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158 free Christmas trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
104 free Christmas trivia questions with answers. Christmas trivia questions are the easiest way to get a room talking, and these are built to be played rather than read off a sheet. The pool covers films, carols, food, Santa, traditions and the odd corners of Christmas history, mixed easy to hard so nobody is frozen out. If you want Christian Christmas trivia for a church group, Sunday school or a family that keeps the season's religious side, there is a full round here on the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke, the Magi, Advent wreaths, Epiphany, Las Posadas and the stories behind the great carols. There is also a Christmas geography round: the two Christmas Islands, Santa's Arctic Circle village in Rovaniemi, North Pole, Alaska, the Philippines' four-month season, Iceland's Yule Lads, Catalonia's Tió de Nadal, Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and Christmas in July-weather Australia. Play the whole pool for a mix, or ask for it harder or easier with the separate rounds for kids and for adults. Multiple choice, instant scoring, a one-line explanation after every answer, and a different set each time you play. Every answer has been checked against a reference page, and the source is shown under each explanation.
30 of 158 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Home Alone, the McCallister family flies from suburban Chicago to which European capital, leaving eight-year-old Kevin behind?
Paris
Paris is the destination, and Kevin, eight, is left alone to defend the family's suburban Chicago home from a pair of burglars.
Q 02Which actor plays Buddy the Elf in the 2003 movie Elf?
Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell's Buddy, raised by elves at the North Pole, heads to New York City to find a biological father who doesn't know he exists.
Q 03Which dog gets drafted to pull the Grinch's sleigh down to Whoville?
Max
The Grinch dresses as Santa Claus and has Max haul the sleigh to Whoville for the heist.
Q 04Which festive recording holds the Guinness record as the best-selling single of all time?
White Christmas by Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby's 1942 recording is the world's best-selling single, with estimated sales in excess of 50 million physical copies. It was listed as the best-selling single in the first Guinness Book of Records in 1955 and still holds the title.
Q 05In A Christmas Story, what does Ralphie desperately want for Christmas?
A Red Ryder BB gun
Ralphie Parker wants a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle, but everyone keeps telling him he'll shoot his eye out.
Q 06What Christmas movie features the line "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings"?
It's a Wonderful Life
This iconic line is spoken near the end of the 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart.
Q 07Who wrote the song "White Christmas"?
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas in 1940. It was first performed by Bing Crosby on a radio show in 1941 and later featured in the 1942 film Holiday Inn.
Q 08In the movie The Polar Express, what is the first gift of Christmas?
A silver bell
A bell works loose from the reins of Santa's reindeer and lands at the boy's feet, and Santa lets him keep it as the first gift of Christmas. Only those who truly believe can hear it ring.
Q 09Which band originally performed "Last Christmas" in 1984?
Wham!
Wham!, the pop duo of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley, released Last Christmas in 1984. It has become one of the most-played Christmas songs of all time.
Q 10What 1990 Christmas movie was the highest-grossing film of that year at the domestic box office?
Home Alone
Home Alone, starring Macaulay Culkin, earned over $476 million worldwide and was the highest-grossing film of 1990 domestically.
Q 11What country started the tradition of putting up a Christmas tree?
Germany
The Christmas tree was first recorded in use by German Lutherans in the 16th century, including a tree placed in Strasbourg Cathedral in 1539. The custom developed in Central Europe, particularly Germany and Livonia, now Estonia and Latvia.
Q 12What plant is traditionally hung in doorways at Christmas for people to kiss under?
Mistletoe
Mistletoe became a Christmas decoration under which lovers are expected to kiss, a custom recorded as popular among servants in late eighteenth-century England. In one version, a berry was plucked from the sprig with each kiss and the kissing stopped once the berries ran out.
Q 13In which country is it a Christmas tradition to eat KFC for Christmas dinner?
Japan
Q 21What traditional Christmas drink is made with milk, cream, sugar, and eggs?
Eggnog
Eggnog is a rich, sweetened, creamy drink made with milk and cream, sugar and whipped eggs, often with brandy, rum or bourbon added. It may have developed from posset, a medieval European drink of hot milk curdled with wine or ale and flavoured with spices.
Q 22What was the original purpose of Boxing Day, marked on December 26th in many Commonwealth countries?
