Here are 125 Christmas trivia questions with answers, in seven rounds: easy ones for kids, family traditions, hard ones for adults, Christmas movies, songs and carols, food, and history. Play the quiz game 10 questions at a time, quiz one film at a time, or print every question with an answer key. Then read 25 Christmas fun facts.
Updated by the Frugal Santa elves
Pick a round. Ten questions, one at a time. Every right answer lights a bulb on the garland. Light them all and you are Head Elf. Movie fans can quiz one film at a time.
Quiz night at the North Pole
Or quiz one film: 5 questions
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Pick one of eight games: Easy for kids, Family, Hard for grown-ups, Movies, Songs, Food, History, or a Mixed bag from all 125 questions. Each game draws 10 questions at random and shuffles the four answers, so the right one moves around. Movie fans can also pick one film, such as “Home Alone” or “Elf,” for a quick quiz of five. Tap an answer, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. You find out at once if you got it right, along with a one-line fact, so everyone learns something even on a miss. Each right answer lights a bulb on the garland. At the end you get your score, an elf rank from the table below and a card to save or share. Play again starts with the questions you have not seen yet. Your best scores stay on your own device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and there is no sign-up.
| Score out of 10 | Elf rank |
|---|---|
| 10 | Head Elf |
| 8 to 9 | Master Toymaker |
| 6 to 7 | Sleigh Navigator |
| 4 to 5 | Ribbon Curler |
| 2 to 3 | Cocoa Stirrer |
| 0 to 1 | Snowflake Cadet |
In a five-question film quiz, each right answer counts double toward your rank.
The full bank has 125 questions, numbered and grouped into seven rounds. Each answer is folded away under “Show the answer,” so one person can read the questions out loud while everyone else guesses, then open the answer and read the fun fact. The Easy round sticks to things kids can see and sing at Christmas, like reindeer, stockings and snowflakes. The Family round travels from KFC dinners in Japan to the 13 Yule Lads of Iceland. The Hard round asks about dates and firsts, from the 1659 Christmas ban in Massachusetts to Apollo 8 in 1968. After those come the movie round, with six films and a few classics, then songs and carols, then food and history. The elves checked every answer against published sources in October 2026. Where an old story could not be pinned down, the question calls it a story or leaves it out. The answer key and printing tips are near the end.
125 Christmas trivia questions in seven rounds. The answer key is on the last pages. From frugalsanta.lol/christmas-trivia
Questions 1 to 16. Reindeer, snowflakes, stockings and songs. Read the four choices out loud for little ones, and let them shout the letter.
Question 1. In the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” how many reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh?
B. Eight. The poem names all eight, starting with Dasher and Dancer.
Question 2. In North America, what are wild reindeer called?
C. Caribou. Reindeer and caribou are the same animal. The tame ones are called reindeer.
Question 3. Which reindeer grow antlers?
D. Both boys and girls. In most other kinds of deer, only the males grow antlers.
Question 4. What is a baby reindeer called?
A. A calf. Mother reindeer keep their antlers all winter, until their calves are born in spring.
Question 5. What is the name of the Grinch’s dog?
C. Max. In Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book, Max pulls the Grinch’s sleigh all the way down to Whoville.
Question 6. Which plant do people kiss under at Christmas?
D. Mistletoe. European mistletoe has white berries, not red ones.
Question 7. How many arms does a classic snowflake have?
A. Six. Ice forms six-sided crystals, so a snowflake’s arms grow from the six corners of a tiny hexagon.
Question 8. What do many children in Britain call Santa?
B. Father Christmas. In France he is Père Noël.
Question 9. Which country is usually credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition?
D. Germany. An 1848 drawing of Queen Victoria’s family around a tree made the custom popular in Britain.
Question 10. In Australia, Christmas comes in which season?
C. Summer. December is summer south of the equator, and Christmas Day cricket games pop up in backyards, parks and beaches.
Question 11. What flavor is a classic red-and-white candy cane?
B. Peppermint. Nobody knows who added the first stripes, but an 1844 recipe book already explained how to make striped peppermint candy sticks.
Question 12. What do children hang up for Santa to fill?
A. Stockings. In the 1823 poem, the stockings are hung “by the chimney with care.”
Question 13. In the song, how many days of Christmas are there?
B. Twelve. They run from December 25 to January 5. The words were printed in a London children’s book around 1780.
Question 14. What does “Feliz Navidad” mean?
