Holiday Movies
This 1968 stop-motion special tells the story of an orphaned boy whose drum playing becomes a gift for the newborn King.
What is the Little Drummer Boy?
This doo-wop group’s 1954 hit “White Christmas” became a holiday favorite for decades.
Who are The Drifters?
In 1953, this U.S. President lit the National Christmas Tree for the first time via television broadcast.
Who is Dwight D. Eisenhower?
This simple plastic toy, introduced in 1958, caused a massive holiday craze as kids tried to spin it around their waists.
What is the hula hoop?
First issued in 1962, the U.S. Post Office released its first-ever stamp featuring this holiday theme.
What is the Christmas wreath?
This 1976 holiday special features a grumpy camel named Omar who helps three men journey to Bethlehem.
What is The First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow?
This 1970 Jackson 5 rendition of a classic Christmas song opens with young Michael singing “I just want you for my own…”
What is "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"?
In 1954, President Eisenhower reintroduced this word into the Pledge of Allegiance, a phrase often recited at holiday school events.
What is “under God”?
These wildly popular 1975 dolls featured yarn hair and unique adoption papers.
What are Cabbage Patch-style predecessors, the “Little People” dolls (by Xavier Roberts)?
This beloved Thanksgiving TV tradition began airing in 1963 with giant cartoon character balloons.
What is the Macy's parade TV broadcast?
This 1970 stop-motion film tells the origin story of Santa Claus, featuring the villainous Burgermeister Meisterburger.
What is Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
Brenda Lee recorded this lively 1958 holiday hit at just 13 years old.
What is "Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree"?
This African-American holiday was created in 1966 to celebrate unity, family, and heritage.
What is Kwanzaa?
Introduced in 1967, this light-up creativity toy let kids place colorful pegs into a glowing board to make holiday designs.
What is Lite Brite?
In the 1950s and ’60s, families gathered around this boxlike device to watch holiday specials together.
What is the television?
First airing in 1973, this festive animated special features a young boy named Peter collecting a holiday tree with his dog Tiger.
What is The House Without a Christmas Tree?
José Feliciano released this bilingual Christmas song in 1970.
What is "Feliz Navidad"?
This iconic New York holiday tradition was broadcast nationally for the first time in 1960.
What is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
Popular in the late ’60s, this toy let kids “grow” pretend flowers under a plastic dome.
What is a Thingmaker/Flower Power Mold Kit?
This famous NORAD tradition began accidentally in 1955 when Sears misprinted Santa’s phone number.
What is the NORAD Santa Tracker?
This 1977 Christmas special brought Bing Crosby together with David Bowie for their famous duet “Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy.”
What is Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas?
This crooner’s final Christmas special aired in 1977, just weeks before his death.
Who is Bing Crosby?
In 1971, this amendment officially established a new national holiday in honor of American workers by standardizing the federal holiday calendar.
What is the Uniform Monday Holiday Act?
This early electronic game, released in 1978 but invented in 1976, became a massive holiday best-seller just after the era.
What is Simon?
During the 1960s, NASA astronauts created this holiday “tradition” by sending festive messages from space.
What are holiday space broadcasts?