Winter Holidays
This December holiday features a menorah with nine candles.
What is Hanukkah?
Meteorologists use this scale to measure how cold it feels with wind.
What is the wind chill?
This traditional winter stew from Ireland consists of lamb, potatoes, and onions.
What is Irish stew?
This country experiences the world’s longest polar night, lasting more than 120 days.
What is Norway (Svalbard)?
Bing Crosby’s best-selling Christmas song of all time first appeared in this 1942 film.
What is “Holiday Inn”?
This red-suited man is known for delivering gifts on Christmas Eve.
Who is Santa Claus?
This term describes a severe snowstorm with strong winds and low visibility.
What is a blizzard?
The term “wassail,” a warm spiced drink, comes from an Old English phrase meaning this.
What is “be well”?
The Japanese festival “Yuki Matsuri,” featuring massive snow sculptures, is held annually in this city.
What is Sapporo?
This 1964 stop-motion TV special introduced Yukon Cornelius, Hermey the Elf, and a reindeer with a bright red nose.
What is “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”?
This African-American cultural celebration runs from December 26 to January 1.
What is Kwanzaa?
Snow forms in clouds when water vapor turns directly into ice crystals in this process.
What is deposition?
This Scandinavian winter dessert features layers of buttered bread, almonds, and custard baked into a pudding.
What is Øllebrød? (Accept Scandinavian bread pudding.)
This country is credited with creating the first written record of the winter solstice celebration over 4,000 years ago.
What is China?
The phrase “You’ll shoot your eye out!” comes from this iconic Christmas movie released in 1983.
What is “A Christmas Story”?
This plant, often hung in doorways, invites people to share a kiss.
This plant, often hung in doorways, invites people to share a kiss.
These rare, thundershower-like events involve lightning during a snowstorm.
What is thundersnow?
This French Canadian dish of fries, cheese curds, and gravy became a popular winter comfort food.
What is poutine?
The Sami people, known for their winter reindeer culture, primarily inhabit this Arctic region.
What is Lapland?
Before electric lights, families often decorated their Christmas trees using these small, risky sources of illumination.
What are candles?
The tradition of exchanging decorated cards began in this holiday season.
What is Christmas?
The size and shape of snowflakes depend on this key environmental factor within clouds.
The size and shape of snowflakes depend on this key environmental factor within clouds.
This traditional Italian Christmas dish is a sweet bread similar to panettone but denser and filled with raisins, orange peel, and nuts.
What is pandoro?
This ocean current plays a major role in warming Western Europe despite its harsh winters.
What is the Gulf Stream?
This singer, known as “The First Lady of Christmas,” hosted holiday TV specials throughout the 1960s and ’70s.
Who is Julie Andrews?
This Christian feast day on January 6th commemorates the visit of the Magi.
What is Epiphany?
This term describes fine, powdery snow that is easily blown by the wind and reduces visibility.
What is dry snow (or “powder snow”)?
The earliest known ice hockey games were played on frozen lakes in this country.
What is Canada?
This European city hosts the famous “Christkindlesmarkt,” one of the world’s oldest Christmas markets.
What is Nuremberg?
This crooner famously recorded “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” in 1963.
Who is Andy Williams?
This holiday marks the Lunar New Year and often includes red envelopes and dragon dances.
What is Chinese New Year?
A sudden drop in temperature caused by cold Arctic air moving south is known as this.
What is a polar vortex?
This winter activity involves navigating snowy terrain using hinged frames attached to boots.
What is snowshoeing?
Winter in this southernmost continent is so cold that almost no precipitation falls, making it a desert.
What is Antarctica?
This classic 1954 musical features a finale where the cast sings “White Christmas” in a Vermont lodge.
What is “White Christmas”?