A. Merry Christmas. It is Spanish. José Feliciano wrote and recorded the song in 1970.
Question 15. In the stories, where does Santa live?
C. The North Pole. In 1866, cartoonist Thomas Nast labeled a drawing of Santa’s home “Santa Claussville, N.P.” It is often called the first known link.
Question 16. What do many American kids leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve?
D. Milk and cookies. In Britain, children often leave Father Christmas a mince pie instead.
Questions 17 to 32. How Christmas is kept from Japan to Iceland, plus carols, books and a little history. Good for a mixed table of kids and grown-ups.
Question 17. In which country is a bucket of KFC a popular Christmas dinner?
C. Japan. It grew from KFC Japan’s “Kentucky for Christmas” campaign, which began in 1974.
Question 18. Which country sends London a giant tree for Trafalgar Square every Christmas?
A. Norway. Oslo has sent one every year since 1947 as thanks for Britain’s help in World War II.
Question 19. In Italy, who flies on a broomstick to bring presents on the night of January 5?
D. La Befana. She comes the night before Epiphany and fills children’s stockings with sweets and toys. Her lumps of “coal” are often dark candy called carbone.
Question 20. How does Sinterklaas arrive in the Netherlands each November?
B. By steamboat. Dutch tradition says he sails in from Spain. The big present night is December 5.
Question 21. The bright red “petals” of a poinsettia are really what?
D. Leaves. Poinsettias come from Mexico. Joel Poinsett is credited with bringing them to the United States in the 1820s.
Question 22. Who wrote “A Christmas Carol”?
B. Charles Dickens. It came out in December 1843, and the first 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve.
Question 23. In which country was “Silent Night” first sung?
A. Austria. Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber first sang it in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, on Christmas Eve 1818.
Question 24. Which song did two astronauts play on a tiny harmonica and bells in space in December 1965?
C. “Jingle Bells”. Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford played it aboard Gemini 6A on December 16, 1965. The Smithsonian says the harmonica and bells were the first musical instruments played in space.
Question 25. Which North American air defense command follows Santa’s flight every Christmas Eve?
A. NORAD. The story goes that it began in 1955, when a child’s phone call reached Colonel Harry Shoup at the air defense center.
Question 26. What is Santa’s postal code in Canada?
C. H0H 0H0. Canada Post answers letters sent to Santa at that code, and they need no stamp.
Question 27. The Christmas Truce of 1914 happened during which war?
D. World War I. British and German soldiers on the Western Front sang carols and met in no man’s land.
Question 28. The real Saint Nicholas was a bishop in a town that is now in which country?
B. Turkey. The town was Myra, now called Demre. His feast day is December 6.
Question 29. In what year was the book “The Elf on the Shelf” published?
B. 2005. Carol Aebersold wrote it with her daughter Chanda Bell, from a family tradition.
Question 30. Who wrote the music for “The Nutcracker” ballet?
D. Tchaikovsky. It opened in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 1892.
Question 31. Las Posadas, nine nights of processions from December 16 to 24, comes from which country?
A. Mexico. Each night, people act out Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay.
Question 32. How many Yule Lads visit children in Iceland before Christmas?
C. 13. One arrives each night from December 12, and good children find a small gift in a shoe on the windowsill.
“The Elf on the Shelf” is a registered trademark of CCA and B, LLC. Frugal Santa is not affiliated with it.
Questions 33 to 48. Dates, firsts and one famous myth. If your table gets more than half of these, you are a quiz team to fear.
Question 33. In the first printing of the 1823 poem, what were Donner and Blitzen called?
C. Dunder and Blixem. Those come from an old Dutch oath meaning thunder and lightning. An 1844 book of Clement Clarke Moore’s poems changed them to Donder and Blitzen.
Question 34. What was “Jingle Bells” called when it was first published in 1857?
D. “The One Horse Open Sleigh”. James Lord Pierpont wrote it. It was renamed “Jingle Bells” in 1859.
Question 35. Who put the first electric lights on a Christmas tree, in 1882?
B. Edward H. Johnson. Edison’s business associate hand-wired 80 red, white and blue bulbs on a tree in his New York home.
Question 36. Which American colony fined people for celebrating Christmas from 1659 to 1681?
