Only two of us from the regular team made it to bar trivia last night, and at the end of the first half we were down by 16 points (which I suppose is a lot, given that a perfect score for the first half is 50 points). But we battled through the second half and managed to eke out a win on the final question in a semi-themed Christmas game that wasn't always to our liking. Anyway, questions:

What modern country was home to the St. Nicholas who inspired Santa Claus? Turkey - We had no idea. I thought Hungary, Mason thought Romania. We went with the latter. We needed to head farther east.

What 1977 Jim Henson offering was a holiday special featuring otters that was narrated by Kermit the Frog? Emmett Otter's Jug Band Christmas (Sly) - I suppose it can only be this, given that there's not a wealth of otter-related holiday material out there. I had heard of this, but in no way did it enter my consciousness when we tried to answer the question. The guys running the game claim it merits classic status. I'll leave that open to the court of popular opinion. But really, of all nights for our resident Muppet fan to not be there...

What US state was the first to make Christmas an official state holiday, doing so in 1836 (I'll give you a less defining hint than we got: the state would later not be a US state for a while). Alabama - The actual clue we got was that it was a Gulf Coast state. We guessed Louisiana based on the somewhat jazzy music being played during the question.

In what ocean would you find Christmas Island? Indian Ocean (Paul) - we went with Pacific. I suppose we were close.

What actress played Audrey Griswold in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? Juliette Lewis (Chris) - she had pre-skank days? Anyway, I remembered that it was someone who was a "name" actress, just not who. For some reason Christina Ricci came to mind. Must have been all of her Addams Family work.

What four letters start the names of two - and only two - US states? K, S, T, and V (Paul, but with kudos to Jack for his alternate answer) - we had 'C' briefly, until I started writing out postal abbreviations and stumbled across CT. Go figure we forgot the one closest to us. I have a feeling this is where we made up some ground.

Who wrote "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" and all that)? (Hint: he may be better known to us young'uns for recurring cameos on a sitcom.) Mel Torme (Chris) - Were it not for the hint, we'd never have gotten it. Good thing I was a Night Court fan back in the day.

What country was the first to popularize Christmas trees? Germany (Brian) - we bet to hold second, not expecting that the team in first would miss this. I wonder what they put? I was a little nervous that it would be some other Germanic country, so perhaps they went with Austria or something. Not only did we get the win, but being only two of us, we had a credit left over from our $50 bar cash prize. Woo hoo!