Christmas Every Day quiz

Questions and answers

1. 1

   Question 1. Which literary categories best describe "Christmas Every Day"?

   • Realism, Everyday Life & Plain Detail
   • Gothic Horror, Ghost Story & Dark Romance
   • Tragedy, Fate & Downfall
   • Correct answer: Humor, Fantasy & Moral Tale
   • Adventure, Quest & Wild Nature

   Humor, Fantasy & Moral Tale is the best fit. A Christmas Fairy grants an impossible wish (fantasy), the results are piled up in comic exaggeration (humor), and the papa himself calls it just a moral tale about greed and moderation.

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2. 2

   Question 2. Who tells the tale of the girl who wanted Christmas every day, and to whom?

   • Correct answer: A papa tells it to his little girl in his study before breakfast
   • A grandfather tells it to his grandchildren around the Christmas tree
   • The Christmas Fairy tells it to a girl who has written her a letter
   • A mother tells it to her children while they wait for Christmas Eve

   The story is a frame narrative: an outer story wraps around an inner one. In the outer story, a busy papa is writing in his study when his little girl comes in, as she always does on Saturday morning before breakfast, and asks for a story. The inner story is the tale he tells her. The teller is her papa, not a grandfather; her mamma appears at the end to call him to breakfast.

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3. 3

   Question 3. Why does the little girl put her hand over her papa's mouth when he begins his story?

   • She has already heard the Christmas story and wants a new one
   • She wants him to stop working and come down to breakfast now
   • Correct answer: She is sick of little-pig stories and wants one about Christmas
   • She is afraid the story he begins will be too frightening for her

   Papa begins with a little pig, and she stops him at the word: she has heard little-pig stories till she is perfectly sick of them. She wants a story about Christmas, because it is past Thanksgiving already. From the start, the listener is shaping the story.

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4. 4

   Question 4. Why does the Christmas Fairy ignore the girl's first requests?

   • She asked too early, before Thanksgiving was over, so they didn't count
   • Correct answer: She sent postal-cards, and the Fairy notices only real, sealed letters
   • She forgot to sign her name, so the Fairy did not know who she was
   • She asked for too much, so the Fairy waited for a more modest wish

   The girl begins by sending postal-cards, but the Fairy never answers them. She learns that the Fairy is pretty particular and will notice nothing but real letters on sheets of paper, sealed outside with a monogram, or at least an initial. Once she sends proper letters, she gets a reply the day before Christmas.

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5. 5

   Question 5. What does "Particular" mean in this story?

   • Belonging to one certain person rather than to others
   • Kind and generous to anyone who asks her for a favor
   • Careless and forgetful about answering her messages
   • Correct answer: Fussy and demanding about having things done just so

   Here particular means fussy, insisting that things be done exactly the right way. The Fairy will not notice postal-cards or correspondence cards in envelopes, only real letters sealed with a monogram. (Particular can also mean belonging to one certain person, but that is not its sense here.)

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6. 6

   Question 6. What does the girl in the tale do after the Fairy promises Christmas every day for a year?

   • Correct answer: She means to keep it secret, but then it slips her mind
   • She tells her whole family, who are thrilled at the news
   • She writes back at once asking for it to last forever
   • She tells her mother, who warns her the wish is greedy

   Already excited about the once-a-year Christmas coming the next day, she resolves to keep the promise to herself and surprise everybody as it comes true. Then it slips out of her mind altogether. That is why the second Christmas takes her by surprise.

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7. 7

   Question 7. What is in her papa's and mamma's stockings on the first Christmas morning?

   • Silk umbrellas and new pocket-books wrapped with ribbon
   • Oranges and grapes tucked in among packages of candy
   • Correct answer: Potatoes and pieces of coal wrapped up in tissue-paper
   • Fire-tongs and snow-shovels tied up with green string

   Papa's and mamma's stockings hold potatoes and pieces of coal wrapped up in tissue-paper, just as they always had every Christmas. Later, when it is Christmas every day, coal and potatoes become awfully scarce because so many have been used to fool papas and mammas.

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8. 8

   Question 8. After the first Christmas, the listening girl pounds her papa and says, "You made them act like pigs." What is she objecting to?

   • His mistake of saying little pig instead of little girl at the start of the story
   • Correct answer: His picture of everyone overeating, getting a stomach-ache and going to bed cross
   • His joke that the girl's big brother got nothing but the tongs in his stocking
   • His claim that turkeys had become so scarce that people ate humming-birds

   Papa has described the girl eating so much candy she skips breakfast, stuffing herself at dinner, coming in from coasting with a stomach-ache, and everyone going to bed cross. His daughter says he made them act like pigs and that he oughtn't to put it into a story. The pig joke from the opening returns in a new form.

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9. 9

   Question 9. Where does the big Christmas-tree stand on the first Christmas morning?