A. Massachusetts Bay. The fine was five shillings.
Question 37. In what year did Christmas become a US federal holiday?
A. 1870. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the law on June 28, 1870.
Question 38. Who commissioned the first Christmas cards sold to the public, in 1843?
B. Sir Henry Cole. Artist John Callcott Horsley drew the card, and the first batch was about 1,000 copies, at a shilling each.
Question 39. “Carol of the Bells” is based on a folk song from which country?
C. Ukraine. Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” is about a swallow. Peter Wilhousky wrote the English words, about bells, in 1936.
Question 40. Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean was named on Christmas Day in which year?
D. 1643. Captain William Mynors of the ship Royal Mary named it as he sailed past.
Question 41. Add up every gift in all twelve verses of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” How many?
B. 364. That is one gift for every day of the year but one.
Question 42. The X in “Xmas” comes from which alphabet?
A. Greek. X is the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christos.
Question 43. Which US president lit the first National Christmas Tree, in 1923?
D. Calvin Coolidge. It was a 48-foot fir from Vermont, Coolidge’s home state, lit with more than 2,500 bulbs.
Question 44. Haddon Sundblom’s famous Santa ads for Coca-Cola began in 1931. Did they give Santa his red suit?
C. No, he wore red in pictures long before. It is a myth. Coca-Cola’s own history page says Santa wore a red coat before Sundblom painted him.
Question 45. Reindeer eyes change color with the seasons. What color are they in winter?
C. Deep blue. They are gold in summer. A 2013 study found the blue helps them see in the long Arctic dark.
Question 46. London sweet maker Tom Smith is usually credited with inventing which Christmas tradition in the 1840s?
B. The Christmas cracker. He began by wrapping sweets with little love notes in twisted paper. The bang came later.
Question 47. Who put up the first Christmas tree at New York’s Rockefeller Center, in 1931?
A. The construction workers building it. They trimmed a 20-foot fir with paper garlands and tin cans. The first official lighting was in 1933.
Question 48. On Christmas Eve 1968, which crew read from the Book of Genesis while circling the Moon?
D. Apollo 8. They read it on a live TV broadcast that showed pictures of the Earth and the Moon.
The movie round has 37 questions: five each on six favorite films, then seven on older classics and TV specials. The six films are “Home Alone” (1990), “Elf” (2003), “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989), “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (the 1966 cartoon and the 2000 film), “A Christmas Story” (1983) and “The Polar Express” (the 1985 picture book and the 2004 film). The questions go after the scenes families quote every December: a Christmas bonus that is not what anyone hoped for, a present that might shoot your eye out, a heart that grows, and a burglar plan that goes very wrong. Each has four choices and a fun fact about the cast or the making of the film. The questions stay clean for the whole family. To quiz one film at a time, pick it on the game board above, or jump straight to it below.
Questions 49 to 85. Five questions on each of six favorite films, then seven on older classics and TV specials.
Question 49. In “Home Alone” (1990), where is Kevin’s family flying when they leave him behind?
D. Paris. The family oversleeps after a power cut, and Kevin is left behind in the rush.
Question 50. In “Home Alone,” the burglars Harry and Marv are known as what?
B. The Wet Bandits. In “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992) they become the Sticky Bandits.
Question 51. What is the old gangster movie Kevin plays to scare off the pizza driver and the burglars?
C. “Angels with Filthy Souls”. It is a made-up film, shot just for “Home Alone.”
Question 52. John Candy plays Gus Polinski, who helps Kevin’s mom get home. What kind of music does his band play?
A. Polka. “Home Alone” held the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing live-action comedy until 2011.
Question 53. What does Kevin’s neighbor, Old Man Marley, use to knock out Harry and Marv?
A. A snow shovel. Kevin’s big brother Buzz had spread scary rumors about him, but Marley turns out to be kind.
Question 54. In “Elf” (2003), which city does Buddy travel to so he can find his dad?
D. New York City. Buddy likes maple syrup on his spaghetti, even at breakfast.
Question 55. How does baby Buddy end up at the North Pole?
B. He crawls into Santa’s sack at an orphanage. Will Ferrell plays the grown-up Buddy, and Jon Favreau directed the film.
Question 56. Where does Buddy meet Jovie?
C. At the Gimbels department store. Zooey Deschanel plays Jovie, who works at the store.
Question 57. What does Buddy’s father, Walter Hobbs, do for a living?
