Category: Kids News

Today is Fruitcake Day! Fruitcake has a bad reputation, but it’s really a delicious cake made with candied fruit and nuts. Ancient Romans used pomegranate seeds and pine nuts. Honey and spices were added in the Middle Ages. One family, keeps a fruitcake as a family heirloom. Their great-great-grandmother, Fidelia Ford, baked it in 18 78!

A newly-discovered species of frog, has fangs. Although most frogs have tiny teeth lining their upper jaw, fanged frogs have 2 bony fangs jutting from their lower jaw. Many fanged frogs weigh up to 2 pounds, but the tiny Limnonectes phyllofolia, is only the size of a quarter, and lays its eggs on leaves.

Today is Candy Cane Day. For centuries, candy canes were peppermint-flavored, red-and-white-striped, sticks of candy. In recent years, the flavors have expanded to include fruit punch, cinnamon, and watermelon, with bright colors to match. Those seem fine, but you can also get mac-and-cheese, ham, pickle, rotisserie chicken, pizza, or clam candy canes! Yuck!

Did you receive any presents over the holidays? Today is Thank You Note Day, so write an old-fashioned letter to say thanks! It’s also Whiners Day. You’re allowed to complain about anything, except for what you didn’t get for Christmas! The day was created to encourage people to be thankful for what you have!

December 26th, St Stephen’s Day, is known as Boxing Day in many countries. It’s named for the Christmas box some employers give to their employees, or the donation box outside churches. In Ireland, it’s also the Day of the Wren. Straw-costumed Wrenboys parade through town, singing and dancing, and collecting money for charity.

Do you celebrate Kwanzaa? The week-long celebration of African-American culture, runs from December 26th to January 1st, with a feast on the 6th day. Red, black, or green candles are lit each night, to observe the 7 principles of Kwanzaa, which include unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.

Sometimes extreme cold gives you a runny nose. Cold-induced rhinitis can cause your nose to drip a cup of fluid a day! When you inhale, your nose has to make the air warm and wet to avoid irritating your lung cells. Secretions create humidity, but sometimes your nose just makes more than necessary.

A popular Christmas gift for kids years ago used to be a chemistry set. But those sets could be dangerous! They contained poisonous cyanide to dissolve gold, blowtorches to make glass test tubes, radioactive uranium to practice measuring radiation, and carcinogenic asbestos to dust for fingerprints. Now some chemistry sets don’t even contain chemicals!

Christmas tradition says a star overhead marked the location where Jesus was born. The Bible describes how wise men followed a star to Bethlehem. Some people think the star was really a UFO! They also think Jesus was an alien who could shift shapes. Whatever you believe, Happy Christmas!

Today is Pumpkin Pie Day. Try making one from your leftover Halloween pumpkin! Just kidding, those are all rotten! It’s easiest to use pumpkin in a can, to make a fresh-baked pie. It’s also A’phabet, or No “L” Day. The ABC’s, minus the L, is Noel, another name for Christmas!