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123 free Christmas Food Around the World trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
56 free Christmas Food Around the World trivia questions with answers. From Italian panettone to Japanese fried chicken, Christmas food traditions span the globe with surprising variety. This quiz takes you on a culinary tour of holiday feasts, festive desserts, and seasonal drinks from dozens of countries. How well do you know the world's Christmas table?
30 of 123 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which corn-dough parcel wrapped in plantain leaves and filled with meat stew is Venezuela's Christmas dish?
Hallaca
The hallaca is Venezuela's Christmas dish: corn dough filled with a stew of beef, pork or chicken with raisins, olives and capers, wrapped in plantain leaves and boiled. Families assemble them together in December.
Q 02What Italian city is considered the birthplace of panettone?
Milan
Panettone originated in Milan in the 15th century. The name derives from the Milanese dialect word "panattón," meaning luxury bread.
Q 03What is France's traditional Christmas dessert?
Bûche de Noël
The Bûche de Noël (Yule Log cake) is a traditional French Christmas dessert made from rolled sponge cake decorated to look like a log, referencing the old custom of burning a Yule log.
Q 04Eggnog is believed to have evolved from which medieval English drink?
Posset
Eggnog has its roots in the medieval English posset, a monastic holiday beverage made of curdled milk mixed with wine or ale, often enriched with eggs and spices.
Q 05Which German city is most famous for its Christmas stollen, holding an annual festival in its honor?
Dresden
Dresden is the home of the most famous stollen tradition, with the annual Stollenfest celebrating the Dresdner Christstollen, which has Protected Geographical Indication status in the EU.
Q 06What fairy tale is credited with popularizing the tradition of building gingerbread houses?
Hansel and Gretel
German bakers began creating ornamental gingerbread houses in the early 1800s, inspired by the Brothers Grimm fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" in which the children discover a house made of sweets.
Q 07In Poland, the traditional Christmas Eve dinner consists of how many dishes?
12
The Wigilia supper is meat-free, and the courses stand for the twelve Apostles. Tradition also holds that animals gain the power of speech at midnight.
Q 08What is traditionally hidden inside a British Christmas pudding for good luck?
A coin
A coin, usually a silver sixpence or threepence, went into the mix, and finding one was believed to bring wealth and good luck.
Q 09Nuremberg's Elisenlebkuchen must contain at least what proportion of nuts to earn the name?
25 percent
Elisenlebkuchen must be at least 25 percent nuts (almonds, hazelnuts or walnuts) and no more than 10 percent flour; Nuremberg's Lebkuchen bakers were recorded as early as 1395.
Q 10During Las Posadas, the meal after the piñata usually includes atole, buñuelos and which dish?
Tamales
Ponche, a hot punch of tejocote, guava and cinnamon, is poured alongside. Families often make the tamales together at a "tamalada" in the run-up to Christmas.
Q 11"Stir-up Sunday" is the traditional day for making Christmas pudding. When does it fall?
Last Sunday before Advent
Stir-up Sunday falls on the last Sunday before Advent (the fifth Sunday before Christmas). The name comes from the Book of Common Prayer collect for that day, which begins "Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord."
Q 12What hot spiced drink, sold as Glühwein in Germany, is the signature of European Christmas markets?
Mulled wine
Glühwein is mulled wine: red wine heated with cinnamon, cloves, star anise and citrus, served at Christmas markets across Germany and Austria. Feuerzangenbowle adds a flaming rum-soaked sugar loaf.
Q 13What fish is the centerpiece of the traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner?
Q 21What is the Nordic name for the spiced hot wine, of Swedish origin, drunk around Christmas?
Glögg
Glögg is Sweden's mulled wine, spiced with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves and served with raisins and almonds alongside pepparkakor; the name comes from glödgat vin, 'heated wine'.
Q 22What sweet treat shaped like a walking stick is traditionally associated with Christmas trees?
Candy cane
The earliest known mention of a "candy cane" is an 1866 short story, and by 1882 magazines described them hung on Christmas trees. Peppermint may also have helped keep mice away from the tree.
Q 23Which cold dish is a fixture of the Argentine Christmas table?