B. He publishes children’s books. His office is in the Empire State Building. James Caan plays him.
Question 58. At the end of “Elf,” what gets Santa’s sleigh flying after its engine fails?
D. Christmas spirit. Jovie leads a crowd in singing “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town” until there is enough spirit to lift it.
Question 59. In “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” (1989), how many lights does Clark Griswold put on his house?
C. 25,000. When they finally light up, they cause a citywide power shortage.
Question 60. What does Clark get instead of the Christmas bonus he expected?
A. A year in the Jelly of the Month Club. Clark works for a food preservative company. His boss is Frank Shirley.
Question 61. What was Clark planning to buy with his bonus?
D. A swimming pool. Chevy Chase plays Clark. John Hughes, who also wrote “Home Alone,” wrote the script.
Question 62. What jumps out of the Griswolds’ Christmas tree?
A. A squirrel. It runs out of the tree and causes chaos all through the house.
Question 63. Cousin Eddie shows up without warning in what?
B. An RV. Randy Quaid plays Eddie, the husband of Ellen’s cousin Catherine.
Question 64. Where does the Grinch live, high above Whoville?
C. On Mt. Crumpit. Dr. Seuss’s book came out in 1957. The cartoon first aired on CBS on December 18, 1966.
Question 65. By how many sizes does the Grinch’s heart grow?
A. Three. Chuck Jones directed the 1966 TV special.
Question 66. Which little Who catches the Grinch taking her family’s Christmas tree?
B. Cindy Lou Who. In the 2000 film, Taylor Momsen plays her.
Question 67. In the 1966 cartoon, who sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch”?
D. Thurl Ravenscroft. He was left out of the credits, so many people thought the narrator, Boris Karloff, sang it.
Question 68. Who plays the Grinch in Ron Howard’s 2000 film?
C. Jim Carrey. The film won an Academy Award for its makeup. Anthony Hopkins narrates.
Question 69. In “A Christmas Story” (1983), what does Ralphie want for Christmas?
B. A Red Ryder BB gun. His mother, his teacher and a department store Santa all warn him, “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
Question 70. What “major award” does Ralphie’s father win?
C. A lamp shaped like a leg. He wins it in a newspaper contest.
Question 71. After a dare, what does Ralphie’s friend Flick get his tongue stuck to?
A. A frozen flagpole. The fire department has to come and free him.
Question 72. Ralphie finally decodes the secret radio message with his decoder pin. What is it?
D. An ad for Ovaltine. Jean Shepherd, whose stories the film is based on, narrates as the grown-up Ralphie.
Question 73. Where do the Parkers eat Christmas dinner after the neighbor’s dogs eat the turkey?
C. At a Chinese restaurant. Since 1997, a 24-hour marathon of the film has aired on cable TV every Christmas, first on TNT and later on TBS.
Question 74. In “The Polar Express,” what does the boy choose as the first gift of Christmas?
B. A silver bell from Santa’s sleigh. In the book, an elf cuts it from a reindeer’s harness.
Question 75. Who wrote and illustrated the 1985 picture book “The Polar Express”?
D. Chris Van Allsburg. The book won the Caldecott Medal in 1986.
Question 76. In the 2004 film, what do the dancing waiters serve the children on the train?
A. Hot chocolate. Robert Zemeckis made the film with motion capture: the actors’ movements were recorded and turned into animation.
Question 77. How many roles does Tom Hanks play in the 2004 film?
D. Six. They include the conductor, the hobo and Santa Claus.
Question 78. How does the boy lose Santa’s bell on the way home?
C. It falls through a hole in his pocket. On Christmas morning, his sister Sarah finds it in a small box behind the tree. Only people who truly believe can hear it ring.
Question 79. In “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), what is the name of George Bailey’s guardian angel?
A. Clarence. Clarence is an Angel Second Class who is trying to earn his wings.
Question 80. In “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), which store hires Kris Kringle as its Santa?
B. Macy’s. Edmund Gwenn won an Academy Award for playing Kris.
Question 81. Who is the Pumpkin King in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993)?
A. Jack Skellington. Zero, Jack’s ghost dog, has a tiny jack-o’-lantern for a nose.
Question 82. In what year did “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first air on TV?
D. 1965. It premiered on CBS on December 9, 1965, with jazz by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Question 83. Who narrates the 1969 TV special “Frosty the Snowman”?
