Santa Claus

Choose an answer from the three choices offered after each question and then "Check Your Answers" at the end of the quiz.

1. Who is the primary inspiration for the Christian figure of Santa Claus?

• Saint Nicholas of Myra
• Saint Martin of Tours
• Saint Basil of Caesarea

2. What was the winter festival celebrated in Northern Europe since ancient times.

• Yule
• Mandrel
• Tilden

3. Modern Santa Claus comes from what British tradition?

• Saint Peter
• Saint Marcus
• Father Christmas

4. What American author in 1809, Americanized Sinterklaas into “Santa Claus” and pictured him as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe in a green winter coat.

• Washington Irving
• Ira Hirsch
• Peter Boyle

5. In this December 23, 1823 poem Santa is established as a heavyset individual with eight reindeer (who are named for the first time). What is the poem?

• A Visit From St. Nicholas
• A Man Called Santa
• Heaven Waits

6. In 1863, a picture of Santa (most familiar with modern America) illustrated appeared in Harper's Weekly. Who was the artist?

• Moses Mondell
• Thomas Nast
• Maynard G. Creebs

7. Another popularization was L. Frank Baum's The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a 1902 children's book. What was Baum’s most famous children’s book?

8. What soft drink drink company was the first to use Santa in advertising in 1915?

• Coca Cola
• White Rock Beverages
• Rite Cola

9. Other modern additions to the “mythology” of Santa include Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the ninth and lead reindeer immortalized in a Gene Autry song. The songwriter worked as a copywriter for what retail firm?

• J.C. Penney
• Sears, Roebuck
• Montgomery Ward

10. “Is There a Santa Claus?” was the headline that appeared over an editorial in the September 21, 1897 edition of the New York Sun. The editorial, which included the response of “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus,” has become an indelible part of popular Christmas lore in the United States. Who wrote the editorial?

• Francis P. Church
• Philip O’Hanlon
• Laura Virginia O'Hanlon Douglas

Check Your Answers

• 1. Saint Nicholas of Myra
• 2. Yule
• 3. Father Christmas
• 4. Washington Irving
• 5. A Visit From St. Nicholas (known today as The Night Before Christmas)
• 6. Thomas Nast
• 7. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
• 8. White Rock Beverages
• 9. Montgomery Ward
• 10. Francis P. Church

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