A day for giving gifts to service workers and the less fortunate
Tradespeople, employees and servants traditionally received presents or gratuities, called Christmas boxes, from customers and employers on the day after Christmas, and alms boxes in churches were opened and distributed to the poor. The exact origin of the name is not settled.
Q 23Which Christmas carol contains the lyrics "O tidings of comfort and joy"?
In Japan, eating KFC for Christmas became a nationwide tradition after a hugely successful 1974 marketing campaign called Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii (Kentucky for Christmas).
Q 14Which ballet, premiered in 1892 and set on Christmas Eve, features the Sugar Plum Fairy and a girl named Clara?
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky's 1892 score, is the most performed ballet of the Christmas season; Antonietta Dell'Era danced the first Sugar Plum Fairy.
Q 15How many reindeer pull Santa's sleigh according to the classic poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas"?
Eight
Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem describes Santa's sleigh as drawn by a team of eight reindeer, and is largely responsible for the modern lore of a named reindeer team.
Q 16Which company's 1930s ads, painted by Haddon Sundblom, spawned the myth that Santa wears red for its brand colours?
Coca-Cola
Haddon Sundblom's 1930s paintings gave rise to the legend that Coca-Cola invented Santa's red and white. Santa already appeared in his modern form on Puck magazine covers early in the 20th century; White Rock Beverages used him from 1915.
Q 17What is the name of the main character in the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol?
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the miserly protagonist of A Christmas Carol, published in 1843. He is visited by three ghosts who help him rediscover the meaning of Christmas.
Q 18What was the role of the 4th-century figure from Myra whose secret gift-giving inspired the Santa Claus legend?
A Greek bishop
Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century Greek Christian bishop of Myra (in modern-day Turkey), known for his generous gifts to the poor. His feast day on December 6th became associated with gift-giving.
Q 19What Christmas decoration was originally made from strands of silver?
Tinsel
Modern tinsel was invented in Nuremberg in 1610 and was originally made from shredded silver. Because silver tarnishes quickly, other shiny metals were substituted, notably lead, and later plastics took over.
Q 20In which century was the first commercially produced Christmas card published?
The 1800s
Sir Henry Cole commissioned the first commercially available Christmas card in London in 1843, designed by John Callcott Horsley. A one-off card was sent to James I of England as early as 1611, but it was never produced for sale.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen is an English traditional carol, also known as Tidings of Comfort and Joy after its refrain. An early version survives in an anonymous manuscript from the 1650s, and the earliest known printed edition is a broadsheet of about 1760.
Q 24What is the German name for the traditional Christmas market?
Weihnachtsmarkt
Weihnachtsmarkt literally translates to Christmas market.
Q 25What is the traditional Christmas flower, originally from Mexico, that turns red in winter?
Poinsettia
The poinsettia is indigenous to Mexico and Central America and takes its English name from Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States minister to Mexico, who is credited with introducing it to the US in the 1820s. The red parts are bracts, which are leaves rather than petals.
Q 26In the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," what gift is given on the fifth day?
Five golden rings
The fifth day's gift is five gold rings, sung as five golden rings in North America since Mitch Miller's 1961 recording. The best known English version was first printed in Mirth without Mischief, a children's book published in London around 1780.
Q 27Which Dickens character says "God bless us, every one"?
Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim, the sickly young son of Bob Cratchit, speaks this famous line in A Christmas Carol. It has become one of the most quoted phrases associated with the Christmas spirit.
Q 28What does Advent count down to in the Christian calendar?
Christmas Day
It begins on the fourth Sunday before December 25 and ends on Christmas Eve, December 24; calendars with 24 or 25 doors do the counting.
Q 29In which European country do children leave their shoes out for Sinterklaas to fill with gifts?
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, children place their shoes by the fireplace or door on the evening of December 5th (Sinterklaasavond). Sinterklaas, the Dutch version of St. Nicholas, fills them with small gifts and treats.
Q 30What fruit is traditionally placed in the toe of a Christmas stocking?
Orange
The fruit in the toe may echo the legend of the three balls of gold that the Bishop of Myra gave to three poor maidens as dowries. Oranges were also a rare and expensive fruit in nineteenth-century Europe, which made one a treat worth saving for Christmas.