C. Jimmy Durante. It first aired on CBS on December 7, 1969. Jackie Vernon is the voice of Frosty.
Question 84. Who plays Bob Cratchit in “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992)?
B. Kermit the Frog. Gonzo plays Charles Dickens and tells the story. Michael Caine plays Scrooge.
Question 85. In “The Santa Clause” (1994), what is the name of the dad who becomes Santa?
C. Scott Calvin. Tim Allen plays him.
These 16 questions cover old carols and the hits that come back on the radio every December. The carols travel from Wales and France to a duke in Bohemia who became a king in song, plus a hymn tune borrowed from a famous German composer. The hits include songs written to beat a summer heat wave, a comedian’s song from a 1951 film, a teenager who recorded a classic, and a 1984 single that waited decades for its first No. 1 in Britain. Every question is about titles, writers, dates and stories, never the words of a song, so nobody needs a songbook and nobody has to sing (unless they want to). For a guess-the-song game at a party, read the fun fact out loud as a clue and ask for the title. The first three rounds have a few more songs, including the one two astronauts played in space in 1965.
Questions 86 to 101. Who wrote them, when, and the stories behind them.
Question 86. Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” was written for which 1942 movie?
A. “Holiday Inn”. Guinness World Records lists Bing Crosby’s recording as the best-selling physical single, at an estimated 50 million copies.
Question 87. In what year did Mariah Carey release “All I Want for Christmas Is You”?
B. 1994. It first reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019, 25 years later.
Question 88. How old was Brenda Lee when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958?
D. 13. The song finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2023.
Question 89. Mel Tormé and Bob Wells wrote “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”) on what kind of day?
D. A hot July day. Tormé said they were trying to stay cool by thinking cool. The Nat King Cole Trio recorded it in 1946.
Question 90. Which comedian sings “Silver Bells” in the 1951 film “The Lemon Drop Kid”?
A. Bob Hope. He sings it with Marilyn Maxwell. The songwriters first called it “Tinkle Bell.”
Question 91. “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!” is a Christmas favorite. How many times do its words mention Christmas?
C. Not once. Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne wrote it in July 1945, during a Hollywood heat wave.
Question 92. The tune of “Deck the Halls” comes from which country?
B. Wales. It began as “Nos Galan,” a Welsh New Year’s Eve song. The English words by Thomas Oliphant date from 1862.
Question 93. “O Holy Night” was first written in which language?
A. French. Placide Cappeau wrote the poem in December 1847, and Adolphe Adam set it to music within days.
Question 94. In “Good King Wenceslas,” the king looks out on the Feast of Stephen. Which day is that?
C. December 26. The real Wenceslas was a duke of Bohemia who lived from 907 to 935. John Mason Neale wrote the words in 1853.
Question 95. Wham!’s “Last Christmas” came out in 1984. When did it first reach No. 1 in the UK?
B. 2021. In 1984 it lost the top spot to Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”, which George Michael also sang on.
Question 96. What was “The Little Drummer Boy” first called?
D. “Carol of the Drum”. Katherine Kennicott Davis wrote it in 1941. The Harry Simeone Chorale’s 1958 single made it a hit.
Question 97. “Mele Kalikimaka” means Merry Christmas in which language?
B. Hawaiian. R. Alex Anderson wrote the song in 1949, and Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters recorded it in 1950.
Question 98. In “Frosty the Snowman,” what brings Frosty to life?
C. A magic silk hat. Walter “Jack” Rollins and Steve Nelson wrote the song, and it was first recorded in 1950.
Question 99. The tune of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” comes from which composer?
D. Felix Mendelssohn. Charles Wesley wrote the words in 1739. In 1855, William H. Cummings fitted them to music Mendelssohn wrote in 1840.
Question 100. Judy Garland first sang “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” in which 1944 movie?
A. “Meet Me in St. Louis”. Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane wrote it.
Question 101. For many years, which famous man was wrongly said to have written “Away in a Manger”?
C. Martin Luther. Its oldest known printing, in 1882, called it “Luther’s Cradle Song,” but the carol is now thought to be American.
