Christmas TV Trivia
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109 free Christmas TV trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
52 free Christmas TV trivia questions with answers. Christmas television has its own canon: the Rankin/Bass stop-motion specials that have aired every December since 1964, the Grinch that Chuck Jones and Boris Karloff made in 1966, the sitcom episodes people re-watch every year, and the one-offs that became legends, like the Star Wars Holiday Special or David Bowie turning up on Bing Crosby's last show. This quiz covers all of it. You'll get questions on Rudolph, Frosty, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and the Miser brothers; the Office's Yankee Swap, Seinfeld's Festivus, Ross's Holiday Armadillo and the very first Simpsons episode; Doctor Who's Christmas specials, Downton Abbey, Gavin & Stacey and the EastEnders episode that still holds the UK ratings record; plus the WPIX Yule Log, the Royal Christmas message and Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and primary references before publication, so the dates, names and viewing figures here are the real ones. Play it with the family after dinner, or use it to settle who actually knows their Christmas television.
30 of 109 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who narrates the 1964 Rankin/Bass special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer as Sam the Snowman?
Burl Ives
Burl Ives was a late hire, a big name brought in to help sell the special; his part had first belonged to Larry D. Mann, who stayed on as the voice of Yukon Cornelius.
Q 02What career does Hermey the elf abandon Santa's workshop to pursue in the 1964 Rudolph special?
Dentistry
Dentistry: Hermey wants to be a dentist rather than make toys, and he proves it by pulling every tooth from the Abominable Snow Monster, who is then tamed and helps trim the tree.
Q 03Which company sponsored the first broadcasts of Rudolph in 1964 under its own Fantasy Hour title?
General Electric
General Electric sponsored the 1964 premiere on NBC; after viewers complained that Santa never rescued the Misfit Toys, a new ending showing him collecting them was added for the 1965 repeat.
Q 04In which city was the 'Animagic' puppet footage for Rudolph actually filmed?
Tokyo
Tokyo: Tadahito Mochinaga's studio animated the puppets in Japan, while the voices were recorded in Toronto, chosen for its pool of talented, affordable radio actors.
Q 05Which TV show did the long-lost 1964 Rudolph and Santa puppets turn up on?
Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow: a Rankin/Bass secretary had taken the puppets home, and her family kept them in an attic where heat ruined most of the cast before a nephew had the two survivors appraised.
Q 06What does the copyright notice on Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer get wrong?
The date
The date: its Roman numerals read MCLXIV, 1164, instead of MCMLXIV, an 800-year slip that left the special with an invalid copyright notice.
Q 07Which comedian narrates the 1969 Rankin/Bass special Frosty the Snowman?
Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante had been one of the first to record the song, back in 1950, and sang it again for the special; when a sequel followed in 1976, another narrator took over.
Q 08In the 1969 Frosty special, what is the inept magician whose discarded hat brings the snowman to life called?
Professor Hinkle
Professor Hinkle is the washed-up magician whose discarded silk hat brings Frosty to life; his own rabbit, Hocus Pocus, sides with the children, and Santa finally warns Hinkle he gets no presents unless he reforms.
Q 09Where does Frosty melt in the 1969 special after the villain locks him in with Karen?
A greenhouse
A greenhouse: Frosty carries the shivering Karen into a greenhouse to warm her, the magician locks them in, and the heat melts him; Santa then revives Frosty with a blast of cold winter wind.
Q 10Who is the toy-hating mayor of Sombertown in the 1970 special Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
Burgermeister Meisterburger
Burgermeister Meisterburger bans all toys after tripping over a toy duck, which is why Kris starts slipping presents down chimneys and into stockings.
Q 11In Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town, what kind of animal is Topper, the lost creature Kris Kringle befriends?
A penguin
A penguin: Topper is a lost penguin who becomes Kris's sidekick on the journey to Sombertown; the Winter Warlock later captures the pair, then switches sides after Kris gives him a toy train.
Q 12In The Year Without a Santa Claus, who forces the feuding Snow Miser and Heat Miser to compromise?
Mother Nature
Mother Nature is the Misers' mother; she summons both sons and makes them compromise, so Southtown gets a day of snow while the North Pole gets a day of warm weather.
Q 13In The Year Without a Santa Claus, where does the reindeer Vixen end up in Southtown?
Dog pound
Q 21What holiday are Chewbacca and Han trying to reach Kashyyyk to celebrate in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special?
Life Day
Life Day: the Wookiee holiday drives the whole plot, yet CBS aired the special only once, in November 1978, and four decades later Lucasfilm had still never officially released it.
