Angela's Seasonal Xmas Quiz for travellers

 Where will you find a black cake at Christmas? What does Feliz Navidad mean? 

Do the quiz and check the answers to compare the number you get right with other members of your friends and family.  Learn the answers, and get all completely right by doing the quiz again.

See how many points you get. I hope it is not pointless.

 A The word croissant means

1 Crescent, in French

2 Cooked, in French

3 Cross shaped in French

4 Crescent in Italian 

B Spumante means

1 Sparkling in Italian

2 Sparkling in French

3 Spilled in Spanish

C Rosé means

1 Rose coloured in French

2 Rose shaped in Spanish

3 Rose perfumed in Italian

D Whiskey

1 Comes from Scotland

2 Comes from Ireland and America

3 Comes from Native Indians

E Whisky

1 Comes from Scotland

2 Comes from Ireland

3 Comes from Antarctica

F Christmas Pudding

1 Traditionally contains only a silver sixpence

2 Traditionally contains a three penny bit, sixpence, pea, bean or thimble

3 Traditionally contains a gold coin or gold foil wrapped fruit

Xmas crackers

G Christmas Crackers

1 Are named after the sound they make when pulled

2 Are named after the two creases

3 Are named after their appearance when pulled apart

H Christmas Crackers were invented by 

1 Tom Smith

2 Tom Jones

3 Billy Bunter

I In England at Christmas at tea time you eat

1 Christmas cake

2 Mince Pies

3 Christmas cake or mince pies

J The Yule Log comes from

1 England

2 Scotland

2 France

K Stollen comes from

1 Germany

2 Russia

3 Canada

L Panettone comes from

1 Spain and Italy

2 France and Portugal

3 Australia and New Zealand

M At Christmas in Belize they eat

1 White cake

2 Black cake, sometimes with Yellow cake

3 Green cake 

N Champagne comes from

1 France

2 Spain

3 Italy

4 France, and the USA under license

O Cava comes from

1 France

2 Spain

3 Italy

P Prosecco comes from

1 Spain

2 Italy

3 Portugal

Q Sherry comes from

1 France

2 Spain

3 Madeira

R Madeira comes from

1 Spain

2 Madeira which is Portuguese

3 Italy

S Christmas Day is Dec 25

1 In the lunar calendar

2 In the Gregorian Calendar

3 In the Julian Calendar

T Dec 26 Is

1 Boxing Day only

2 St Stephen's Day only

3 Both Boxing Day and St Stephen's Day in different countries

U A hanukiah is

1 The same as the menorah - 7 branches, for 7 days of the week

2 Has only 8 branches, for the 8 day festival

3 Has 9 branches, 8 plus the helper candle to light the others

V

Champagne is 

1 The shape of the bottle

2 A region of France and name of the drink

3 The name of the man who invented the bubbly drink

4 The name of a grape

W The Star of David (Jewish star, also called the seal of Solomon by Moslems)_

1 Has 5 points

2 Has 8 points

3 Has six points

4 Has any number of points

X Feliz Navidad is Spanish for

1 Happy Birthday

2 Congratulations

3 Happy New Year

4 Happy Christmas

Y Traditionally in the UK you kiss under

1 Holly

2 Mistletoe

3 The Christmas tree

Z What is the official name of the UK royal broadcast on Christmas Day

1 The Queen's Speech or the King's Speech

2 The Christmas message because the Queen's Speech or King's Speech opens Parliament

Answers

A1 B1 C1 D2 E1 F1 G1 H1 I3 J2 K1 l  L1 M2 N1

O2 P2 Q2 R2 S2 T3 U3 V2 W3 X4 Y2 Z2

-ends-

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Is Christmas Celebrated Everywhere Like In England?

 

I ran an online club meeting with the theme of seasonal celebrations for my public speaking group Online Dynamic.

I wore a red santa hat with white edging. This is recognized in many if not most countries of the world.

I wore the same hat yesterday at the physical meeting of HOD club.

I used the seasonal hat again in an online poster

 Promoting our next HOD meeting, combined with a party and party food.

