You think you know everything there is to know about our great state and then you discover that Belfast has been hanging Christmas lights for decades with the most adorable/unusual nickname ever and suddenly, it’s game on.
It’s the fourth annual Maine & The Holidays quiz!
Prepare to be dazzled. Prepare to learn something.
Prepare to read the word “butt” three times. Sorry, make that four.
Ho, ho, ho! Ho!
1. Let’s start this off with a bang: Which of the following bold holiday-related claims is true, according to the New England Historical Society?
1) Maine is the birthplace of the Christmas card.
2) A Maine tailor sewed the first Santa suit in the world.
3) Maine is the home of the first Christmas celebrated in North America.
2. Town history goes that Winterport, a nice seasonally named locale, was once home to what curious conifer?
1) The Bacon Tree
2) The Angel Tree
3) The Dollar Tree
3. Fictionally set in Maine, “A Very Dead Zone Christmas,” an episode of “The Dead Zone” TV series starring Anthony Michael Hall, opens with:
1) Three young boys mugging Santa.
2) An ornate Christmas tree whose branches seem to wiggle. As the camera zooms in, that wiggle is rats.
3) A vision-impaired kettle bell ringer whose sight is restored by a stranger dressed as St. Nick.
4. Sometimes there’s nothing like tradition: What is Belfast residents’ nickname for the town’s long-time holiday light fixtures hanging over High and Main streets?
1) Fish Lips Frosty
2) Rabid Rudolph
3) Broke Neck Santa
5. True or false: Maine actually grows more acres of cranberries than it does Christmas trees.
Maine Gov. Janet Mills in the Blaine House. How many trees did she put up this year? Photo courtesy Governor’s Office
6. And speaking of Christmas trees, how many does Maine Gov. Janet Mills have up at the Blaine House this year?
1) 1
2) 6
3) 16
7. In the little western Maine town of Temple (pop. 646), you’ll find what yuletide-inspired landmark?
1) The Three Wise Men, a craggy outcrop on Intervale Road on which the profiles of three faces can be seen if you’re heading north.
2) Santa Claus Lake, so named for its shape from the air — it looks like a jolly old elf with a bag of presents on his back.
3) The North Pole, the official name of the often-photographed-by-tourists sign that reads, “Norway 14 miles, Paris 15 miles, Denmark 23 miles . . .”
8. How many ornaments do Maine school kids create each year to decorate the official Maine
A puffin ornament created by a Presque Isle High School student for this year’s state Christmas tree in Washington, D.C., part of the America Celebrates ornament project. Photo courtesy National Park Service
State Christmas Tree near the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.?
1) 24
2) 76
3) 144
9. What now 90-year-long tradition did Maine native William Wincapaw start on Christmas Day in 1929?
1) He changed the bulbs at the Quoddy Head Lighthouse, the easternmost spot in the U.S., to green and red for the day.
2) He dressed as a toy soldier and brought a piece of candy to every child in Caribou.
3) He delivered gifts to lighthouse keepers and their families around Rockland in his floatplane.
10. We’ll end the quiz with a nightcap: In 2006, Maine’s Liquor Licensing Unit initially rejected what proposed ale name, relenting only after the Maine Civil Liberties Union filed suit on the brewer’s behalf:
1) Santa’s Slay IPA, featuring an image of Santa holding a bloody ax.
2) Santa’s Butt Winter Porter, featuring an image of Santa’s bum, sitting on a beer barrel.
3) Santa’s Naked Rye, featuring, the big guy in all his birthday suit glory.
ANSWERS
1. Which of the following bold holiday-related claims is true?
3) Maine is the home of the first Christmas celebrated in North America, according to the New England Historical Society.
I know! That’s so wild.
French colonists celebrated Christmas in 1604 on St. Croix Island, according to the historical society. They gathered “next to a roaring fire, told stories, joked and reminisced about France. They had a feast — perhaps roast venison or rabbit stew.”
