Holidays

This evergreen glossary explains core Christmas terms, symbols, celebrations, and variations to serve as a reliable reference year after year. It focuses on established practice...

Rankin/Bass Productions, founded by Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, produced a distinctive slate of stop-motion and animated holiday television specials that aired primarily o...

Purim starts at sundown on Adar 14 in the Jewish calendar. Because the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, the civil date shifts each year, so Purim can fall between roughly mid-Febru...

The elephant Christmas gift exchange, often called white elephant or Yankee swap, is a festive tradition in which participants bring wrapped gifts and draw numbers to determine...

Christmas reindeer names refer to the reindeer associated with Santa Claus in popular tradition and story. The best-known include Rudolph, known for his red nose, and eight othe...

Thanksgiving H refers to the U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving, observed on the fourth Thursday of November, and the surrounding traditions that center on gratitude, harvest, and sha...

Memorial Day marks the start of summer for many Americans, but its core purpose is to remember those who died in military service. A memorial day hero can refer to a fallen serv...

The eight reindeer most closely tied to Christmas are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen; Rudolph joined later as a ninth leader. These names orig...

Carve your pumpkin on Halloween day or the evening before for the best look and longevity. A carved pumpkin begins to dry out and lose firmness immediately, so delaying carving...

A U.S. federal holiday is a calendar date designated by law for federal employees to receive paid time off. These holidays create three-day weekends or full days off depending o...