Vitel toné
Carp
Carp is the star of the Polish Wigilia feast. In some families, the live carp is kept in the bathtub before Christmas Eve, a tradition that is both beloved and controversial.
Q 14Which pope's 1490 "Butterbrief" let Saxony's bakers use butter in Advent stollen?
Innocent VIII
Pope Innocent VIII's Butterbrief of 1490 lifted the Advent ban on butter for Saxony's bakers; earlier stollen had been made with oil. The request had gone unanswered under five previous popes.
Q 15What roasted meat is traditionally served as the main course at a British Christmas dinner?
Roast turkey
Roast turkey is the British Christmas centrepiece; farmer-poet Thomas Tusser listed turkey among Christmas fare in his 1573 Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry, long before the Victorians popularised it.
Q 16What small sausages wrapped in bacon are a staple side dish at a British Christmas dinner?
Pigs in blankets
Pigs in blankets — small sausages (usually chipolatas) wrapped in streaky bacon — are a beloved and essential part of the traditional British Christmas dinner.
Q 17What is the name of the traditional Filipino whole roasted pig served at Christmas celebrations?
Lechon
Lechon, a whole roasted suckling pig with crispy skin, is the centerpiece of Filipino Christmas Eve celebrations (Noche Buena) and other major festivities.
Q 18Which country serves risalamande, rice pudding with cherry sauce, on Christmas Eve?
Denmark
In Denmark, risalamande (rice pudding with almonds and cherry sauce) is served on Christmas Eve with a whole almond hidden inside. Whoever finds it wins a prize, traditionally a marzipan pig.
Q 19What Italian Christmas cake from Verona is traditionally star-shaped and dusted with powdered sugar?
Pandoro
Pandoro is a traditional Christmas cake from Verona, known for its distinctive 8-pointed star shape when sliced. It is lighter and butterier than panettone and is dusted with vanilla-scented powdered sugar.
Q 20The tradition of leaving cookies and milk out on Christmas Eve is meant for whom?
Santa Claus
Children in the US and Canada have been leaving cookies and milk out for Santa since the 1930s. In many homes the parents quietly eat them.
Vitel toné (from the Italian vitello tonnato) is a beloved Argentine Christmas dish featuring cold veal sliced thin and covered in a creamy sauce made with tuna, capers, and mayonnaise.
Q 24The Italian Christmas nougat torrone is a speciality of which Lombardy city?
Cremona
Cremona's torrone ranges from soft (morbido) to brittle (duro), flavoured with citrus or vanilla. The city is better known abroad for Stradivari's violins.
Q 25Which small green vegetable is the most divisive fixture on a British Christmas dinner plate?
Brussels sprouts
Brussels sprouts are the divisive Christmas-dinner vegetable: overboiled they turn grey and smell sulphurous, but roasted or fried with bacon and chestnuts they win converts.
Q 26What is the name of the Greek Christmas bread decorated with a cross on top?
Christopsomo
Christopsomo means "Christ's bread". Some of the dough is set aside to form the cross on top; its Easter cousin lampropsomo has dyed whole eggs pressed into the braid.
Q 27What is the traditional Christmas dessert in Australia, reflecting the country's summer holiday season?
Pavlova
Pavlova, a meringue-based dessert topped with whipped cream and fresh summer fruits, is a popular Christmas dessert in Australia and New Zealand, where Christmas falls during the summer.
Q 28A popular origin story says candy canes began in 1670 with the choirmaster of which cathedral?
Cologne
The legend names the choirmaster of Cologne Cathedral, who in 1670 supposedly bent sugar sticks into shepherds' crooks to keep children quiet during the Nativity service; no record of the tale predates the mid-20th century.
Q 29Which Polish city is famous for its pierniki gingerbread, baked there since the Middle Ages?
Toruń
Toruń, founded by the Teutonic Order in 1233, has baked pierniki since the Middle Ages; Copernicus, the city's most famous son, was born there in 1473.
Q 30The French Christmas Eve dinner 'réveillon' survives in which US city's restaurants?
New Orleans
New Orleans restaurants revived the Creole réveillon in the 1980s as prix-fixe December menus; the name comes from réveil, 'waking', because the feast after Midnight Mass ran into the small hours.