12 Days of Christmas Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
97 free 12 Days of Christmas trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free 12 Days of Christmas trivia questions with answers. Almost everything people think they know about the twelve days of Christmas is wrong, which makes it excellent quiz material. These 97 questions cover the carol itself — the 1780 children's book it first appeared in, the memory game it probably started as, the 1909 arrangement that added the drawn-out 'five gold rings', and the secret-catechism story that keeps circulating despite being debunked. The rest covers the season the song is named after: when the twelve days actually run, why Twelfth Night has two competing dates, what Epiphany commemorates in East and West, what happens if you find the bean in the cake, and how much it would cost to buy every gift in the song today. Every answer was checked against a primary reference before publication, so the dates, publishers and figures here are accurate rather than repeated from a Christmas listicle. Play it in December, or use it to settle the annual argument about when the decorations have to come down.
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Where were the words of the carol first published, in 1780?
An illustrated children's book
The words first appeared around 1780 in an illustrated children's book printed in London, with no music; the familiar tune was only set down in 1909.
Q 02What kind of parlour entertainment do early sources say the song began as?
A memory-and-forfeits game
Early accounts describe a memory-and-forfeits game: each player repeated the growing list and paid a forfeit for a slip, which is why the gifts keep piling up.
Q 03Who arranged the standard version of the carol, published in 1909?
Frederic Austin
Frederic Austin, a baritone and composer, published his arrangement in 1909; it became the standard melody, displacing the older folk tunes collected in the 1800s.
Q 04Which part of the tune is credited as an original addition rather than traditional?
The 'five gold rings' phrase
The drawn-out 'five gold rings' phrase was written by the 1909 arranger; the rest of the melody comes from much older folk versions of the song.
Q 05What did the popular claim that the carol is a coded Catholic catechism turn out to be?
Incorrect
The 'secret catechism' story is incorrect: Snopes found no historical evidence for it, and none of the gifts is specific to Catholic rather than Anglican teaching.
Q 06Peter and Iona Opie suggested the song may have come from where, if the partridge is taken literally?
France
The Opies noted that the red-legged partridge, which perches in trees, was only introduced to England from France in the 1770s, so they suggested a French origin.
Q 07Which bank has published a tongue-in-cheek index of the carol's gift prices since 1984?
PNC
PNC Financial's Christmas Price Index, begun in 1984, totals the cost of every gift in the song; the 2024 edition put one set of the twelve gifts at about $49,263.
Q 08If you buy every gift on every day as the song describes, how many items do you end up with?
364
Each gift repeats on every later day (12 partridges, 22 turtle doves, and so on), summing to 364 items, one short of a year's worth.
Q 09What record did the True Cost of Christmas reach in 2024?
$209,272
The 2024 True Cost of Christmas, which prices every gift on every day of the song, came to $209,272, up about 3.6% from $201,972 in 2023.
Q 10Which day opens the twelve-day festive season in Western Christianity?
Christmas Day
The twelve days run from Christmas Day, 25 December, to Twelfth Night on the evening of 5 January; the season is properly called Christmastide.
Q 11Which church assembly proclaimed the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany a sacred season?
The Council of Tours
The Second Council of Tours in 567 declared the days between Christmas and Epiphany a festive season, the origin of the fixed twelve days.
Q 12What is historically considered unlucky about Christmas decorations?
Removing them before Twelfth Night
Leaving them up past Candlemas is thought just as bad. The window is narrower than most people assume.
Q 13Which Dickens novella features a roast goose and plum pudding at the Cratchits' table?
A Christmas Carol
Q 21What do the three traditional colours of a Louisiana king cake stand for?
Justice, faith and power
Purple is justice, green is faith and gold is power. The cake itself is usually brioche dough.
Q 22What is the French equivalent of the king cake called?
The galette des rois
The galette des rois is flaky puff pastry filled with frangipane and hiding a small charm, the fève; in southern France a brioche crown, the gâteau des rois, is preferred instead.
Q 23Which holiday falls on the day after Christmas Day?
Boxing Day
Boxing Day, 26 December, is a public holiday in the UK and much of the Commonwealth; the name is first recorded in the 1830s.
A Christmas Carol (1843) has the Cratchits carve a roast goose and flame a plum pudding; Dickens's vivid feast helped fix the Victorian image of the season.
Q 14In some households, on which two days of the twelve are gifts exchanged?
The first and the last
In that custom presents come on the first day, Christmas Day, and the last, Twelfth Night; other families give a small gift on each of the twelve days.
Q 15What do Eastern Christians principally commemorate at Epiphany?
The baptism of Jesus
Western churches mark the visit of the Magi; Eastern churches mark the baptism of Jesus. The evening before is Twelfth Night.
Q 16Which ritual do Orthodox churches perform at Theophany?
The Great Blessing of Waters
Priests bless rivers, lakes and the sea, and in some countries swimmers dive for a cross. The Western church marks the Magi instead.
Q 17What do children in Spain and Latin America leave out on the evening before Three Kings' Day?
Shoes, with grass and water for camels
Children set out their shoes on the night of 5 January, with grass or hay and water for the Kings' camels; the Three Kings, not Santa, bring the gifts on 6 January.
Q 18What is wassail, as a drink?
A hot mulled punch
Wassail is a hot mulled punch, usually cider or ale warmed with sugar, spices and roasted apples, shared from a communal bowl at Christmastide.
Q 19What does the Old Norse phrase behind the word 'wassail' mean?
Be in good health
'Wassail' comes from Old Norse ves heill, 'be in good health', paralleling Old English wes hál; it was a toast long before it was a drink.
Q 20What is the purpose of orchard wassailing?
To wake the cider apple trees
Wassailers sing and bang pots in the orchard to wake the cider apple trees and scare off evil spirits, hoping to secure a good autumn crop.
Q 24Where does the name of the 26 December holiday come from?
Christmas boxes collected by tradesmen
They collected money or presents for good service through the year. The custom was British and spread across the Commonwealth.
Q 25Whose feast day falls on 26 December in the Western church calendar?
Stephen
Saint Stephen's Day is 26 December in the Western calendar; the carol Good King Wenceslas opens with the king looking out 'on the feast of Stephen'.
Q 26What sporting tradition marks 26 December in Britain?
A full programme of league football
A full programme of league football on 26 December dates to the Football League's early years, with local derbies scheduled to cut travel; the King George VI Chase at Kempton is the day's big race.
Q 27Which two dates are both claimed as the twelfth night?
5 or 6 January
Counting from Christmas Day gives Twelfth Night on 5 January; counting from 26 December gives 6 January, so both dates are defended vigorously.
Q 28In the Twelfth Night cake custom, what does finding the bean make a man?
King for the evening
The man who finds the bean is King for the evening and the lady who finds the pea is Queen; the custom survives in king cakes and galettes.
Q 29Where and when was Shakespeare's holiday-titled comedy first known to be performed?
Middle Temple Hall in 1602
Law student John Manningham's diary records Twelfth Night at Middle Temple Hall on Candlemas night, 2 February 1602; the play takes its title from the festivity, not its plot.
Q 30Which gift-bringer visits Italian children on the night before Epiphany?
La Befana
La Befana, a broom-riding old woman, fills Italian children's stockings on the night of 5 January, the eve of Epiphany, with sweets for the good and coal for the naughty.