How 25 Christmas Traditions Started--Part 4: Wonderful Life, Lights, Santas, Fruitcakes & Cookies

16.  IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE

Frank Capra's Christmas classic debuted in 1946 with Jimmy Stewart playing George Bailey, a suicidal man who was shown what life would have been like if he had never been born.  It wasn't nice.  It was a flop at the  box office when it premiered, but did get five Academy award nominations, but no wins.

It wasn't until the owner neglected to renew the copyright that statins started showing it and that's when it took off.

My 3rd favorite Christmas movie and favorite non-comedy one.

17.  CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Edward Hibbard Johnson, a friend of Thomas Edison, came up with the idea of stringing lights around a Christmas tree in New York in 1882.  Now over 150 million sets are sold in the U.S. each year.  (I still want to know why I usually have one half of the lights go out in a string and then can't get them relit.)

18.  DEPARTMENT STORE SANTA

Dates back to 1890 when James Edgar of Brockton, Massachusetts, had a Santa suit made for himself  at his dry goods store.  Some say Macy's has had one since 1862.  (Still my favorite department store Santa was the one at Higbee's.)

19.  MAKING FUN OF FRUITCAKE

A favorite of the British (and me), but the subject of a long-running American joke.  Manitou Springs in Colorado has an annual Fruitcake Toss Day.

20.  COOKIE SWAPS

For over a hundred years in America.  I don't exchange.  I want them ALL!!!!

Ho, Ho, Ho!!  --RoadDog

In 1985, Johnny Carson joked:  "The worst Christmas gift is a fruitcake.  There is only one fruitcake in the entire world and people keep sending it to each other."

How 25 Christmas Traditions Started-- Part 3: Cookies, Candy Canes, Egg Nog, Wreaths & Cards

11.  COOKIES AND MILK FOR SANTA

Dates back to ancient Norse mythology, but Americans started it during the Great Depression.

12.  CANDY CANES

Whether eaten or hung from the tree.  Candy canes are the #1 non-chocolate candy seller during December.  The white and red candy arrived in the U.S. in 1847 from a German-Swedish immigrant in Wooster, Ohio. By the 1950s, the automated candy cane making machines had been developed and it really took off.

13.  BOOZY EGG NOG

This yuletide  cocktail stems from posset, a drink made of hot curdled milk and ale or wine in Medieval Europe.  Even George Washington had a special recipe.

14.  DOOR WREATHS

Have been around since ancient Greek and Roman times but took on a Christian meaning, but mostly seen as a secular winter tradition.

15.  CHRISTMAS CARDS

The first Christmas card was in England in 1843. The idea of a mailed  winter holiday greeting caught on with the Kansas City-based Hall Brothers (now Hallmark) in 1915.  According to the Greeting Card Association, today, more than1.6 billion of them are sold.  That's a lot of stamps.

--Cooter

Zu Zu Ginger Snaps

Back on Christmas Day, I wrote about ZuZu Bailey from the "It's a Wonderful Life" movie and mentioned her name came from these ginger snaps that I had never heard of before.

Thanks Wiki.

Zu Zu Ginger Snaps were round drop cookies produced from 1901 by the National Biscuit Company until the early 1980s (still never heard of them).  They were a combination of ginger and sugar-cane molasses that came in a distinctive yellow box with reddish type.

Their mascot was Zu Zu the Clown.

The name perhaps came from a character in the play Forbidden Fruit.  Another story says from Zuzanne, a Czech-Slovak form of the name Susana.  In "It's a Wonderful Life," Jimmy Stewart refers to the youngest Bailey daughter as "my little ginger snap."

With the Banjo On My Knee.  --Cooter

Some Anniversaries: Oreos and Video Games

The OREO COOKIE as we know it, was invented in New York City on March 6, 1912, and celebrating its 100th munch or dip-day, depending on your leaning.  More than 95 million of them are sold each day.  I don't dip them in milk, wash them down with milk, or split them open and eat the frosting first.  I just munch them and smile.

The VIDEO GAME is most likely 40 years old this fall.  It first appeared in bowling alleys and bars in 1972, and then, remember this, the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home-gaming system arrived the same time.

This was as far as ever got in home-gaming as we did buy one in '73 or '74.  I thought, wow, is this neat.  How do they do that?  But, compared to today's home video games, it wasn't much, but you have to start somewhere.  Wish we hadn't given the Odyssey console away.  It might be worth something today.

As far as video games in bars and places, I didn't make it much past Pac-Man.  Asteroids were a particular favorite of mine.

Blip...Blip...Blip.  --Cooter