Grampa's Christmas Origins: Christmas Carols/References

General

References/Trivia

Appearances

Credits

Quotes

Cultural references

• Bart, tired of caroling, says he's "all fa-la-la-la-la'd out", referring to the Christmas carol "Deck the Halls".
• The "origin" portion of the story takes place during the plague pandemic, commonly referred to as the Black Death, which peaked in Europe during the middle of the fourteenth century.
• Grampa's account has Christmas caroling deriving from the custom of wassailing, which is essentially correct.
• The group of wassailers first recite, and later sing, the carol "Here We Come A-wassailing".
• Grampa's Christmas sweater has a picture of two reindeer sitting at a table and playing cards, a sight gag on the "Dogs Playing Poker" series of paintings by C. M. Coolidge.

Trivia

• Except for Grampa, Bart, Lisa and Reverend Lovejoy, all of the characters in the story appear as 14th-century versions of themselves.
• According to Grampa's narration, the origin story takes place in Europe. The location is not further specified.
• The characters in the group of wassailers are the same as in The Be Sharps.