A Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen

The names come from the poem A Visit from St Nicholas, published in 1823 and written by Clement Clarke Moore.

Rudolph is often included, but he wasn't created until the story Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer was published in 1939. A song based on that story was released in 1949. Here is a version by Bing Crosby:

A 364

On each day a new gift is given, but along with it come all the gifts given in the previous days. On the first day, a partridge in a pear tree, on the second, a pair of turtle doves AND another partridge in a pear tree, and so on. Here is one version of the song featuring John Denver and The Muppets.

A Steve Guttenberg

Gutenberg played Santa's son Nick in the 2004 film Single Santa Seeks Mrs Claus. Presumably he would inherit the family business eventually.

Tim Allen played Santa in the three Santa Clause movies. Ed Asner was Santa in Elf. James Earl Jones was the voice of Santa in the animated movie Recess Christmas: Miracle on Third Street. Just imagine - Darth Vader as Santa.

A 350

Pope Julius I co-opted December 25 because the Christian church disapproved of a number of pagan festivals around that date.

No one knows the exact date of Jesus' birth, but scholars estimate the year between 6 and 4 BC.

A 1967

Snoopy's Christmas, performed by The Royal Guardsman, has become a seasonal favourite since it was performed in 1967. Here is a live version.

A X comes from the Greek letter Ch

Χριστός is the Greek word from which we get the English 'Christ'.

There has been a lot of debate in Christian and secular circles about the use of the abbreviated form. It is frequently considered too informal, or in some cases disrespectful.

Even media organisations prefer the full version. The BBC online style guide advises:

"Spell in full - do not use 'Xmas', even for headlines. And remember that not all Christians celebrate Christmas on 25 December. The Eastern Orthodox Churches mark the festival on 7 January."

Christmas is a contraction of "Christ's Mass," which in turn was derived from the Old English 'Cristes mæsse'.

A card

In May 1843, Sir Henry Cole commissioned Horsley to illustrate a Christmas card. In that year, he printed about 2000 cards and they sold for a shilling each, making them the first commercially produced Christmas card. And here it is:

A The First World War

On the eve of Christmas 1914, troops organised an informal truce where men exchanged greetings and played football. War-time fraternisation has a long and interesting history.

A The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come

The book was first published in 1843 and has never been out of print. It has been adapted many, many times.

Dickens would often undertake public readings of the book, and had annotated editions to aid his performances. The New York Public Library has the one surviving annotated edition, and in 2013 they asked Neil Gaiman to read it in a public performance. It is well worth listening to.

A Franz Gruber

Franz Xaver Gruber wrote the tune in 1818 using lyrics by Joseph Mohr.

The quizmaster much prefers traditional choral versions of the hymn over those new-fangled pop versions.

A We'll leave this up to you to decide

The Quizmaster spoke at length with Katrina and was unable to get an answer on this. Despite having called themselves Sugar and Spice for years at no stage have they actually allocated the nicknames.