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97 free Holiday Season trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
15 free Holiday Season trivia questions with answers. Holiday Season trivia lives in two places on BrainPickle. This page is the shorter set; the main quiz is Holiday Traditions trivia, with our deepest question pool on the topic and a source behind every answer.
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Q 01Which two of Santa's reindeer were named differently in the original 1823 poem?
Donner and Blitzen
The names were altered several times over the years, with 'Donder' and 'Blitzen' appearing in the 1844 version of the poem and the German-style 'Donner' becoming standard only in the early 20th century.
Q 02Lovers are expected to kiss beneath which festive plant?
Mistletoe
Mistletoe is the plant lovers kiss beneath; the custom became popular in 18th-century England, where sprigs were also hung to ward off witches and evil spirits.
Q 03Who is the miserly protagonist of Charles Dickens' classic 1843 holiday novella?
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the central character in Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," who undergoes a significant transformation after being visited by several spirits on Christmas Eve.
Q 04Which eight-day Jewish holiday is celebrated by lighting one more candle each night?
Hanukkah
Hanukkah's menorah holds eight ceremonial lights plus the shamash, the 'attendant' candle used to light the others; the Festival of Lights commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple.
Q 05Which author is widely credited with popularizing the names of most of Santa's reindeer in his 1823 poem?
Clement C. Moore
Clement C. Moore's poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas,' also known as 'The Night Before Christmas,' introduced many of the reindeer names that are now iconic parts of Santa Claus lore.
Q 06Where did Protestant families first bring decorated evergreens indoors for Christmas?
Germany
Germany and neighbouring Livonia, now Estonia and Latvia, had Protestant families bringing decorated trees into their homes by the 16th century.
Q 07Which Swahili word for 'unity' is the first of Kwanzaa's seven principles, the Nguzo Saba?
Umoja
Umoja, Swahili for unity, is the first of the seven Nguzo Saba and is the principle honored on December 26, Kwanzaa's opening day.
Q 08What four-sided spinning top do children play with during Hanukkah?
Dreidel
The dreidel is a four-sided spinning top whose Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hei and shin stand for 'a great miracle happened there'; children play it for gelt during Hanukkah.
Q 09Which metropolis is famous for its annual New Year's Eve ball drop celebration?
New York City
New York City's Times Square ball drop has welcomed every new year since 1908, skipping only 1942 and 1943 for wartime blackouts.
Q 10Who created Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer for Montgomery Ward in 1939?
Robert L. May
Robert L. May wrote Rudolph as a promotional booklet for Montgomery Ward in 1939; his illustrator friend Denver Gillen sketched the reindeer using zoo deer as models.
Q 11In which country did Boxing Day, December 26th, originate?
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom started it, and Boxing Day is now kept on December 26 across several Commonwealth nations.
Q 12To which region is the poinsettia, the holiday plant with colourful bracts, native?
Mexico and Central America
The Aztecs and Mayans grew it long before Europeans first described it in 1834.
Q 13What traditional German spiced cookie, often compared to gingerbread, is a popular Christmas treat?
Lebkuchen
Lebkuchen are traditional German Christmas cookies, rich with spices and often containing nuts and candied fruits, and are frequently enjoyed during the holiday season.
Q 21The name Kwanzaa comes from a Swahili phrase meaning what?
First fruits
Kwanzaa comes from the Swahili 'matunda ya kwanza', meaning 'first fruits'; an extra 'a' was added so the name would have a symbolic seven letters, one per principle.
Q 22Which diarist mentioned tradesmen collecting 'Christmas boxes' in an entry from 19 December 1663?
Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys wrote on 19 December 1663 of giving money to his shoemaker's 'boys' box against Christmas'; such Christmas boxes for tradesmen and servants gave Boxing Day its name.
Q 23Which two famous Australian sporting events begin on Boxing Day?
The MCG Test and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race
Q 14What is a common Hebrew greeting used during Hanukkah?
Chag Sameach!
'Chag Sameach!' means 'happy holiday' and is the standard Hebrew festival greeting; during Hanukkah it is often expanded to 'Chag Hanukkah Sameach'.
Q 15The earliest firmly recorded Christmas tree in a church stood in Strasbourg Cathedral in which year?
1539
Strasbourg Cathedral's tree is recorded in 1539, in the years of the city's Protestant reform; a 1521 Sélestat account book in nearby Alsace holds the earliest written mention of Christmas trees.
Q 16Which German-born British royal consort introduced a Christmas tree at a children's party in 1800?
Queen Charlotte
Queen Charlotte, George III's Mecklenburg-born consort, set up a decorated yew at a children's party at Queen's Lodge, Windsor, in December 1800, decades before Victoria and Albert's 1848 tree spread the fashion.
Q 17In 1087, sailors took the bones of Saint Nicholas from Myra to which Italian city, where they remain?
Bari
Sailors from Bari took the relics from Myra in 1087 and they rest in the Basilica di San Nicola there; Venetians later carried off remaining fragments during the First Crusade.
Q 18The Jewish festival of lights begins on the 25th day of which Hebrew month?
Kislev
It is the only Jewish holiday that starts in one month (Kislev) and ends in another (Tevet).
Q 19What is the 'attendant' candle that lights the others on the festival-of-lights menorah called?
The shamash
The shamash, Hebrew for 'attendant' or 'servant', is the ninth candle on the hanukkiah; it lights the others and sits apart, higher or lower, because the eight Hanukkah lights may not be used for practical purposes.
Q 20Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by which activist?
Maulana Karenga
Maulana Karenga, a Black nationalist and later Cal State Long Beach professor, created Kwanzaa in 1966 after the Watts riots, modelling it on African harvest festivals.
Boxing Day may also trace to alms boxes opened on the Feast of Saint Stephen.
Q 24Japanese Buddhist temples ring their bells how many times at midnight on New Year's Eve?
108
Each ring represents one of the 108 worldly desires in the Joya no Kane ritual.
Q 25The first commercially available Christmas card was commissioned in 1843 by whom?
Sir Henry Cole
Cole had helped launch the Penny Post three years earlier, so he had a stake in people posting more.
Q 26Who is sometimes called the 'father of the American Christmas card'?
Louis Prang
Louis Prang, a Boston lithographer, began selling Christmas cards in the United States in 1874, a year after trying them in England, and is often called the father of the American Christmas card.
Q 27What did the Keller Machine, patented by a Catholic priest in 1957, automate?
Twisting and cutting candy canes
Father Gregory Keller's machine automated twisting and cutting candy canes for Bobs Candies in Albany, Georgia, run by his brother-in-law Bob McCormack, cutting breakage and making mass production possible.
Q 28According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the 'nog' in eggnog was originally what?
A strong beer brewed in East Anglia
The OED records 'nog' as a strong beer brewed in East Anglia, attested from the 1690s; a rival theory derives it from 'noggin', a small wooden mug.
Q 29The kissing plant of the holidays is what kind of plant, botanically speaking?
A hemiparasite
Mistletoe (Viscum album) is a hemiparasite: it taps host trees for water and minerals through a haustorium yet keeps green leaves and photosynthesises on its own.
Q 30Which two names did the creator of the red-nosed reindeer consider before settling on Rudolph?
Rollo and Reginald
Rudolph's creator rejected Rollo and Reginald before settling on the name; Montgomery Ward gave away 2.4 million copies of the booklet in 1939.