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50 free Christmas Traditions trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Christmas traditions trivia is about the why behind the things we do every December: why the tree, why the stocking, why the kiss under the mistletoe and who on earth decided a cracker should go bang. These 50 questions trace the familiar customs back to their odd beginnings and then travel the world for the ones you may never have heard of. The set covers the first Christmas trees, cards and crackers, stockings and Advent calendars, Boxing Day and Twelfth Night, plus Krampus, La Befana, Las Posadas, the Catalan pooping log, Iceland's Yule Lads and book flood, Sweden's much-burned goat, Sinterklaas and Japan's fried-chicken Christmas. Every answer is checked against a cited source and each explanation adds one more fact. Use it for the office party, the family table or a pub quiz round. Play now and see how many traditions you can trace.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The first recorded Christmas trees were put up by Lutherans in which country in the 16th century?
Germany
A tree was placed in Strasbourg Cathedral in 1539, and the custom later spread from guild halls into family homes.
Q 02Which country sends the giant Christmas tree that stands in London's Trafalgar Square every year?
Norway
It thanks Britain for supporting the Norwegian resistance during World War II, and Oslo sends one to Washington, DC too.
Q 03Who commissioned the first commercially produced Christmas card, in London in 1843?
Sir Henry Cole
It was designed by John Callcott Horsley and showed a family raising a toast, which scandalised temperance campaigners.
Q 04Tradition says the Christmas cracker was invented in 1847 by a London confectioner named what?
Tom Smith
His son Walter added the paper hats and little gifts to beat off copycat rivals.
Q 05The Advent calendar, with a door to open each day, was first used by which group?
German Lutherans
Early ones hid pictures from Bible stories behind 24 little doors; the chocolate came much later.
Q 06By legend, the Christmas stocking tradition began when Saint Nicholas threw what through a poor family's window?
Bags of gold
One bag supposedly landed in a stocking hung by the fire to dry, and the rest is history.
Q 07In one old version of the mistletoe custom, what had to happen after each kiss?
A berry was plucked
Once the berries were gone, the kissing had to stop.
Q 08In which German city did a choirmaster supposedly bend candy canes in 1670 to keep children quiet at Mass?
Cologne
The bend was meant to remind them of the shepherds' crooks in the nativity story.
Q 09Boxing Day, 26 December, gets its name from which old custom?
Christmas boxes of money given to tradesmen and the poor
In Britain tradesmen collected their Christmas boxes on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for a year of good service.
Q 10Which horned Alpine creature accompanies Saint Nicholas on 5 December to punish naughty children?
Krampus
Nicholas hands out small gifts to the good kids while his companion swings birch rods at the rest.
Q 11Which broomstick-riding old woman delivers gifts to Italian children on the eve of Epiphany?
La Befana
Her name is thought to come from Epifania, the Italian word for Epiphany.
Q 12How many nights does the Mexican celebration of Las Posadas last?
Nine
The nine nights stand for Mary's nine months of pregnancy, and each one re-enacts the search for an inn.
Q 13At Christmas, Catalan children beat the Tió de Nadal log with sticks so that it will do what?
Poop out presents
They feed the log for days beforehand and keep it warm under a blanket, then order it to deliver.
Q 21Decorated gingerbread houses are often linked to which fairy tale?
Hansel and Gretel
The tradition took off in the early 1800s, around when the Brothers Grimm published the story.
Q 22Who is the Snow Maiden who helps Russia's Ded Moroz deliver New Year gifts?
His granddaughter
Snegurochka became a fixture of Soviet New Year parties after Christmas was pushed aside.
Q 23The parol, a star-shaped lantern hung at Christmas, is a symbol of the holiday in which country?
Philippines
Its five points stand for the Star of Bethlehem, and the city of San Fernando builds enormous electronic versions.
Q 14Iceland's Jólabókaflóð, or Christmas book flood, makes what the country's most popular Christmas gift?
Books
It grew out of World War II, when paper was one of the few imports not tightly rationed.
Q 15How many Yule Lads visit Icelandic children in the nights before Christmas?
Thirteen
Good children find small gifts in their shoes; naughty ones get a rotten potato.
Q 16The giant straw Gävle Goat in Sweden is famous for what happening to it most years since 1966?
Being burned down
Torching it is a crime that normally carries three months in prison, but the arsonists keep coming.
Q 17On Saint Lucy's Day, 13 December, Scandinavian girls lead processions wearing what on their heads?
Crowns of candles
They wear white gowns with a red sash and hand out saffron buns.
Q 18According to Dutch tradition, how does Sinterklaas arrive each year?
By steamboat from Spain
He then rides over the rooftops while children leave shoes out for gifts.
Q 19The Christmas pickle ornament is said to be a German custom. What did a poll of over 2,000 Germans find?
91 percent had never heard of it
It is now thought to be a German-American invention from the 1890s, when glass ornaments began arriving from Europe.
Q 20Joel Roberts Poinsett brought the poinsettia to the US in the 1820s from which country?
Mexico
Its original Nahuatl name is cuetlaxochitl, and despite the rumours it is not dangerously poisonous.
Q 24The Elf on the Shelf, now a global tradition, started as a book published in which year?
2005
Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell based it on their own family's elf, and the company now makes about $100 million a year.
Q 25Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 as a promotional booklet for which department store?
Montgomery Ward
The store gave away 2.4 million copies in the first year alone.
Q 26Which holiday recording is credited as the best-selling physical single of all time?
Bing Crosby, White Christmas
It has sold an estimated 50 million copies since Crosby first sang it on the radio on Christmas Day 1941.
Q 27Who is credited with staging the first live nativity scene, in the Italian town of Greccio in 1223?
Saint Francis of Assisi
He set it in a cave with a manger, and Saint Bonaventure described the scene a few decades later.
Q 28The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Christmas Eve tradition of which community?
Italian Americans
It reflects the old rule of no meat on the Christmas Eve vigil, so families feast on seafood instead.
Q 29What food has become a Christmas tradition in Japan thanks to a famous fast-food chain?
Fried chicken
KFC's Christmas buckets are so popular that families order them weeks in advance.
Q 30In Venezuela and Colombia, who is said to actually deliver the toys that Santa makes?
Baby Jesus
It blends the imported Santa story with the older tradition of El Niño Jesús bringing gifts.