Online for Online Dynamic, an Indian lady who splits her tie between Mumbai and Dubai said she thought that Christmas was celebrated everywhere the same as England. With Christmas trees. And an angel on top. And parcels containing gifts underneath. And Christmas pudding containing alcohol. She lived near a Catholic church in Mumbai. She said it was very jolly at Christmas time. Christmas markets. And on the evening of the 25th.

I was able to show her things which we have in England which she has no previously encountered. Christmas crackers.

In Russia, which was not religious and banned religion under Communism, instead of Father Christmas, they had Grandfather Snow wearing blue with white.

In Korea they have had Christmas markets and carols starting for two months before Christmas. My Chinese friend, Mike, asks me, 'Do you have carols in England? Is everybody Christian?

The census has statistics on this sort of question. You also hear more news from surveys done by the local council.

I now have plenty of new thoughts and material for a speech about Christmas round the world for our HOD Christmas party and the weekly Online Dynamic meetings.

Please share links to your favourite posts.

Winter Celebrations Worldwide

 

UK

Turkey with stuffing.

Christmas cake

Christmas Carols

Christmas Crackers containing a paper hat and a riddle and usually a tiny toy or puzzle.

Christmas Pudding

Mince Pies

On Fridays a Toastasters International Club, Online Dynamic, meets to practice speeches. I gave a speech about winter festivals around the world. I also gave this in person at HOD the evening before.

Ice Skating on artificial Outdoor Rinks

Pantomime

Santa's Grotto in Department Stores

TV family films such as The Sound of Music and American movie Home Alone, a slapstick comedy about a child who beats a couple of bungling would-be burglars.

USA

Candy Cane. Red and swhite spirals of sugar, resembling a shepherd's crook. They recall the story of the shepherds who, as the Christmas carol goes, watched their flocks by night.

Plum pudding (like Christmas pudding) is available all year, although more prolifically at Christmas.

Turkey is eaten for Thanksgivingso most Americans don't want to eat it again at Christmas.

BELIZE

Used to be called British Honduras and still has British traditions with an added Central American flavour.

Christmas carols played by steel bands.

Fairy lights on palm trees. (The lights are not installed by cranes but by local agile young men who climb the tree, sometimes hanging upside down as a stunt to amuse and astonish passers-by. 

FRANCE

Yule logs cakes with chocolate topping, recalling the tree trunks chopped up for fires giving light and heat in winter before we had electric lights and heating..

GERMANY

Stollen - a cake or soft sweet bread with sultanans, shaped like a log, with a rod of yellow marzipan horizontally down the centre. 

Marzipan is ground almonds mixed with fine sugar, bound together by liquid such as egg white?

ITALY and Roman Catholic churches

Nativity scenes in churches.

Panettone, a large dome shaped soft sweet dough bread. Nowadays you can buy it not only with traditioal luurious cut dandied peel and sultanas, but, instead chocolate chips, and fillings ingredients and numerous flavours. 

Italians claim it comes from Northern Italy, specifically Milan, and a specific bakery.

SPAIN

Panettone, same as Italy.

Songs such as Feliz Navidad.

VENEZUELA

Panettone.

Christmas & Winter Celebrations Celebrations

Old Time Xmas

Winter festivals brighten the dark days of winter in northern Europe. The big squares have a Christmas tree and Christmas markets.

The French have yule logs. 

The Germans have more than a log, the whole evergreen tree brought into the house and decorated in candles, dating from before the age of electricity.

Finland has holidays to Santa's home, for families with children. Rival Santa theme park villages are in Sweden.   

The Roman Catholic churches display nativity scenes showing the birth of baby Jesus in a manger. the story of the animals was made popular by St Francis of Assisi in Umbria in Italy. Christmas carols include Away in A Manger, Good King Wenceslas, and modern Christmas songs about Santa Claus.

Santa Claus is based on the story of St Nicholas who gave dowries to poor girls so they could get married. The story goes that St Nicholas was originally shown wearing green, but a cartoon of Santa in red was so popular that this had become the norm. Recently this traditional story has ben disputed and a department store claims to have started the Santa is a red hat and clothes. However, as the popular saying goes, why let the truth get in the way of a good story.

