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98 free Holiday Party trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Fifty free office holiday trivia questions with answers, built for the work party where not everyone celebrates the same thing. Alongside the office Christmas trivia staples (Secret Santa, ugly sweaters, eggnog, mistletoe and the Yule log) it covers Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Diwali and New Year's Eve customs from Spain to Chile, so every colleague gets a question they can win. The set is workplace-safe and mostly easy to medium, with a handful of harder ones (Saturnalia, Festivus, the Times Square ball's first drop) to separate the trivia champions from the rest of the team. Run it as a slideshow round at the holiday party, drop it into a virtual meeting, or play it solo online for a score you can share. Every answer was checked against an encyclopaedia or primary source, so you will not be arguing with the marketing department over a wrong answer key.
30 of 98 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which party gift exchange has each guest draw one name and give anonymously to that person?
Secret Santa
Secret Santa has each guest draw a name and give that person a gift anonymously; Ireland calls the same game Kris Kindle and Brazil Amigo Secreto, 'secret friend'.
Q 02Which creamy, nutmeg-topped holiday drink is often spiked with rum or brandy?
Eggnog
Eggnog is a classic holiday drink, typically made with milk, cream, sugar, whipped egg whites, and egg yolks, and often flavored with nutmeg and spirits like brandy or rum. It's a staple at many festive occasions.
Q 03What festive plant with vibrant red and green leaves is a popular winter holiday decoration?
Poinsettia
Poinsettia's red 'petals' are actually bracts, modified leaves that colour up only after weeks of long nights, about fourteen hours of darkness a day for six to eight weeks.
Q 04At which kind of party do guests compete to wear the most hideous knitwear?
Ugly Sweater Contest
Several media accounts credit Vancouver-area parties thrown by Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch in the early 2000s with popularising the ironic ugly-sweater trend.
Q 05Which mid-December Roman festival is often cited as an influence on modern holiday gift-giving and feasting?
Saturnalia
Saturnalia began on 17 December; masters waited on their slaves, and guests swapped gag gifts or small wax and pottery figurines called sigillaria.
Q 06What type of holiday gathering typically involves guests bringing a dish to share with everyone?
Potluck
A potluck is a shared meal to which every guest brings a dish; the phrase 'pot luck' appears in English by 1592, meaning whatever food happened to be in the pot for an unexpected guest.
Q 07In Kwanzaa celebrations, what is the name of the special candle holder that holds seven candles?
Kinara
The kinara, from the Swahili for 'candle holder', holds Kwanzaa's seven candles; one more is lit each evening from 26 December to 1 January.
Q 08Which fruit do Spaniards eat at each stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve for luck?
Grapes
Spaniards eat twelve grapes, one per chime; the custom was recorded by the 1890s and took off in 1909, when Alicante growers promoted it to sell a bumper harvest.
Q 09Which traditional Hanukkah-party game is played with a four-sided spinning top, often for chocolate coins?
Dreidel
Dreidel's four sides carry Hebrew letters, and the stakes are usually chocolate coins called gelt.
Q 10Which intricate art form using colored powders or petals decorates entrances at Diwali?
Rangoli
Rangoli are intricate patterns created on the floor using colored powders, rice flour, or flower petals, typically at the entrance of homes during Diwali, to welcome prosperity and good luck.
Q 11Which lighting is commonly wrapped around trees and banisters for holiday parties?
String lights
String lights, also known as fairy lights or twinkle lights, are widely used for holiday decorating, both indoors and outdoors, to add a warm and festive glow.
Q 12Christmas crackers are traditionally credited to which London confectioner?
Tom Smith
Tom Smith, a London sweet-maker, introduced the cracker in 1847 as a wrapped bon-bon with a snap; the paper hats and jokes were added later by his son Walter.
Q 13At Scotland's Hogmanay, what is the name for the initial guest to cross a threshold after midnight?
First-foot
Q 21Which non-alcoholic holiday-party drink is often made with fruit juices and sparkling soda?
Punch
Punch, a bowl drink that 17th-century East India Company sailors made with spirits and citrus, is often mixed alcohol-free for parties from fruit juices and sparkling soda.
Q 22What is the collective term for the South Asian sweets, such as ladoos and barfis, shared at Diwali?
