You better watch out…”
12. Pogie and Patter.
13. The Boar’s Head and Yule Festival.
14. True. Rabbi Isaac M. Wise of Plum Street Temple and Rabbi Max Lilienthal of Mound Street Temple introduced Hanukkah festivals to their congregations and promoted them in their Jewish publications.
15. As God is his witness, he thought turkeys could fly.
16. Pretty much all of them, so just about any answer will do. Shepherd was a DJ on WCKY-AM, WSAI-AM, WKRC-AM and WLW radio.
17. Cincinnati General Hospital.
18. Disneyland’s Main Street.
19. The Golden Lamb in Lebanon, Ohio.
20. “Fame.” He played the music teacher, Professor Shorofsky, in both the TV series from 1982-87 and the original 1980 film.
21. Cincinnati Public Radio.
22. George Chakiris. Co-star Vera-Ellen was also from Norwood.
23. “Ten Tunes of Christmas.”
24. The Fountain Square tree (@TreeFountain) after its ragged debut in 2020.
25. There have been three over the years: a rhinoceros, a lion and an elephant.