Two shorter rounds of 12 finish the bank. The food round sits down at Christmas tables around the world: a French cake shaped like something from the woodpile, a fruit bread from a German city, a Polish supper that waits for a sign in the sky, a Japanese cake with fruit on top, and a pudding with something hidden inside. It also asks what Scrooge sends the Cratchits and what old English mince pies used to hold. The history round starts in ancient Rome and moves through a ban in England, a river crossing in 1776, the first department store Santa, a red kettle, a famous letter to a New York newspaper, and the first Christmas stamp in the United States. Sources include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the White House Historical Association and the US Postal Service. Each answer has a short fact under it, so the host has something to read out after every question.
Questions 102 to 113. What families eat at Christmas, from Milan to Tokyo, plus two famous puddings and one very lucky turkey.
Question 102. In “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” which pudding do the singers ask for?
D. Figgy pudding. In England’s West Country, “figgy pudding” meant a raisin or plum pudding, which may not have any figs in it.
Question 103. The French bûche de Noël is a cake shaped like what?
A. A log. It is a rolled sponge cake made to look like a Yule log. It dates from the 1800s, probably in France.
Question 104. Panettone, a tall sweet bread with raisins and candied orange, comes from which Italian city?
B. Milan. Its domed top rises from a round, straight-sided base.
Question 105. Stollen, a fruit bread dusted with powdered sugar, is famous in which German city?
D. Dresden. Dresden’s stollen was first named in an official document in 1474. Its old name, Striezel, lives on in the city’s Christmas market, the Striezelmarkt.
Question 106. Four hundred years ago, English mince pies were usually filled with what?
C. Meat. A 1604 recipe used mutton and beef suet. Through the 1800s, cooks dropped the meat but often kept the suet.
Question 107. The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian American dinner on which night?
B. Christmas Eve. It is also called la Vigilia, the vigil, and it grew from a Southern Italian custom.
Question 108. Which food, made of corn dough wrapped in a husk, do many Mexican families make together at Christmas?
A. Tamales. A tamale-making party is called a tamalada. Many families eat the tamales after Mass on Christmas Eve.
Question 109. In Poland, when does the Christmas Eve supper, Wigilia, traditionally begin?
B. When the first star appears. The meal often has twelve dishes, and many families set an extra place for an unexpected guest.
Question 110. What did British families traditionally hide in the Christmas pudding for luck?
A. A silver coin. Usually it was a silver threepence or sixpence. Everyone in the house took a turn stirring the mix and making a wish.
Question 111. Which English queen had gingerbread figures made to look like her important guests?
C. Elizabeth I. It is the first known record of gingerbread shaped like people.
Question 112. In Japan, what is the classic Christmas cake?
D. A sponge cake with whipped cream and strawberries. It is usually eaten on Christmas Eve, often with a little Santa on top.
Question 113. At the end of “A Christmas Carol,” what does Scrooge send to the Cratchit family?
C. The prize turkey from the poulterer’s. Earlier in the story, the Cratchits made one small goose stretch for the whole family.
Questions 114 to 125. From ancient Rome to the first US Christmas stamp: dates, firsts and a few famous stories.
Question 114. Which Roman winter festival in December had feasts, gifts and role reversals?
A. Saturnalia. It honored the god Saturn. It began on December 17 and grew to seven days.
Question 115. The oldest known record of Christmas on December 25 comes from which city, in AD 336?
D. Rome. It is in a Roman calendar book now called the Chronograph of 354.
Question 116. In 1647, which country’s Puritan rulers banned Christmas?
B. England. It came back as a legal holiday in 1660, when King Charles II returned to the throne.
Question 117. Which general led his army across the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776?
D. George Washington. The next morning, December 26, his troops won the Battle of Trenton.
Question 118. Thomas Nast’s first Santa drawing, “Santa Claus in Camp,” appeared in January 1863 in which magazine?
B. Harper’s Weekly. It showed Santa handing out gifts to Union soldiers during the Civil War.
Question 119. Which president had the first known Christmas tree inside the White House, in 1889?
A. Benjamin Harrison. The White House Historical Association says it stood upstairs and was trimmed with candles for his grandchildren.
Question 120. Who is usually credited as the first department store Santa, in 1890?
C. James Edgar. He wore the suit in his store in Brockton, Massachusetts, and children came by train from Boston and Providence to see him.
Question 121. The Salvation Army’s red Christmas kettle began in 1891 in which city?
A. San Francisco. Captain Joseph McFee wanted to pay for a free Christmas dinner, so he set out a pot with a sign: “Keep the Pot Boiling.”