In the UK in London daylight saving time ends the third weekend in October. The festive

street lights are turned on by a famous personality to attract shoppers to do their pre-Christmas shopping at department stores. 

UK Decorations Nationwide

Around the country, indoor shopping malls such as London suburbs Watford in the north, shopping mall have lights and Santa's grotto. Schools are decorated with paper chains. Restaurants hold Christmas dinners featuring decorations and a Christmas cracker for every diner.

Xmas cards are posted, and parcels. Xmas cards are placed on mantel pieces, or strung on string across the room.  

Xmas Food and Drink 

Clubs such as Harrow Writers' Circle and Harrovians Toastmasters have a Christmas party, in a restaurant or on a bring a dish basis.

Alcohol is often mulled wine, or a punch which is heated, at pubs and parties. You can buy sachets of mulled wine flavouring in supermarkets to add to your hot wine to warm you up on a cold day.

UK Supermarkets sell Christmas crackers, Christmas pudding, mince pies and turkeys. Why turkeys? The turkey is a big bird for the large numbers expected at Xmas dinner. The turkey is served with red cranberry sauce, roast potatoes, green Brussel sprouts. In the UK Xmas gifts are placed under the tree, or at the foot of children's beds to be opened first thing in the morning.

Christmas Cracker Story 

The Christmas cracker was started by the Smith family in London. tom Smith was selling sweets successfully until rival companies took over. He saw that the Europeans (the French) wrapped sweets in a paper with both ends twisted, and copied this idea.

His innovation was copied by rivals. So he made bigger wrappers containing a bigger sweet or a selection of small sweets. Sitting looking at a crackling fire, he got the idea of putting something inside the sweet box which would make a noise.

Features of the cracker are a paper hat, a motto, fortune or riddle, and a small gift You can now buy crackers for other occasions such as birthday parties and weddings.

You cannot travel on planes with Xmas crackers because of the cracker taper.

Xmas Celebrations and Entertainment in the UK

The UK in a normal year would have ice skating at rinks set up outdoors in public places. This year Covid-19 restrictions mean that the Tower of London ice rink is not opening. But there is a rink at Hampton Court.

Floats of carol singers tour street, collecting money for charity. Groups of carol singers also go door to door singing and collecting money. 

A feature of the UK is pantomimes, musical comedies based on fairy tales, which characters in drag and audience involvement. Popular subjects are Cinderella, Aladdin and Peter Pan and Wendy. Films at cinemas an on TV include Disney favourites including many with Santa and Xmas themes.

In the UK on Christmas day we watch the Queen's speech.

In the USA we would watch the parades from warm California. 

January Snow

By January February when we lived in Washington DC it was often snowing. Flights were cancelled. You listened to the news to find out if the school buses were taking children to school. If not the roads were impassable, and the parents would be at home looking after children so lots of offices and shops and businesses would also be closed.

WHITE XMAS

Winter is the start of the ski season. 

NEW YEAR

Christmas day concert from Vienna, light classical music, ballet in colourful costumes around tourist sites in Vienna, ending with a song which involves the audience. From the UK the TV channels will broadcast  .

In the UK the Xmas lights stay up until January 6th, which is the 12th day of Xmas, as the song says.

 

Ice skating Hampton Court

India

Over in India the big hotels catering to expats have Xmas trees. 

Singapore 

The lights go up in streets and on shopping malls, with carols blaring from lamp posts and in lifts. Christmas lights disappear on December 26 and displays switches to Chinese New Year decorations. 

USA

Not everybody likes the modern commercial Xmas. The puritans banned Christmas. This was not a popular move and the next regime reintroduced Christmas.

Russia

In Russia, when religion was banned, instead winter festivities featured Grandfather Frost, and the Snow Maiden. In some places the Snow Maiden is his daughter, but often his grand-daughter.

Jewish Festival of Lights, Hanukkah, and the Hannukiah

A hannukiah is lit in the USA in The White House and in many cities around the world, such as in Singapore and Ukraine, and Spain.

The hannukiah looks similar to a menorah. But it is not the same. The menorah is a candelabra with seven branches to hold seven candles, one for each day of the week. It is lit for sundown on the eve of the Sabbath. (Strictly speaking, Sabbath starts when you can see three stars, which was a useful guide before modern times, and also in modern times when not everybody could afford a watch or clock, or when you are in a place without access to timepieces.

