Author: Lisa Mungovan

Get your favorite deck of cards out, because today is Card Playing Day! Do you know how to play Crazy 8’s, War, or Rummy? Or try another card game, like Uno. It’s also Chocolate Candy Day, so you could also learn to play Poker, and bet with chocolate, then eat all your winnings!

Last year, only 200 Western monarch butterflies showed up, in California’s Pismo Beach Butterfly Grove. Park rangers track the butterflies’ migration each year, and they’d never seen so few arrive. This year however, the monarchs were back in spectacular numbers. 100,000 orange-and-black butterflies, quietly fluttered on every tree, like a beautiful living curtain.

Stop. Don’t take down your Christmas decorations yet. It’s only the 3rd day of Christmas! You could celebrate Twelve Days of Christmas, by giving a gift each day. Any late packages, could still technically arrive on time. Enjoy the holidays, by baking cookies, spending time with your family, and singing the 12 Days of Christmas.

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!

What do you do when it’s Visit The Zoo Day, but it’s the middle of a pandemic? You visit the zoo virtually! Many zoos have livecams, to watch animals from home. See the giant pandas, on National Zoo’s Panda-Cam, view Vancouver Aquarium’s hypnotic Jellyfish-Cam, or watch insects at work, on Houston Zoo’s Leafcutter Ant-Cam.

Today is Make Cut-Out Snowflakes Day. Fold a square of paper in half, then in half again. Cut the corners off your folded square, then unfold it. See? The more cuts and folds you make, the fancier it will be! Look up a pattern online, to make a Mandalorian and Baby Yoda snowflake!

For the last 10 years, researchers have debated what left black, rocky glass, scattered across the Atacama Desert. Something happened 12,000 years ago, to heat up the 47-mile stretch of land in Chile, turning the sand into glass. They concluded that a comet had exploded just above the surface, and fragments fused to the ground.

The James Webb Space Telescope is on its way. The gigantic telescope was successfully launched yesterday. It will take a month to reach its destination, orbiting the Earth, almost 1,000,000 miles away. The Webb’s solar array is working, drawing power from the Sun, to charge up the batteries. Have a safe journey!

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!