Question 122. In 1897, eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote to a New York newspaper with a question about Santa. Which paper answered?
C. The Sun. Editor Francis Pharcellus Church wrote the reply, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.” It is the most reprinted newspaper editorial in English.
Question 123. The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, in 1924, ended with whose arrival?
D. Santa Claus. Santa was crowned “King of the Kiddies” at the store in Herald Square.
Question 124. In what year did the US Post Office issue its first Christmas stamp?
B. 1962. The 4-cent stamp showed a wreath, two candles and the words “Christmas 1962.”
Question 125. Many Orthodox churches, such as those in Russia and Serbia, celebrate Christmas on January 7. Why?
B. They follow the older Julian calendar. December 25 on the Julian calendar falls on January 7 on the calendar most of the world uses today.
These 25 Christmas fun facts run in date order, from the first time the word “Christmas” was written down, in 1038, to a count of Christmas trees cut in 2022, and end with two customs that come back every year. Each one has a year or a date, and the elves checked every one against a published source in October 2026. Some are about traditions far from home, like a giant straw goat in Sweden and a radish-carving contest in Mexico. Others are about things you see every December, such as light strings, artificial trees and glass baubles, and where they came from. Two famous people were born on Christmas Day, and three American towns have Christmas names. None of these facts repeats a quiz question above, so you can read them out after the last round and nobody gets a free point. For the history of the candy cane, Santa’s reindeer or where Santa lives, the elves keep separate pages.
The word “Christmas” was first written down in 1038, as Crīstesmæsse: Christ’s Mass.
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day 1642, by the calendar England used then. On today’s calendar, that day was January 4, 1643.
Moravian settlers named Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, on Christmas Eve 1741. In 1937 the city took the nickname Christmas City USA.
The name “Santa Claus” first appeared in the American press in 1773. It grew out of Sinterklaas, the Dutch name for Saint Nicholas.
The first artificial Christmas trees were made in Germany in the 1800s, from goose feathers dyed green.
Clara Barton, who founded the American Red Cross in 1881, was born on Christmas Day 1821 in Massachusetts.
The oldest known order for glass Christmas baubles is in an 1848 order book from Lauscha, a glassblowing town in Germany.
December 12 is National Poinsettia Day. Joel Roberts Poinsett, who is credited with bringing the plant to the United States from Mexico, died on that day in 1851.
The town of Santa Claus, Indiana, got its name in 1856. Thousands of letters to Santa arrive there every year, and volunteers called Santa’s Elves answer them.
Every December 23, Oaxaca, Mexico, holds the Night of the Radishes, when people carve giant radishes into whole scenes. The city made it a formal contest in 1897.
General Electric began selling ready-made sets of Christmas tree lights in 1903. Before that, an electrician had to wire each bulb separately.
The first Christmas seal, an extra charity stamp for holiday mail, came out in Denmark in 1904. A postal clerk, Einar Holbøll, had the idea, and the money helped children sick with tuberculosis.
In 1912, the US Postmaster General let postal workers and the public answer children’s letters to Santa. The program grew into Operation Santa.
King’s College in Cambridge, England, first held its Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols on Christmas Eve 1918, and the BBC first broadcast it in 1928. The boy who sings the opening solo is told only just before it starts.
In the 1930s, a British brush company called Addis made artificial trees out of brush bristles, the same way it made toilet brushes.
Every year since 1944, Iceland’s book trade has sent a catalog of new books to homes before Christmas. Icelanders swap books on Christmas Eve and spend the evening reading.
North Pole, Alaska, became a city on January 15, 1953. It is about 1,700 miles south of the real North Pole, and its street lights are decorated like candy canes.
Shiny aluminum Christmas trees were first made in Chicago in 1958. Sales fell after the TV special “A Charlie Brown Christmas” poked fun at them.
On December 1, 1966, the Swedish town of Gävle put up a straw goat 13 meters (43 feet) tall for Christmas. A new goat goes up every year, and more than 40 of them have been damaged or destroyed.
Bing Crosby and David Bowie sang a duet of “Peace on Earth” and “The Little Drummer Boy” for Crosby’s 1977 Christmas TV special.
In 2013, a gingerbread house in Bryan, Texas, set the Guinness World Record for the biggest ever, at 39,201 cubic feet inside.
In 2014, the Gay family of LaGrangeville, New York, set a Guinness World Record with 601,736 lights on their home.
