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50 free 'Twas the Night Before Christmas trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
'Twas the Night Before Christmas is the poem that gave us the sleigh on the roof, the eight named reindeer, the finger beside the nose and the belly like a bowlful of jelly. It appeared anonymously in a Troy, New York newspaper on December 23, 1823, and Americans have been reciting it, arguing about who wrote it, and adapting it into cartoons and TV specials ever since. This quiz covers the text itself (how many reindeer, what the children dream of, what St. Nick holds in his teeth), the story of its publication and the Clement Clarke Moore versus Henry Livingston authorship dispute, the way it reshaped Santa Claus, and the screen versions from Edison's 1905 silent to Disney, Tom and Jerry and the 1974 Rankin/Bass special with the mice of Junctionville. Some questions are easy enough for kids who know the poem by heart; the history questions will test the adults. Every answer is checked against a reference source, and each question links to where the fact was confirmed.
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Q 01Under what title was the poem first published, anonymously, in 1823?
Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas
The 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' name comes from its famous first line; the poem itself is properly 'A Visit from St. Nicholas.'
Q 02How does the poem describe the sleigh when it first appears?
Miniature, with eight tiny coursers
A friend of Moore's sent it to the upstate New York paper; the Sentinel published from 1823 to 1832 and its former office on River Street still stands.
Q 03Who is traditionally credited as the poem's author, having claimed it in print in 1837?
Clement Clarke Moore
Moore, a biblical scholar, was reluctant to be linked to such unscholarly verse and only included it in his 1844 collected poems at his family's insistence.
Q 04Which Revolutionary War veteran and poet from Poughkeepsie has been proposed as the poem's true author?
Henry Livingston Jr.
Livingston's family long claimed it, and a Vassar professor argued for him in 2000 — though no printing with Livingston's name has ever been found.
Q 05For whom did Moore say he originally wrote the poem?
His own kids
In an 1844 letter he admitted he wrote it 'not for publication, but to amuse my children,' while still claiming it as his 'literary property.'
Q 06According to tradition, where was Moore when he composed the poem?
On a sleigh during a shopping trip
His St. Nicholas was said to be inspired by a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical saint.
Q 07Which friend of Moore's, author of a satirical History of New York, shaped his St. Nicholas?
Washington Irving
Irving's 1809 'Knickerbocker' history has St. Nicholas smoking a pipe, laying a finger beside his nose and flying over treetops in a wagon.
Q 08How did Moore's poem differ from Irving's version in the timing of St. Nicholas's visit?
He arrives on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day
Historians argue the shift 'deftly' moved the focus away from Christmas Day, which some Protestants still viewed with suspicion.
Q 09How many reindeer pull St. Nicholas's sleigh in the poem?
Eight
A ninth, red-nosed reindeer did not join the team until a 1939 department-store story; the poem's eight are Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid and two more.
Q 10What do 'Dunder and Blixem', the last two reindeer in the 1823 printing, mean in Dutch?
Thunder and lightning
Later editions changed them to Donder and Blitzen; the modern 'Donner' is a further German-influenced respelling.
Q 11Which of these is NOT one of the reindeer named in the poem?
Rudolph
Rudolph came from a 1939 Montgomery Ward booklet and the 1949 song, and has been tacked onto the team ever since.
Q 12In the poem, what were the children dreaming of as they slept?
Sugar-plums
'While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads' — sugar-plums were hard comfits of layered boiled sugar, not plums at all.
Q 13What is the narrator wearing when he settles down for 'a long winter's nap'?
A cap
'And mamma in her kerchief, and I in my cap' — the sleeping headwear of 1820s New York.
Q 21What does St. Nicholas hold tight in his teeth?
The stump of a pipe
The smoke 'encircled his head like a wreath.' A 2012 'smoke-free' edition removed the pipe entirely.
Q 22St. Nicholas's little round belly shook when he laughed like what?
A bowlful of jelly
The line follows 'He had a broad face and a little round belly' and precedes 'He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf.'
Q 23What gesture does St. Nicholas make just before rising up the chimney?
Lays a finger beside his nose
Q 14What is the first thing that wakes the narrator?
A clatter out on the lawn
'When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.'
Q 15According to the poem, what gave 'the lustre of mid-day to objects below'?
The moon on the new-fallen snow
'The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow' is one of the lines Ken Darby cut from his popular musical setting.
Q 16How does the poem describe what the narrator sees when he looks out the window?
A miniature sleigh and eight tiny reindeer
The 'little old driver' is also 'a right jolly old elf' — Moore's Santa is small, a detail later illustrators steadily abandoned.
Q 17The reindeer are said to be 'more rapid than' what?
Eagles
'More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.'
Q 18To what does the poem compare the reindeer flying up to the house-top?
Dry leaves before a hurricane
'As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.'
Q 19How is St. Nicholas dressed when he comes down the chimney?
All in fur, tarnished with ashes and soot
The red suit came later, from illustrators like Thomas Nast; Moore's St. Nick 'looked like a peddler just opening his pack.'
Q 20St. Nicholas's nose is compared to which fruit?
A cherry
'His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!' — the eyes twinkled and the dimples were merry.
The nose-touch echoes an earlier St. Nicholas description by another New York writer; in the poem it comes with 'a nod.'
Q 24How many words does St. Nicholas speak inside the house?
None
'He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work' — his only line comes as he flies away.
Q 25The sleigh flies away 'like the down of' what?
A thistle
'He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.'
Q 26In the original text, what does St. Nicholas exclaim as he drives out of sight?
'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night'
Most modern recitations say 'Merry,' but Moore wrote 'Happy Christmas.'
Q 27The poem's traditional author was a professor of what subject at New York's General Theological Seminary?
Biblical learning
He had published a Hebrew and English Lexicon in 1809 and donated the seminary's land, an apple orchard from his family's estate.
Q 28Which Manhattan neighborhood grew out of Moore's family estate, which he subdivided and developed?
Chelsea
He gave 66 lots of the estate's apple orchard to the Episcopal Church for the seminary that still sits on Ninth Avenue.
Q 29Which noted poet and editor credited Moore as author when he anthologized the poem in 1840?
William Cullen Bryant
By the time Moore printed it under his own name in 1844, the original publisher and at least seven others had already acknowledged him.
Q 30Which professor used textual analysis in 2000 to argue Moore could not have written the poem?
Donald Foster
Foster's case for Livingston was rebutted point by point by document dealer Seth Kaller, who once owned one of Moore's manuscripts of the poem.