The Hannukiah, however, is a nine branch candlestick for the eight days of Hannukah, festival of lights, with an extra branch for the candle which lights the others. 

Useful Websites

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_dishes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Christmas_and_holiday_season_parades

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_objects_dropped_on_New_Year%27s_Eve

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanukkah

About the Author

Angela Lansbury lived most of her life in the UK, but spent three years and several holidays including Christmas in the USA (with her family who loved skiing). She is now based in the UK and Singapore.

Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, fashionista. Please share links to your favourite posts or one or more of the blogs

travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com

dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

Replacing Lost Buttons for travelling: Sewing kits, button boxes

How do you replace a lost button on holiday?

Move a backing button from behind a coat button. Buy the cheapest child's or adult's garment from a nearby shop. Check buttons are the right size for the button hole. 

If your new bought button matches the garment but won't match the button hole size, add the button just for decoration. Sew on a press stud and sew up the buttonhole.

Alternatively, sew up the button hole and make a loop on the opposite piece of fabric to catch the button from a tiny piece of ribbon, or even a plaited thread.  

Cover the missing button or buttonhole with either:
a) A conference name badge.
b) A corsage from a flower from your room flower display or one in the restaurant. (Ask first - you may find that they are very helpful.)
c) Make decorative braid from the plaited handle of a free tote bag from your shopping.
d) Use a badge from any event giving away advertising badges.

Borrow a button from another garment which you are not wearing which is in your suitcase. Save the thread from the original garment, attaching it with a safety pin. Later in the holiday, or when you get home, return the button to the garment it came from and sew it back on with the original thread. If you have not enough matching thread, sew it on with similar colour threat to make surety button is secure, then add the couple of inches of matching thread on top.

Sewing Kit From Supermarkets
I like to take a travel sewing kit. Many four and five star hotels have sewing kits. Sometimes in a hotel you can ring housekeeping for a sewing kit. It may be supplied only to the suites or club floor, but sent to other rooms on request. The biggest five star hotels have a repairs department for staff uniforms so they could supply a needle as a gift or loan or even sew on a button if you know who to ask or have enough goodwill.

Recycling sewing kits
The cheaper sewing kits are in card cases. The ones you buy from supermarkets or are given in top hotels or top grade rooms will probably have a durable case which can be re-used or re-filled.

If you have a few buttons of the same size and colour, you can save an empty sewing kit box for storing buttons. (Or an emptied matchbook cover with an address label and picture of needles and cotton, for travelling, kept in the top right net pocket in the lid of your suitcase.)

Buttons lost while travelling
If you are lucky when you lose a button whilst travelling you will find a spare button sewn in.
In the old days any good garment had spare buttons sewn on. Nowadays when a spare button is supplied it's often in a small plastic bag you have to cut off. That has the advantage that you get a collection of spare buttons.

When you go on a shopping trip you might pass a charity shop. In the USA they have second hand shops called thrift stores, not necessarily raising money for charity.

In the old days when I was a regular shopper (sometimes twice a day for weeks!) at my local charity shop, if a garment had a missing button they would reduce the price. However, noways shop staff tend to grab the garment away and say, 'We can't sell that!" So I keep quiet. I go home and look for a spare button.

One year I took a trip to Singapore in the tropics and had only summer clothes. We travelled on to New Zealand (I was trailing partner probably, whilst others were on a conference and we extended the trip to have a holiday skiing). I needed ski clothes but new ones are so expensive, by the time you have listed 1 jacket, 2 trousers, 3 gloves, 4 hat, 5 warm night clothes. The local second hand store was full of clothes, many of which had missing buttons, non-functioning zips, stains, fading, tears, or other imperfections - sometimes more than one fault.I found a garment with a missing button. But nowhere to buy buttons, no department store, and I was in a hurry to meet up with the family. I thought it was almost worthwhile buying one garment which fitted with a missing button, another in a horrid colour or the wrong size and

Buttons at home
A big button box. What a good idea. I have several glass ex marmalade and jam and chutney jars with different colours of buttons making a clutter. I also have buttons in colour collections in those multi divider boxes you can buy in DIY stores. 