The United States cut more than 14.5 million Christmas trees in 2022, and more than half of them grew in just two states, Oregon and North Carolina.
In the Philippines, Christmas decorations and carols can start in September. Nine dawn Masses, called Simbang Gabi, run from December 16 to 24.
On Saint Lucy’s Day in Sweden, a girl in a white dress wears a crown of candles and leads a procession with saffron buns.
Press the Print button below, or use your browser’s own Print command. The printout leaves out the quiz game, the pictures and the folded answers, so you get clean question sheets for all 125 questions, round by round, with the four choices under each one. The answer key below starts on a new page after the last round, with each question number, the right letter and the answer. To keep a copy as a PDF, pick “Save as PDF” where you would normally choose a printer. For a party, print one copy for the host and keep the key out of sight, or tear it off and pass the question pages around the table. Teams can write their answers as letters, A to D, which makes marking quick: the host reads the key out loud and the teams swap sheets to check. If you only want one round, print the whole thing and keep the pages you need.
Christmas trivia answer key
All 125 questions, the quiz game and 25 fun facts: frugalsanta.lol/christmas-trivia. Read Santa a question on a live video call at frugalsanta.lol.
You need a host, a few teams, paper, pens and a list of questions. Split the room into teams of two to five, and mix kids with grown-ups so every team has someone for the Easy round and someone for the Hard one. Play four rounds of 10. The host reads each question twice, teams whisper and write, and nobody shouts out. After each round, teams swap sheets and mark each other’s while the host reads the answers and the fun facts. One point per right answer keeps the scoring simple. Keep the scoreboard where everyone can see it, and save a tie-breaker for the end. With 125 questions on this page you can run four full rounds and still have a movie round left for film fans. Print the questions and the answer key first, so the host has every answer on paper and nobody needs a phone at the table. Between rounds, play Christmas charades or Christmas bingo.
Yes. On a live video call, Santa listens and answers out loud, so you can read him a question from the movie round and hear what he says. Ask which Christmas film he likes best, or test him on old carols. You can also ask Santa for a trivia question of his own, then tell him what you are hoping for this year. Santa is an AI video character. Kids call with a grown-up, and grown-ups call for themselves. It works in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no app, and you need a microphone but not a camera. Calls cost $1 a minute, with no subscription. After the call, the wishes come back as a list with real store prices, lowest first. Talk to Santa on a live video call, or read how a call with Santa works first. Warm up with the names of Santa’s reindeer or some Christmas jokes for kids.
Questions about things kids can see and hear at Christmas: reindeer, snowflakes, stockings and songs. The Easy round has 16, such as how many reindeer pull the sleigh in the 1823 poem (eight) and how many arms a classic snowflake has (six). For younger kids, read the four choices out loud.
Four rounds of 10 is easy to run: 40 questions, with breaks for marking and snacks in between. This page has 125, so you can play four full rounds and still have spares if a question gets spoiled.
Try this one: in the first printing of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823, what were Donner and Blitzen called? The answer is Dunder and Blixem, old Dutch words for thunder and lightning. The Hard round has 15 more like it.
Ask where Kevin’s family flies in “Home Alone” (Paris), what Clark Griswold gets instead of a bonus in “Christmas Vacation” (a year in the Jelly of the Month Club), and how many sizes the Grinch’s heart grows (three). The movie round has 37 questions, five for each of six films plus seven classics.
Isaac Newton was born on Christmas Day in 1642, by the calendar England used then. A town in Sweden has put up a giant straw goat every Christmas since 1966, and the first one stood 43 feet tall. And a city in Alaska called North Pole has street lights decorated like candy canes. The fun facts section has 25 like these, each with a date.
No. Coca-Cola’s Santa ads by the artist Haddon Sundblom began in 1931 and shaped how many people picture him. But Santa already wore red in earlier drawings, and Coca-Cola’s own history page says so.
Yes. The quiz game and all 125 questions and answers are free, with no sign-up. Only a live video call with Santa costs money, at $1 a minute.
Yes. Press the Print button in the answer key section and choose “Save as PDF.” You get every question, round by round, and the answer key on its own pages at the end. The quiz game and pictures are left out.
Live videoRead Santa a question from the movie round and hear his answer, live on video. Then tell him what you want for Christmas. $1 a minute.
Call Santa
