A Redbird Christmas
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40 free A Redbird Christmas trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Fannie Flagg's novel A Redbird Christmas is a much-loved holiday read: a short, warm story about a lonely man who is told he has little time left and ends up in a tiny river town called Lost River, where the neighbors, a little girl named Patsy and a bird named Jack change everything. This quiz covers the whole book: why Oswald T. Campbell leaves home, the people he meets, the secret society of local women, Patsy's troubles and the small miracle the town arranges. A handful of questions look at Flagg herself, from her television years to her other novels. It is written for book clubs, for readers who have just finished the novel, and for anyone who rereads it each December. Every answer comes with a short explanation.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The orphaned hero of A Redbird Christmas tells his landlady he was named after which everyday pantry item?
A can of soup
A can of soup is where his name came from, he admits when Betty Kitchen coaxes out his life story.
Q 02Jack, the pet redbird in Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas, is which bird known for the male's bright red feathers?
Cardinal
Cardinal and redbird are two names for the same bird, and Jack is no ordinary one: he is the unofficial mascot of Lost River.
Q 03How does Claude Underwood deliver the mail around Lost River in Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas?
By boat
By boat is how Claude makes his rounds, just as carriers do on Alabama's real Magnolia River, said to be the only year-round river mail route in the US.
Q 04Which wintry Midwestern city does Oswald T. Campbell leave behind for Alabama in A Redbird Christmas?
Chicago
Chicago is in the grip of an early November blizzard as the story opens, with Oswald trudging through slush to a fateful appointment.
Q 05A Redbird Christmas author Fannie Flagg earned an Oscar nomination for adapting which of her novels for the screen?
Fried Green Tomatoes
Fried Green Tomatoes began as her 1987 novel about the Whistle Stop Cafe, and the 1991 film starred Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy.
Q 06The secret society of Lost River women in A Redbird Christmas is the Mystic Order of the Royal what?
Polka Dots
Polka Dots is the name, and its members do good deeds on the sly, which includes fixing up the unattached men of the town.
Q 07Which rare weather reaches the Alabama town of Lost River for the holiday in A Redbird Christmas?
A snowfall
A snowfall arrives on top of the small miracle the townsfolk arrange for Patsy, a rare sight in a town Oswald chose for its mild winters.
Q 08Which terminal lung disease is Oswald T. Campbell diagnosed with at the start of A Redbird Christmas?
Emphysema
Emphysema gives Oswald barely a year to live, so he heads for a warmer place expecting to spend one last holiday there.
Q 09Oswald phones Lost River about a health resort from an old brochure in A Redbird Christmas and learns what?
It burned down
It burned down in 1911, decades before his call, so the woman who answers the phone finds him a room with a neighbor instead.
Q 10A teacher who saw A Redbird Christmas author Fannie Flagg on a TV game show wrote to say she had which condition?
Dyslexia
Dyslexia showed in the pattern of her misspelled answers, and Flagg said she had never heard of the condition until the teacher's note arrived.
Q 11Roy Grimmit, keeper of the redbird Jack in A Redbird Christmas, runs which Lost River business?
The grocery store
The grocery store, which also sells bait and beer, is the only one in town, so almost everybody drops in on Roy and his bird.
Q 12Which physical problem does the neglected young Patsy have when she first appears in A Redbird Christmas?
A twisted leg
A twisted leg makes every trip into town a struggle for Patsy, yet she keeps limping in to visit the bird at Roy's shop.
Q 13Who gives Oswald T. Campbell the old brochure for an Alabama health resort in A Redbird Christmas?
His doctor
His doctor recalls that his own father used to send lung patients there, and digs the brochure out of the old man's files.
Q 21Mildred, the woman Frances wants Oswald to court in A Redbird Christmas, keeps changing what every few days?
Her hair color
Her hair color turns another outrageous shade every few days, which worries the matchmaker trying to pair her off.
Q 22Matchmaker Frances Cleverdon hopes to pair newcomer Oswald with which relative of hers in A Redbird Christmas?
Her sister
Her sister Mildred is the intended match, one of several unattached women in a town that is short of eligible men.
Q 23Before Frances Cleverdon takes her in, Patsy is left in whose neglectful care in A Redbird Christmas?
Her stepmother
Her stepmother has children of her own to raise and no interest in Patsy, whose father has left town, so Frances offers the girl a home.
Q 14The people of Lost River hold bake sales and pancake breakfasts in A Redbird Christmas to pay for what?
A child's operations
A child's operations are the cause: Patsy needs a costly series of them, so the whole town pitches in with one fundraiser after another.
Q 15Which loss do the people of Lost River fear will devastate young Patsy in A Redbird Christmas?
The bird's death
The bird's death would crush her, so the townsfolk set about arranging a small miracle for her instead.
Q 16In which Alabama city was A Redbird Christmas author Fannie Flagg born and largely raised?
Birmingham
Birmingham was home for nearly all of her childhood, apart from a brief spell on the Gulf Coast near the town of Point Clear.
Q 17Before writing A Redbird Christmas, Fannie Flagg often sat beside Richard Dawson as a panelist on which 1970s show?
Match Game
Match Game made her a semi-regular through the 1970s, usually in the lower right-hand seat of its celebrity panel.
Q 18A Redbird Christmas author Fannie Flagg won a 2012 Alabama writers' award named after which novelist?
Harper Lee
Harper Lee gives her name to the prize for Alabama's Distinguished Writer of the Year, open to authors born or raised in the state.
Q 19Frances Cleverdon, the matchmaker of A Redbird Christmas, keeps a fabulous collection of which tableware?
Gravy boats
Gravy boats are Frances Cleverdon's pride, and her kitchen is pink, two of the charms that catch Oswald's eye.
Q 20Betty Kitchen, who gives Oswald bed and board in A Redbird Christmas, formerly worked in which job?
Army nurse
Army nurse was her old job, and she now shares her house with her elderly mother, Miss Alma, and their new lodger.
Q 24Where is the solitary Oswald T. Campbell living when Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas begins?
A men's hotel
A men's hotel is his only address, and with few friends and no children he can wind up his affairs in no time.
Q 25Which complaint of Oswald's almost disappears once he settles into Lost River in A Redbird Christmas?
His cough
His cough is almost nonexistent by the time he has got to know everyone, a surprise for a man who arrived expecting to die.
Q 26How did Jack the redbird first come into Roy Grimmit's care in A Redbird Christmas?
As a rescued fledgling
As a rescued fledgling, Jack was hand-fed by Roy, a strapping man who doesn't care who teases him for doting on a bird.
Q 27In which part of Alabama does Fannie Flagg set the river community of A Redbird Christmas?
The far south
The far south of the state is home to Lost River, a sleepy community on a lazy winding river that time seems to have forgotten.
Q 28Jack the redbird is loved by all in A Redbird Christmas despite which bad habit in Roy's shop?
Pecking at the fruit
Pecking at the fruit is forgiven because the whole town dotes on Jack, its unofficial mascot.
Q 29Which community across the river has a long-standing feud with everybody else in A Redbird Christmas?
The Creoles
The Creoles keep to the other side of the river because of the feud, yet even they rally round Patsy as the holiday nears.
Q 30What has Oswald T. Campbell falsely told his physician he gave up at the start of A Redbird Christmas?
Smoking
Smoking is the habit he claims to have quit, which is why he cannot light up while he waits for his test results.