Q 22Which bounty hunter made his onscreen debut in an animated segment of the Star Wars Holiday Special?
Boba Fett
Boba Fett first appeared in the special's cartoon segment, made by Toronto studio Nelvana, where he poses as a friend to Luke before being exposed as Darth Vader's agent.
Q 23In the Star Wars Holiday Special, which Golden Girls star runs the Mos Eisley cantina?
Bea Arthur
Dog pound: Jingle and Jangle disguise Vixen as a dog, so a dog catcher hauls her off, and Santa himself has to travel south to bail her out.
Q 14Which Hollywood veteran voices Santa in both Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and The Year Without a Santa Claus?
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney voiced the young Kris Kringle in 1970 and, in 1974, an ailing Santa who calls off his trip when his doctor says nobody cares about Christmas any more.
Q 15In Rudolph's Shiny New Year, what feature gets Happy, the runaway Baby New Year, laughed at?
His enormous ears
His enormous ears: everyone who sees them laughs, so Happy keeps running away, until Rudolph, mocked for his own nose, shares his story and coaxes him home in time for New Year.
Q 16In The Little Drummer Boy, which injured animal does Aaron carry to the Magi?
A lamb
A lamb: Baba is run down in the street in Bethlehem, and when one of the Magi cannot help, Aaron plays his drum for the newborn child as his only gift and the lamb recovers.
Q 17Who voices the Grinch and narrates the 1966 animated TV special based on Dr. Seuss's book?
Boris Karloff
Boris Karloff narrated in his natural voice, but for the Grinch's lines the sound engineers stripped out the high tones to give him a gravelly growl.
Q 18Who actually sang 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' in the 1966 special, a song often credited to its narrator?
Thurl Ravenscroft
Thurl Ravenscroft, also the voice of Tony the Tiger, was left off the credits by mistake, so Dr. Seuss wrote to columnists across America to say who had really sung it.
Q 19Which legendary Looney Tunes director made the 1966 Grinch special?
Chuck Jones
Chuck Jones directed the special; he and Dr. Seuss had already worked together on the Private Snafu army training cartoons during World War II.
Q 20CBS gave the 1966 Grinch special a then-record cartoon budget of about how much?
$315,000
$315,000: CBS gave the 1966 special a record budget for a half-hour cartoon, several times what Bill Melendez had to make A Charlie Brown Christmas the year before.
Bea Arthur plays Ackmena, the cantina's bartender, who has to sing her reluctant customers out the door when the Empire slaps a curfew on Tatooine.
Q 24In Friends, what costume does Ross improvise to teach Ben about Hanukkah when he can't rent a Santa suit?
The Holiday Armadillo
The Holiday Armadillo episode, from 2000, ends with Ross, Chandler in a Santa suit and Joey as Superman all crammed into the apartment.
Q 25In The Office's 'Christmas Party', what $400 gift does Michael buy Ryan despite a $20 limit?
A video iPod
A video iPod: Michael's $400 gift is twenty times the limit, and when Phyllis hands him a homemade oven mitt he sulks and turns the exchange into a Yankee Swap in which everyone fights over the iPod.
Q 26What Secret Santa gift does Jim give Pam in The Office's 'Christmas Party'?
A teapot
A teapot: Jim stuffs it with inside-joke mementos but slips his letter back into his pocket; Pam only gets to read it in the final season, when he hands it over in 'A.A.R.M.'.
Q 27Which Seinfeld episode, named for Kramer's H&H Bagels labour dispute, introduced Festivus?
The Strike
'The Strike' (1997): Kramer's 12-year strike against H&H Bagels ends when the minimum wage rises to meet his demand, but he walks out again when refused time off for Festivus.
Q 28What fake charity does George invent on Seinfeld to avoid buying Christmas gifts for his co-workers?
The Human Fund
The Human Fund is George's invented charity: he hands co-workers cards saying a donation has been made in their name, until his boss Kruger tries to give it a company donation and learns it is bogus.
Q 29At what odds does Homer bet it all on Santa's Little Helper in the first Simpsons episode?
99-1
99-1: Homer bets his last $13 on the long shot Santa's Little Helper at 99-1; the greyhound finishes last and is abandoned by his owner, so Homer and Bart take him home.
Q 30Community's 'Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas' pays homage to Rankin/Bass by rendering the episode in what style?
Stop motion
Stop motion: Abed starts seeing the whole study group as stop-motion puppets, a delusion that began when a Christmas card told him his mother, now with a new family, would not be visiting.