It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas trivia, Ohio edition: Blundo
Welcome to the Ohio-Specific Christmas Trivia Quiz.
To mark the holiday, I went looking for holiday-related facts about our city and state to test your knowledge. In case it’s too challenging, I’ve provided hints. Plus, there’s always Google.
Answers appear below.
1. By the standard of snow on the ground, in what year did Columbus have its whitest Christmas on record? (Hint: It was also the year America elected its youngest president.)
2. “A Christmas Story,” the beloved 1983 movie in which Ralphie pines for a BB gun, was filmed partially in Cleveland, but what state is the fictional setting for the story? (Hint: In the movie, Ralphie complains that the line to see Santa Claus is backed up all the way to Terre Haute.)
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3. Which Ohio state nature preserve would be the most appropriate to visit today? (Hint: The name says it all.)
4. Benjamin Hanby of Westerville wrote “Darling Nelly Gray,” a pre-Civil War song so effective at intensifying anti-slavery sentiment that it’s been compared to “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” the anti-slavery novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe (who lived for a time in Cincinnati). Hanby is also known for a Christmas song. Name it. (Hint: “Click, click, click.")
5. What woody character was a perennial fixture of the Christmas wonderland set up every holiday season in the Downtown Lazarus department store? (Hint: If it fell in the forest, it would make a comment.)
6. What did insurance executive Robert Pein bestow on Columbus as a Christmas gift to lift spirits during the Depression? (Hint: Angels and lumens.)
7. How many lights does Clifton Mill, the Miami Valley attraction about 50 miles west of Columbus, use for its annual holiday illumination extravaganza?
A) About 40. B) About 4 million. C) About 400 billion. (Hint: Come on, this one’s already easy.)
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Answers
1) In 1960, 9 inches of snow lay on the ground on Dec. 25. (By the way, the coldest Christmas on record was in 1983, when it fell to 12 below zero.)
2)The story is set in the fictional town of Hohman, Indiana. The movie was based on the stories of Jean Shepherd, who grew up in Hammond, Indiana. The movie was filmed partially in Cleveland and partially in Toronto. The Cleveland house where Ralphie lived with his family — the Parkers — is now a museum dedicated to the movie.
3) Christmas Rocks State Nature Preserve, about 40 minutes south of Columbus in Fairfield County, is known for its blackhand sandstone outcroppings and a spectacular view stop the rock formation known as Jacob’s Ladder.
4) Hanby, who attended Otterbein College, wrote “Up on the Housetop.”
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5) The Talking Tree, a creation of Columbus artist Gordon Keith, was an attraction at Lazarus for many years during holidays seasons.
6) Pein initiated the annual Christmas Nativity scene and light display at State Auto Mutual at the corner of East Broad and Washington streets in 1931.
7) B. About 4 million. A manager there once said it takes about three months to put them all away when the holidays are over.
Joe Blundo is a Dispatch columnist.
@joeblundo
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Joe Blundo tests readers' knowledge with Ohio Christmas trivia quiz
