Amy Shields - Christmas Unwrapped: A Kids Winter Wonderland of Holiday Trivia

CHRISTMAS

UNWRAPPED

CHRISTMAS

UNWRAPPED

A KID'S WINTER WONDERLAND OF HOLIDAY TRIVIA

Amy Shields

WITH CRAFTS BY

Kathy Ross

Sky Pony Press
NEW YORK

Copyright 2011 by Amy Shields
Crafts 2011 by Kathy Ross
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Sky Pony Press, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

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Manufactured in China, June 2011
This product conforms to CPSIA 2008

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.
ISBN: 978-1-61608-469-1

Here Comes
Santa!

All the
Trimmings

Christmas
Around the
World

Dark
Beginnings

Christmas Traditions,
Superstitions, and Classics

W ho is the big guy in the red suit? Of course you know! Over the years his name has changed, and so has the way he looks. He was a real person named Nicholas who was born in Turkey and became a bishop, and then a saint. He is the patron saint of children. He must have been a very special person to be remembered through history for 1,700 years. His birthday is celebrated each year on December 6.

On St. Nicholas Day, in many countries around the world, someone dressed as St. Nicholas visits children, bringing them small gifts. In Spain and the Netherlands, St. Nicholas checks in with boys and girls to see who's been naughty or nice. Their name for him is Sinterklass. When the Dutch came to settle in New York, Sinterklass became Santa Claus.

The legend of St. Nicholas has traveled a long way around the world and down through time to become our Santa Claus. Here's what St. Nicholas looked like back then (see left) and here is Santa Claus now!

I t's because of a poem and a picture. We didn't used to have an American version of Santa. A Visit from St. Nicholas, written in 1823, changed all that. The poem captured people's imaginations. The poet Clement Clarke Moore names St. Nicholas in the poem, but his description is of a jolly old man that we all now think of as Santa:

His eyeshow they twinkled! his dimples how merry!

His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow

And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

And the things this bearded old man in red did! Jumping down chimneys! Riding a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer! Bringing us presents! This was a Santa we could all love. Luckily, the poem inspired Thomas Nast. Mr. Nast was a cartoonist. In 1881, he drew a picture of Santa Claus (see right) that looks old-fashioned to us now, but is the great-great-grandpa of our Santa today.

D uring the holiday season, you probably see different Santas around your town or city. They might not look exactly like Santa or like each other. Some are fat and some are thin; some are tall and some are shortbut they are always dressed in a red suit and white-trimmed hat, and they usually have a nice white beard. Santa can't be everywhere at once, so he has lots of look-alikes at Christmastime to remind us that he is watching to see who is naughty and who is nice.

If Santa's sleigh carried one toy for each boy and girl on the planet, it would weigh 400,000 tons and need almost 1 billion reindeer to pull it. To deliver all the presents in one night, Santa would have to visit 1,500 homes a second. Maybe some of those extra Santas you see around are the real deal?

Look closely at these Santas. Two of them are missing something the rest have. Can you find them? One Santa is pretending to be a pirate.

Christmas Jokes

1. What is Tarzan's favorite Christmas carol?

2. What does Santa do in the summer?

3. What do snowmen eat for breakfast?

4. Why did the Christmas cookie go to the doctor?

5. Why do reindeer have fur coats?

6. How did the chickens dance at the Christmas party?

7. What do you give a reindeer with an upset tummy?

Answers: 1. Jungle Bells. 2. Ho-ho-hoes the garden. 3. Snowflakes. 4. Because it was feeling crumbly. 5. Because they'd look silly in raincoats. 6. Chick to chick. 7. Elk-a-seltzer.

Here is what you need:

Square-shaped tissue box with tissue still in it Cotton balls

Red, white, black, and pink craft foam or construction paper

Scissors White tacky glue

Here is what you do:

1. Turn the tissue box on its side and pull the first tissue partway out to create the beard for the Santa.

2. Cut a triangle-shaped hat from the red craft foam. Glue the hat to the edge of the box above the beard.

3. Cut two cheeks from the pink craft foam, eyes from the white and black craft foam, and a nose from the red craft foam. Glue the facial features on the space between the hat and the beard.