Mithai
Mithai is the umbrella term for South Asian sweets such as ladoo, barfi and jalebi; the tradition is ancient, the Rigveda already mentioning apupa, a cake fried in ghee and dipped in honey.
Q 23Festivus, the anti-commercial holiday popularised by a 1997 'Seinfeld' episode, falls on which date?
December 23
The first-foot traditionally brings symbolic gifts such as coal, shortbread, whisky and black bun to bring the household luck.
Q 14Which party game has guests swap amusing or impractical gifts, with the option of 'stealing' someone else's pick?
White Elephant
White Elephant, also called a Yankee swap or Dirty Santa, is named for an extravagant, impractical gift that cannot easily be got rid of.
Q 15What feast crowns Kwanzaa on December 31st?
Karamu
Karamu Ya Imani, the Feast of Faith, falls on December 31, the sixth of Kwanzaa's seven days, and gathers the community around the table.
Q 16Which sweet, fried dough pastry, often jelly-filled, is a traditional food enjoyed at Hanukkah parties?
Sufganiyot
Sufganiyot, jam-filled doughnuts, reached Israel with Polish Jewish immigrants as ponchiki; they are fried in oil to recall the miracle of the Temple oil.
Q 17What action is commonly performed at midnight on New Year's Eve to ward off evil spirits?
Lighting fireworks
Fireworks are a common feature of New Year's Eve celebrations worldwide, often believed to ward off evil spirits and bring good fortune for the coming year with their loud noises and bright displays.
Q 18Which French term names the small dishes served before a meal, usually eaten by hand while guests mingle?
Hors d'oeuvres
Hors d'oeuvres, literally 'outside the work', are the bite-size dishes served before the meal; petits fours are the sweet miniatures served at the other end.
Q 19Who composed the Christmas Eve ballet 'The Nutcracker'?
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote The Nutcracker, premiered in St Petersburg in December 1892 to choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov, two years after his Sleeping Beauty.
Q 20What decorative strand of interwoven leaves or flowers is often wrapped around a Christmas tree or draped on a mantel?
Garland
A garland is a strand of leaves, flowers or beads wound around the tree or draped along a mantel; Nepal's national anthem opens 'Woven from hundreds of flowers, we are one garland that's Nepali.'
Festivus falls on December 23, the date fixed by the 1997 Seinfeld episode 'The Strike'; writer Daniel O'Keefe had invented it for his family, and his son Dan co-wrote the episode.
Q 24What root vegetable dish, served with applesauce or sour cream, is a Hanukkah staple?
Latkes
Latkes, or potato pancakes, are a traditional Hanukkah food, often fried in oil to commemorate the miracle of the oil, and typically served with applesauce or sour cream.
Q 25Which German-speaking gift-bringer did Martin Luther promote in place of Saint Nicholas?
Christkindl
Christkindl means 'Christ Child'; Martin Luther promoted the Child as gift-bringer to draw Protestants away from Saint Nicholas, moving gifts from 6 December to Christmas Eve.
Q 26The Times Square ball first dropped on New Year's Eve to welcome which year?
1908
The first ball dropped at midnight on 31 December 1907 to welcome 1908, staged by New York Times owner Adolph Ochs to promote his new tower; it was skipped in 1942 and 1943 for wartime dim-outs.
Q 27The tradition of kissing under which plant is a well-known holiday party custom?
Mistletoe
Kissing under the mistletoe is first recorded in eighteenth-century England, where servants popularised it; each kiss was supposed to cost a berry, and when the berries were gone the kissing stopped.
Q 28Danes see in the New Year with champagne and which tower of stacked almond-cake rings?
Kransekage
Kransekage is a cone of stacked marzipan rings piped with white icing; Danes and Norwegians serve it at New Year and weddings, often decorated with crackers and small flags.
Q 29Which spice is commonly used in holiday baking and drinks, known for its warm, sweet, and woody flavor?
Cinnamon
Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of Cinnamomum trees; its warm, sweet flavour comes from cinnamaldehyde, which is why it dominates mulled wine, gingerbread and hot cider.
Q 30What activity at holiday parties involves teams acting out words or phrases without speaking?
Charades
Charades began in 18th-century France as a written riddle about each syllable of a word; the acted version, in which players mime the syllables in turn, took over in 19th-century parlours.