   • In a flower-pot by the window
   • In a sand bucket by the fire-place
   • On a stand in the front parlor
   • Correct answer: In a waste-basket in the library

   The big Christmas-tree stands, lighted, in a waste-basket in the middle of the library, surrounded by the large presents laid out on the library-table. It is one of the many small, homely details in papa's long list.

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10. 10

    Question 10. Within a week, so many people have lost their tempers that "you could pick up lost tempers anywhere." What technique is Howells using?

    • Correct answer: Taking a common expression literally, as if tempers were objects you could drop
    • Foreshadowing, as a warning that the girl will soon lose her own good temper
    • Flashback, as papa remembers a time when his own family was very bad-tempered
    • Understatement, making the family's quarrels seem smaller than they really are

    Howells treats the idiom lose your temper as if a temper were a thing you could drop. The lost tempers strew the ground, and people who try to recover theirs usually pick up somebody else's, which makes the most dreadful mix. Turning a figure of speech into a literal event is one of the story's main sources of comedy.

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11. 11

    Question 11. Why doesn't the girl in the tale ask the Fairy to take back her gift once she becomes frightened?

    • She cannot find the Fairy's address to send her a letter
    • She is sure the other children are enjoying it too much
    • She believes the Fairy will punish her for complaining
    • Correct answer: She is ashamed, because asking seems ungrateful and ill-bred

    She wants to tell her mother but doesn't dare, and she is ashamed to ask the Fairy to take back her gift, because it seems ungrateful and ill-bred. So she decides to try to stand it for a whole year. Her good manners trap her inside her own wish.

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12. 12

    Question 12. As everyone else grows poor, who gets rich from Christmas every day?

    • The farmers who grow turkeys and the woodsmen who cut the Christmas-trees
    • Correct answer: The confectioners, fancy-store keepers, picture-book sellers and expressmen
    • The police, who fine people for leaving presents piled on the sidewalk
    • The poor-house keepers, who are paid for every family sent to live there

    Everybody has to go to the poor-house except the confectioners, the fancy-store keepers, the picture-book sellers and the expressmen, and they grow so rich and proud that they will hardly wait on a customer. Howells pokes fun at the way the holiday makes money for sellers while it drains everyone else.

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13. 13

    Question 13. When papa says turkeys cost a thousand dollars, his daughter says, "You're beginning to fib." How does he respond, and what does it show?

    • He lowers it to ten dollars, showing he wants the tale to be realistic
    • He admits he made it up, showing that the whole tale was only a dream
    • Correct answer: He raises it to two thousand, showing the tale runs on playful hyperbole
    • He scolds her for interrupting, showing he is tired of telling stories

    Instead of backing down, papa answers, "Well, two thousand, then." The joke shows that the tale runs on hyperbole, deliberate exaggeration for effect, and that father and daughter are both in on it. Cranberries soon cost a diamond apiece.

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14. 14

    Question 14. What does "Counterfeit" mean in this story?

    • Costing far more than it is truly worth; overpriced
    • Correct answer: Made to look real in order to fool people; fake
    • Worn out from too much use; shabby and ragged
    • Given in return for something received; traded

    Counterfeit means fake, made to look genuine in order to trick someone. Christmas does not even skip the First of April, though everything was counterfeit that day, which is some little relief. On April Fools' Day, at least, the presents are fake.

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15. 15

    Question 15. What happens on the Fourth of July?

    • Correct answer: All the fireworks and cannon-torpedoes have turned into Christmas candy
    • The boys sleep through the whole holiday and wake up on Christmas morning
    • The fireworks go off as usual, but they spell out Merry Christmas in the sky
    • The town cancels the parade so that everyone can deliver Christmas presents

    Every torpedo is a big raisin, and the fire-crackers are sugar and candy painted to look like fireworks. A cannon fired with the last bit of real powder bursts, because it is made of rock-candy, and the holiday speeches turn into Christmas carols. About twenty million boys sit down and cry.

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16. 16

    Question 16. What does "Orations" mean in this story?

    • Loud parades with marching bands through the streets
    • Printed programs listing the order of a day's events
    • Short prayers said in church before a holiday feast
    • Correct answer: Formal public speeches given on a special occasion

    An oration is a formal speech given at a public ceremony. Fourth of July orations were a standard part of the holiday. In the tale they all turn into Christmas carols, so anyone who begins reading the Declaration of Independence ends up singing a carol instead.

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17. 17

    Question 17. How do people find out who caused all the Christmases?

    • Correct answer: She talks about it in her sleep
    • The Fairy writes to the newspapers
    • Her mother finds the Fairy's letter
    • She confesses it in church one day

    The girl has suffered so much that she talks about it in her sleep. After that hardly anybody will play with her, and people despise her, because if it had not been for her greediness it wouldn't have happened. At Thanksgiving they tell her they will see about gratitude once she stops the Christmases.

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18. 18

    Question 18. Papa first ends his tale with the girl finding that it "wasn't ever going to be, any more." Why does he go on?