2. What curious conifer was Winterport home to?
1) The Bacon Tree — because some things you cannot make up.
According to a town history by Teddy Weston, Winterport’s archivist and historian in residence, during the War of 1812, a gentleman stashed his supply of hams and silver in a thick Norway pine tree hoping to hide both from the British. And it worked! The British walked by, noticed nothing, and locals declared it had “saved his bacon,” hence, The Bacon Tree. A restaurant called The Bacon Tree closed in town last year.
3. How did “A Very Dead Zone Christmas” open?
1) With three young boys mugging Santa.
Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall) and a friend try to reunite the boys with their long-lost father, according to the plot synopsis on the Internet Movie Database.
One hopes he tells the boys that mugging Santa will land you on the Naughty List real fast.
Broke Neck Santa himself! Photo courtesy Belfast Fire Department
4. Belfast residents’ nickname for the town’s long-time holiday light fixtures?
3) Broke Neck Santa
From the Belfast Area Chamber of Commerce magazine: “Every year a couple weeks before Thanksgiving, the Belfast Fire Department heads downtown to hang the city’s Christmas lights, along with several cherished vintage plastic Santa decorations, one of whom has become the stuff of local legend, earning the nickname Broke Neck Santa for his jaunty — or partially decapitated? — appearance.”
The jolly old elf with a permanent crick in his neck has been hung up every winter since at least 1968, according to the chamber.
5. True or false: Maine actually grows more acres of cranberries than it does Christmas trees.
False! In 2017, there were 91 acres in Maine growing cranberries compared to 4,012 acres growing Christmas trees, according to the U.S. Agriculture Census.
6. How many Christmas trees does Maine Gov. Janet Mills have up at the Blaine House?
2) 6
Bonus fun fact: The Kennebec Garden Club decorated the Blaine House this year around the theme “Famous Women in Maine History,” celebrating Cornelia “Fly Rod” Crosby, the late U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith and others, according to spokesman Scott Ogden.
“The foyer celebrates the 100th anniversary of the suffrage vote in Maine,” he said.
An overhead view of Staples Pond, now known as Santa Claus Lake, in Temple. Photo courtesy Lake Stewards of Maine
7. The yuletide-inspired landmark in Temple?
2) Santa Claus Lake, so named for its shape from the air.
And *technically* it’s renamed. The body of water was known as Staples Pond until the 1960s, when new owner Robert L. Bull renamed it, eventually also naming new building’s after Santa’s reindeer (Dasher, Prancer and others.) Paul H. Mills wrote a great column about its history in 2016 for the Daily Bulldog.
The guest lodge alongside Santa Claus Lake, with little Christmas trees on its shutters, is now available to rent as an Airbnb.
8. How many ornaments do Maine school kids make for the Maine State Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C.?
1) 24
There are 56 smaller trees around the National Christmas Tree in Washington, D.C., one representing each state and territory, and each year one school in each state or territory makes 24 ornaments for their tree, according to Katie Liming at the National Park Service.
Presque Isle High School students created this year’s ornaments, which includes a little clay moose, a puffin and a campfire.
9. What now 90-year-long tradition did Maine native William Wincapaw start on Christmas Day in 1929?
3) He delivered gifts to lighthouse keepers and their families around Rockland in his floatplane.
Wincapaw eventually made — and vastly expanded — his rounds, in costume, and inspired the Flying Santa operation with a long, cool history that continues to this day
10. Our quiz nightcap: What ale name did the state first say “no way” to?
2) Santa’s Butt Winter Porter, featuring an image of Santa’s bum, sitting on a beer barrel.
Shelton Brother Brewers were trying to register the name when the Maine Civil Liberties Union successfully got involved, according to a 2007 MCLU press release.
Bonus fact: Another name for a barrel? A butt. Who knew?
Just 10 little questions and yet so many delightful fun facts to wow the holiday table with this season.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
