The Merry, Morbid, and Macabre
Mistletoe
In The Night Before Christmas by Nikolai Gogol, "not a creature was stirring, not even" this tiny animal.
a mouse
Jesus was born in this tiny town, 6 miles away from Jerusalem.
Bethlemhem
Traditional fruitcake includes the Medjool type of this dried fruit.
This celebrity singer spent most of his birthdays "wasting the day away" at his tropical residencies, including Palm Beach, Key West, and St. Barthelemy.
Jimmy Buffett
If you were a royal guest at a medieval English Christmas feast, you were invited to enjoy this roasted bird, whose skin and feathers were reattached for a colorful and decorative presentation.
Peacock
How the Grinch Stole Christmas is an iconic tale written by this author in 1957.
Dr. Seuss
Carpenter
Wassail, a traditional Christmas beverage, is primarily made with a base made of the cider of this fruit. Citrus and spices are often added to it.
Apple
This man served as Canada's prime minister between 2015 to 2025.
Justin Trudeau
This fairy tale is the morbid inspiration behind gingerbread houses. The children in its title are welcomed inside a gingerbread house by a cannibalistic witch. Eventually, the witch is foolishly coaxed into climbing inside her own oven.
Hansel and Gretel
All aboard! This title train takes children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve.
Polar Express
Not too long after Jesus' birth, Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with baby Jesus, because this king declared the murder of all male infants aged 2 and under in Bethlehem.
King Herod
It's a New Year's tradition in Spain and Latin America to eat 12 of this fruit at midnight, symbolizing good luck for each month of the new year.
Grapes
This prolific radio personality and TV host and replaced Pat Sajak on Wheel of Fortune in 2024.
Ryan Seacrest
This Welsh tradition, derived from a folk tale about a mare, permits women to wander Welsh villages each Christmas dressed in cloaks, flowers, and this type of bone from a horse.
skull
This classic Charles Dickens tale, published in 1843, was performed by the Muppets in 1992.
A Christmas Carol
John the Baptist
Run, run, Rudolph! This singer and songwriter sings about a child's haste for Rudolph and Santa to "make it to town."
Chuck Berry
This Hollywood star, nicknamed "Bogie," is best known for his "tough guy" persona on films such as Casablanca.
Humphrey Bogart
Alpine folklore tells of Santa's evil counterpart, titled this, who kidnaps naughty children and drags them into the woods.
Krampus
This author didn't just write The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. He also wrote Letters from Father Christmas, a collection of elaborate letters from Santa that he had written to his children over the years.
J.R.R. Tolkien
8
Also used for a Japanese holiday tradition called hoshigaki, folkore regarding the seeds of this fruit predict the holiday weather: Spoon-shaped seeds predict a snowy winter, knife-shaped predict icy, snowy winds, and fork-shaped predict a mild winter.
Persimmon
Singer Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong would probably say "thank you" for calling her by this stage name, rather than her full legal name.
Dido