How long does a 40-question quiz take?

With 30 seconds per question, answers and short breaks, plan on about 45 minutes.

Is it suitable for children?

Rounds one and four work well from around age ten. Round three is better for adults, and a children’s edition is easy to build by telling the builder the age group.

Can I add my own questions?

Yes. Mention them in your idea or replace individual questions afterwards in the studio chat.

Christmas Quiz Questions: 40 with Answers

How to run it

Form teams of three to six. One answer sheet per team, one person acting as quizmaster.
Read each question twice and give the teams 30 seconds to agree on an answer.
Four rounds, ten questions each. Take a short break between rounds for mulled wine or hot chocolate.
Score one point per right answer. In round four every question is worth double, so no team is out of it until the end.
Keep a tie-breaker ready: a question with a number as its answer, so the closest guess wins. Here is one that is not in the rounds: in which year was “Silent Night” first performed? (1818, on Christmas Eve, in the Austrian village of Oberndorf.)

Round 1: Origins and traditions

Round 1 · easy

On which date is Boxing Day?
Answer
26 December – the day after Christmas Day, a public holiday in the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand among others
How many Sundays are there in Advent?
Answer
Four
Which plant are people traditionally meant to kiss under at Christmas?
Answer
Mistletoe
Which saint, remembered on 6 December, is the origin of the Santa Claus legend?
Answer
Saint Nicholas – a 4th-century bishop of Myra, in what is now Turkey
Who commissioned the first commercially produced Christmas card, in 1843?
Answer
Sir Henry Cole – it was designed by John Callcott Horsley
Which German-born prince helped make the Christmas tree fashionable in Britain?
Answer
Prince Albert – Queen Victoria’s husband; the custom had arrived earlier with Queen Charlotte in 1800
In “The Twelve Days of Christmas”, what does the true love send on the fifth day?
Answer
Five gold rings – sometimes sung as “five golden rings”
How many gifts are given in total across all twelve days of the song?
Answer
364 – if every day repeats all the earlier gifts
What do children traditionally hang by the fireplace for Santa to fill?
Answer
Stockings
What do you pull with a partner at a British Christmas table, producing a bang, a paper crown and a joke?
Answer
A Christmas cracker – invented by the London confectioner Tom Smith in 1847, according to tradition

Round 2: Christmas around the world

Round 2 · medium

Which Mexican tradition re-enacts Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter over nine nights before Christmas?
Answer
Las Posadas – usually 16 to 24 December
How many Yule Lads visit Icelandic children in the days before Christmas?
Answer
Thirteen
What does the Icelandic tradition of “Jólabókaflóð” describe?
Answer
The “Christmas book flood” – the surge of new books published in the weeks before Christmas
In which country is Santa Claus Village, on the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi?
Answer
Finland
In which season does Christmas Day fall in Australia?
Answer
Summer
Which gift-bringer is said to arrive in the Netherlands by steamboat from Spain?
Answer
Sinterklaas
In which country is the Giant Lantern Festival held in the city of San Fernando every December?
Answer
The Philippines
How many days does Kwanzaa last?
Answer
Seven – 26 December to 1 January; first celebrated in 1966
How many nights does Hanukkah last?
Answer
Eight – a candelabrum with nine branches, including a helper candle, is lit
What is Christmas Eve called in Spanish-speaking countries, literally “the good night”?
Answer
Nochebuena

Round 3: Carols, poems and stories

Round 3 · medium

Which Victorian author wrote “A Christmas Carol”, published in 1843?
Answer
Charles Dickens
Which late business partner of Scrooge appears first, rattling his chains?
Answer
Jacob Marley
How many spirits visit Scrooge after Marley, and what are they called?
Answer
Three: Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come
In which language was the poem that became “O Holy Night” first written?
Answer
French – “Minuit, chrétiens”, by Placide Cappeau, 1847
From which country does the choral piece “Carol of the Bells” originally come?
Answer
Ukraine – it began as “Shchedryk”, arranged by Mykola Leontovych
In which city was Handel’s “Messiah” first performed, in 1742?
Answer
Dublin
On which feast day does “Good King Wenceslas” look out?
Answer
The Feast of Stephen – 26 December; Wenceslas was in fact a duke, not a king
Which song, published in 1857 as “The One Horse Open Sleigh”, was written by James Lord Pierpont?
Answer
“Jingle Bells” – in 1965 it became one of the first songs broadcast from space, by Gemini 6 astronauts
Who is traditionally credited with writing “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (“’Twas the night before Christmas”)?
Answer
Clement Clarke Moore – first published anonymously in 1823; some scholars argue for Henry Livingston Jr.
Two reindeer in that poem have names that come from the Dutch words for thunder and lightning. Which two?
Answer
Donder and Blitzen – printed as “Dunder” and “Blixem” in 1823; the poem names eight reindeer in all

Round 4: Food, plants and winter (double points)

Round 4 · tricky, double points

Which spice, a dried flower bud, is traditionally pressed into an orange to make a pomander?
Answer
Cloves
What unexpected ingredient did traditional mince pies contain?
Answer
Meat – beef, tongue or mutton, mixed with suet, fruit and spices; meat gradually vanished from recipes in the 19th century
What is traditionally made on “Stir-up Sunday”?
Answer
Christmas pudding – the Sunday before Advent begins; the name comes from the first words of a Church of England prayer
Which Italian city is the home of panettone?
Answer
Milan
What is the French log-shaped Christmas cake called?
Answer
Bûche de Noël
Which tree is the traditional Christmas tree in much of Europe?
Answer
The Norway spruce – Picea abies
Mistletoe grows on tree branches and takes water and nutrients from its host. What kind of plant is it?
Answer
A (semi-)parasite – a hemiparasite, since it also photosynthesizes
What is the Latin name for the northern lights?
Answer
Aurora borealis
In which year was the first known electrically lit Christmas tree displayed?
Answer
1882 – by Edward H. Johnson in his home in New York City
Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island, is part of which Pacific nation?
Answer
Kiribati – Captain James Cook visited on Christmas Eve 1777, the likely origin of the English name

Turn the questions into a game

Prefer phones and a big screen to answer sheets? A quiz game holds up to 20 questions, so the full set becomes two games: rounds one and two, then rounds three and four. A medium quiz costs 200 credits, and you see the price before anything is built.

In the builder, choose Quiz, the Medium size and the occasion Party or Team event.
Describe it: “A Christmas quiz for adults on traditions, Christmas around the world and carols, easy to medium.”
After the build, ask the studio chat to swap in the questions from this page, one at a time. You see the price of every change first.
Play it once yourself, then share the link or put it on the TV.

Screenshot: The Big Family Christmas Quiz — The example “The Big Family Christmas Quiz”: 15 questions with a timer and a streak bonus.

More on writing good questions is on the quiz maker page; formats for companies are in the team-building quiz guide.

Christmas quiz questions: 40 fact-checked questions with answers