And some boxes covered in teeny buttons. You can make your own - but I wouldn't waste a good button in decoration - I'd cover an old box with broken buttons - hurray - thank you so much for inspiring this thought - now I have a use for broken buttons.

Marmalade Jars Those tiny marmalade jars you get if you order breakfast in the room can be washed out and filled with spare buttons and cotton.

I have photographed the marmalade jar next to a glass of water to get a sense of size and scale.

Finally, teeny sewing kits can be placed in recycled or home made Christmas crackers.

Ask the valet of the five star hotel to fix the button - let them work out what to do.

Ask the friends you are meeting at their hotel to phone housekeeping from their hotel bedroom and ask for a button or sewing kit, or even for the club floor to organise the garment's repair. 

 Angela Lansbury, author of How To Get Out Of The Mess You Are In, and several other books.
See lulu.com and Amazon.

Christmas Crackers' Inventor and Finsbury Square Fountain - memorial to Tom Smith, Mr Christmas Cracker

Crackers in Waitrose supermarket, South Harrow, £4.

 Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Christmas crackers are on sale in supermarkets in England in December ready for Christmas parties and Christmas dinner. They were invented in England in Victorian times and you now find them in other English speaking countries. Doesn't everybody have Christmas crackers?

You have them on the table on Christmas Day. You wear the paper hat.


Photo of table with crackers at Fellini Restaurant, Hatch End. Photo by Angela Lansbury copyright.
I half remembered how crackers were invented and went back to check. To my surprise and delight I discovered a landmark in London honours Tom Smith who invented the Christmas cracker. It started out as a bonbon, or sugared almond, wrapped in papers, twisted at both ends. As the popularity of his shops sweets declined, he looked for a way to increase sales. He started with messages, like a fortune cookie. This was so successful that other people copied his sweets.

So he found a new way to make his different, after hearing the crackling of a log fire. He introduced the bang. You pull both ends of the cracker and inside is the banger. This is the part I like least. I like the hats, the gifts and the jokes.

To read more detail about Tom Smith the Christmas cracker, go to Wikipedia. I also recall a Ladybird book describing Christmas customs and Christmas crackers.

You can buy cheap crackers, small crackers, huge crackers, crackers with no gifts, crackers with expensive gifts, crackers in which you insert your own gifts.

Nowadays most good restaurants give every guest a cracker. (And only for bargain dinners do you have to make do with one cracker between two people.)

The fountain to the Smith Family is in Finsbury Square. Disappointingly, not in the shape of a huge cracker.

If I ever go there, I shall take a Christmas cracker with me for a photograph with the fountain. If you get there before me please do the same and send me a picture. Let's get cracking.

By the way, don't take Christmas crackers nor fireworks such as sparkler for New Year's Eve on an airplane. Why? Banned. Dangerous. Loads of reasons why not - take your pick.

Photo of fountain in SE of Finsbury Square, by Nigel Chadwick in Wikipedia.
Finsbury Square is EC1/EC2. The fountain is on the south east corner.
Nearest stations are : Moorgate, Liverpool street, Old Street.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AFountain%2C_SE_corner_of_Finsbury_Square_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1126053.jpg


For your amusement:
http://www.expatforum.com/expats/singapore-expat-forum-expats-living-singapore/12147-can-i-buy-christmas-crackers-singapore.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_cracker

Overseas and Singapore
If you are an overseas expat in a country such as Singapore, look for a UK store such as Marks & Spencer, but according to the forums you can find crackers all over Singapore, in the centre and in the outlying suburbs.

I used to look for branches of Harrods in Singapore.

Online and USA
You can also look online.
http://britishislesonline.com/christmas/christmas-crackers/?
In Houston, Texas, USA.

For information from the Tom Smith cracker company:
http://www.tomsmithcrackers.co.uk

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer. Author and speaker.
Please follow me on this blog and on Facebook, share this post, like me on Facebook, link to me on LinkedIn, meet me at a writers' or toastmasters speakers group, look at my pages, profile and books on Lulu.com and if you buy one of my books I'll sign it for you.