    • His wife calls in from the hall that the ending is too sad for such a young child
    • He realizes he forgot to tell what happened in the tale on the Fourth of July
    • His daughter guesses it was all a dream, and he has to prove that it really was
    • Correct answer: His daughter holds him fast and won't let him go until it's Christmas once a year

    When papa says it wasn't Christmas at last and never would be again, his daughter holds him fast around the neck and says he shall not go if he leaves it so. Asked how she wants it left, she answers, "Christmas once a year." The listener changes the ending. (She had guessed it was all a dream, but papa insisted it was all every bit true.)

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19. 19

    Question 19. When the girl in the tale asks the Fairy to make sure Christmas never comes again, what does the Fairy say?

    • She is finally learning the lesson of gratitude and deserves a reward
    • She may have her wish, since nobody in the country wants Christmas now
    • Correct answer: She is behaving just as greedily as ever and had better look out
    • She must first apologize to every family she has made poor that year

    The Fairy frowns and says that now she is behaving just as greedily as ever, and she'd better look out. Demanding no Christmas at all is the same mistake as demanding Christmas every day: wanting everything her own way. The girl thinks it over and bargains down from once in a thousand years to once a year.

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20. 20

    Question 20. At the end, papa calls his story "just a moral tale," and his daughter begs him not to tell what the moral is. Why?

    • Correct answer: She has understood that the tale about a greedy girl is aimed at her
    • She wants to tell her mamma the moral herself later on, at breakfast
    • She thinks the story has no moral at all and does not want him to fib
    • She is afraid that her mamma will be angry about the bonfires of gifts

    "We know!" she says, and begs him not to tell what. She has just bossed her papa into telling a Christmas story her way, and she sees that the tale of a greedy little girl who wanted too much Christmas is really a lesson for her. Keeping the moral a secret between them lets her off lightly, in the same playful spirit as the whole story.

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21. 21

    Question 21. What is the main theme of "Christmas Every Day"?

    • Children should never be allowed to make wishes without their parents
    • Correct answer: Too much of a good thing spoils it, and greed ruins what is special
    • Holidays are a waste of money and should be quietly abolished for good
    • Fairies cannot be trusted, because their gifts always carry a curse

    Christmas is a delight because it comes once a year. Repeated every day, the same candy, presents and turkey become a burden that leaves the girl crying at the sight of her stockings. The Fairy calls Christmas once a year the good old way that had pleased people ever since Christmas began.

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22. 22

    Question 22. People stop giving presents nicely and write in the gift-books, "Take it, you horrid old thing!" What is Howells poking fun at?

    • Children who do not write proper thank-you notes for gifts
    • Shopkeepers who refuse to wrap the presents people buy
    • Families who give each other potatoes and coal as jokes
    • Correct answer: Gift-giving that turns from a pleasure into a resented duty

    Once presents are endless, nobody gives them with love. People fling them over the fence, bang them against the door, and leave them out in the rain. Howells exaggerates to show how giving becomes a chore when it is forced, a joke with a point about real holiday habits.

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23. 23

    Question 23. Which of these events actually happened in the story?

    • The girl in the tale first sends postal-cards that the Fairy never answers.

      Happened

      As soon as Thanksgiving is over she sends postal-cards, but the old Fairy never answers any of them. Only real, sealed letters get her attention.

    • The Fairy grants the girl Christmas every day forever.

      Didn't happen

      The Fairy's letter says she may have Christmas every day for a year, and then they would see about having it longer.

    • On the second Christmas, the girl's mother looks ready to cry over all the presents.

      Happened

      Her mother is ready to cry and says, "I'm sure I don't see how I'm to dispose of all these things."

    • Once frightened, the girl in the tale tells her mother about the wish.

      Didn't happen

      She wants to tell her mother, but she doesn't dare. She keeps the secret all to herself.

    • Turkeys become so scarce that people pass off humming-birds as turkeys.

      Happened

      People pass off almost anything for turkeys, including half-grown humming-birds and even rocs out of the Arabian Nights.

    • Christmas skips the First of April.

      Didn't happen

      It doesn't skip even the First of April, though everything is counterfeit that day, which is some little relief.

    • The police tell people to shovel their presents off the sidewalk.

      Happened

      Barns overflow with presents, and sometimes the police come and tell people to shovel their presents off the sidewalk or be arrested.

    • Papa admits the whole tale was only a dream.

      Didn't happen

      His daughter suggests it was all a dream, and papa answers, "No, indeed!" It was all every bit true.

    • People learn the girl caused the Christmases because she talks in her sleep.

      Happened

      She suffers so much that she talks about it in her sleep, and after that hardly anybody will play with her.

    • The listening daughter is happy with papa's first ending.

      Didn't happen

      When papa says Christmas was never going to come any more, she holds him fast and won't let him go to breakfast until it is Christmas once a year.

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