Don’t cheat but here are the answers to our 2009 Country Life Christmas Quiz
1 Cambridge, founded in 1534, beats Oxford, which was founded in 1586
2 12
3 Roger Federer
4 It was the day when Christmas boxes (gifts of money) were given to servants
5 Pup
6 A London sweet-maker, Tom Smith, in 1847, who based it on the design of a French bon-bon. This failed to sell, and so he added the banging device to excite children and thus encourage sales
7 1957
8 Lithium
9 Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen-and Rudolph
10 Tony Blair-as much as £2,000 a minute
11 He’s the villain in Moonraker
12 Gen Sir David Richards
13 On the wing
14 Hawaii
15 The first letter of the word Christ in Greek is Chi, which translates in our language to X. Xmas was, therefore, originally an ecclesiastical abbreviation that was used in tables and charts
16 The Beatles, with four
17 Leicestershire
18 Works hard for a living
19 Anchovies
20 A fictional character from Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles
21 Brazil
22 Swan
23 The English oak
24 King’s School, Canterbury (ad 597)
25 Oliver Cromwell banned Christmas carols to encourage more serious sermon and prayer
26 The common buzzard
27 Two; one in 1938 and the other in 1976
28 George V was the first to broadcast a Christmas message, over the radio
29 The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr John Sentamu
30 False
31 The Holy Days and Fasting Act of 1551 states that every British citizen must attend a Christian church service on Christmas Day. It’s estimated that out of the 60 million people living in Britain, 57.4 million will ‘break the law’ this year
32 Pope John XXIII
33 Theodore Roosevelt
34 Holly
35 1843
36 1814
37 Sir Edwin Lutyens
38 C-shaped
39 Ebenezer Scrooge in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol
40 The Duke of Wellington
41 Florence Nightingale
42 Alabama, in 1836. Oklahoma was the last in 1907
43 1931
44 The Stone of Scone or Coronation Stone
45 Bird of prey; summer plumage
46 The word comes from Cristes Maesse, an old English phrase that actually means ‘mass of Christ’
47 A boar’s head with mustard
48 The Gralloch
49 24 inches
50 Norway-it has been doing so since 1947 as a token of friendship for Britain’s help to the Norwegian people in the Second World War
