It's Christmas Somewhere Trivia Quiz

Answer: Crabs

Like Easter Island, Dominica, and the Three Kings (on which more later), Christmas Island is named after the day European explorers discovered it. In fact, the Christmas Island crabs would just about outnumber the humans in any city in the world. Scientists estimates there are 30 to 40 million crabs, about the size of a coconut, carpeting the island every migration.

The party can go on for days on Christmas Island. The crabs are land-dwellers and have to return to the sea to release their clutches of some 100,000 eggs. The island shuts down roads just to give the crabs free passage to the sea. The seas teem with their larvae in the ensuing months, attracting whale sharks and manta rays to gobble up some of the multitude.

Answer: A roller coaster themed to Thanksgiving gravy

Holiday World is an entire amusement park themed to holidays. The Good Gravy roller coaster, with gravy boat-shaped trains and a tunnel shaped like a jar, runs in the Thanksgiving section. You'll also find a swinging ship themed to the Mayflower, a red white and blue carousel in the 4th of July section, and a Halloween coaster based on "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

Like several other Christmas-themed places, Santa Claus gets a great deal of children's mail. Volunteers reply to every letter received.

The Chicago River is famously dyed green every St. Patrick's Day. The U.S. generally observes Mardi Gras, not Pancake Day, on the day before Ash Wednesday, but a large Pancake Day race is held every year in Liberal, Kansas. Holiday World has left Groundhog Day festivities to other sites; the main one is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.

Answer: Peeps

Peeps are an Easter staple in the U.S., a preternaturally sticky marshmallow coated with colored sugar and whipped into the shape of a bird... or, what usually happens to one or two in the box, a malformed blob shape with Picasso eyes. If you don't like how well-shaped your Peeps are, you can microwave them. It doesn't make them explode or anything... but being exploded would be a kinder way to go. (Do try this at home.)

Just Born manufacture several well-known American candies, among them Mike and Ike's and Hot Tamales. The company's founder, Sam Born, apparently invented chocolate sprinkles.

Answer: Its founders were Mr. Snow and Mr. Flake.

"Snow for me and Flake for you." So suggested Erastus Snow to William Flake on the occasion of their meeting in the unsettled Arizona desert, at least according to legend. Flake and Snow were both Mormons, following after Brigham Young's call to settle the deserts of the American west. Young ordered Flake to sell his possessions, take his family, and start a new settlement in Arizona; Snow and his family arrived in 1878 and helped grow the settlement.

Brigham Young's goal was a vast Mormon state of Deseret. What he got, more or less, was Utah. His push to expand the Church of Latter Day Saints is still visible, however, in the so-called "Mormon corridor" (or jokingly, the Jell-O Belt - apparently Mormons love the stuff). About a third of LDS temples in the U.S. fall within this region.

Answer: Saskatchewan

Athabasca and Reindeer are Canada's eighth and ninth largest lakes, respectively.
Visible from a satellite is Reindeer Lake's Deep Bay, a nearly circular 13-kilometer oddity to its south. In fact, it's a water-filled crater formed by a meteor impact. Out of the lake flows the Reindeer River, which has no connection to the Donner Und Blitzen River, of which more later.

On the whole, nearly an eighth of Saskatchewan's area is lake. A small portion of Reindeer Lake juts into Manitoba.

Answer: Bob Ross

It's true, Bob Ross used to be an air force drill instructor! Although he attained the rank of master sergeant, Ross disliked the experience so much that he made an effort never to raise his voice afterwards.

Too funny that his TV show, "The Joy of Painting," is as relaxing as any program ever. The setup couldn't be simpler: the camera is positioned before Ross and his canvas, who talks you through exactly how to achieve his effects. What made the show addicting was his attitude and compassion. Ross didn't edit out mistakes; he only believed in "happy little accidents." A man once told Ross that he wished he could paint, but was colorblind; Ross proceeded to record an episode using only gray tones, "just to show you that *anyone* can paint."

Ross tended to paint mountains, lakes, and rivers that looked like Alaskan postcards. He was also an avid caretaker to injured animals, including his pet squirrel Peapod, who got to appear in a few episodes.

Answer: Seminole Wars

Fort Christmas was hastily built during the week of Christmas as part of the Second Seminole Indian War. About 200 such forts were constructed from the native palmettos. The ousting of the Seminoles was part of the broader campaign by Andrew Jackson, then still a General, to force the natives to relocate west, known today as the Trail of Tears.

Fort Christmas no longer exists, but a complete replica exists in its place for visitors to explore. Surrounding it is Fort Christmas Historical Park, a celebration of the kinds of architecture built by pioneers and early settlers. Fort Christmas does lie in the small town of Christmas, and yes, they've used the slogan "It's Christmas Here Every Day."

The Seminoles play for Florida State University.

Answer: Spain

Legend has it that in the days leading up to Saint Nicholas's Day on December 6, Sinterklaas arrives via steamboat from Alicante, Spain, in the Valencia region famed for its oranges. A common tradition is to leave your shoes out with a poem and some horse food for Sinterklaas, which he'll exchange for chocolates, cookies, and fruit.

It's worth observing that before he relocated to the North Pole, all versions of Santa/Sinterklaas/Saint Nicholas come from "elsewhere." The historical Nicholas was actually from Turkey! How exactly this Turkish Sinterklaas came to be Spanish is still debated, but here's one theory. One of Saint Nicholas's acts of charity was to gift three prostitutes sacks of gold that their fathers could use to pay a dowry. Some people think these round sacks of gold eventually became represented as oranges, pomegranates, and other fruits.

Answer: Tree

The Three Kings is a chain of strange, beachless isles that jut high out of the deep ocean. They are located at the far northern extremes of New Zealand's territory, and hold the distinction of being the first part of modern New Zealand chain discovered by Europeans. Today, they are a designated wildlife preserve.

For some reason - possibly due to the lack of Macca's - the Zealanders thought it prudent to release four goats onto the Three Kings as a food source for anyone who might shipwreck there. The road to Hell is paved with goat intentions: the several goats became several hundred goats, decimating the local foliage. In 1945, a botanist discovered the last remaining kaikomako tree on a slope the goats couldn't reach. That single tree has since been made to reproduce through cuttings and some unlikely cross-pollination, saving the species.

Answer: Thunder and lightning

The Donner und Blitzen River runs through Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, which like most of Oregon is a landscape of astonishing geographic diversity and beauty (just look at the picture). The course of the river includes marshes, mountain streams, and wide fishing spots. The name apparently comes from soldiers crossing the river during a thunderstorm, presumably not enjoying the experience.

Back to the reindeer: Donner and Blitzen were originally called "Dunder and Blixem," that is, the Dutch cognates of "Donner" and "Blitzen." Just when you thought we were done with the Dutch! "A Visit from Saint Nicholas," from whence the American version of jolly old Saint Nick was basically codified, was written in an 1820s New York City, back when you were about as likely to hear Dutch spoken as you were English.