What's on your Christmas list?

At Christmas, many people give gifts. Can you name these famous Christmas gifts?

Answers:

1. The first Christmas gifts: What three things did the Magi give the infant Jesus, according to the Book of Luke? Frankincense, gold, and myrrh.
2. Whose legend first tells of Christmas gifts left in a stocking? St Nicholas.
3. What Christmas gift may have saved the Empress Josephine's life in 1800?A shawl. A courtier stopped her to retie it, which delayed her carriage – just in time to miss the worst of a bomb blast, part of an assassination attempt.
4. In 1801, Thomas Jefferson received a weighty and fragrant Christmas gift from the citizens of Cheshire, Massachusetts. What was it? A very large block of cheese. The name of the town should have given it away. Cheshire sent Jefferson 1,235 pounds of cheese. We hope he had a lot of crackers handy.
5. A few years later, Thomas Jefferson received another interesting Christmas gift, this time from Zebulon Pike. What was it? A pair of bear cubs. Jefferson was a very lucky President.
6. What did British Christmas innovator Thomas Smith invent in 1846? The Christmas cracker.
7. What Christmas gift did General William Tecumseh Sherman present to Abraham Lincoln in 1864? The city of Savannah.
8. What best-selling gift of the 1975 Christmas season was remarkably easy to train? The Pet Rock. (Note to Zebulon Pike: maybe the President would prefer one.)
9. What Christmas present did Apollo 8 give the people of Earth in 1968? A video tour of the Moon. (Plus some Bible reading.) At least they didn't sing 'Jingle Bells'.
10. What much-appreciated Christmas gift did Ronald Reagan receive from an admirer? His portrait in jelly beans. Mr Reagan loved it. It's on display in his Presidential Library.

What does this prove? It's not the gift, it's the thought that counts. And we're not sure what some of these people were thinking.

Happy holiday shopping!

Dmitri Gheorgheni

16.12.13 Front Page

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