A Christmas Carol
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49 free A Christmas Carol trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
50 free A Christmas Carol trivia questions with answers. From Ebenezer Scrooge's transformation to Tiny Tim's iconic blessing, A Christmas Carol has shaped how the world celebrates Christmas since 1843. This quiz covers the original novella, its unforgettable characters, landmark film adaptations from Alastair Sim to the Muppets, Dickens' social activism, and the cultural legacy of the most famous Christmas story ever written.
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Q 01What is the name of Scrooge's deceased business partner in A Christmas Carol?
Jacob Marley
Jacob Marley, Scrooge's late partner, returns as a ghost on Christmas Eve to warn him that three spirits will visit, offering him a chance to escape Marley's fate.
Q 02What is Scrooge's famous catchphrase expressing his disdain for Christmas?
Bah! Humbug!
He first says it when his nephew bursts into the counting-house full of good cheer. "Humbug" meant a fraud or hoax, and the retort has since entered the language.
Q 03How many brothers does the Ghost of Christmas Present say he has?
More than eighteen hundred
'More than eighteen hundred,' the Ghost answers, one brother for every Christmas since the first; each spirit lives a single day, and this one ages visibly and dies at midnight.
Q 04How much does Scrooge pay Bob Cratchit a week?
Fifteen shillings
Dickens jokes that Bob had "but fifteen 'Bob' a-week himself" — a bob being slang for a shilling — and on that he keeps a wife and six children.
Q 05What are Tiny Tim's famous last words in the story?
God bless us, every one!
'God bless us, every one!' is Tiny Tim's toast round the Cratchit fire on Christmas Day, and Dickens makes it the closing line of the whole book.
Q 06Who wrote A Christmas Carol?
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens composed much of it on night-time walks of fifteen to twenty miles around London, telling a friend he 'wept and laughed and wept again' over it.
Q 07What type of literary work is A Christmas Carol?
Novella
A novella: at roughly 28,000 words it sits between a short story and a novel. Its full title is A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.
Q 08In A Christmas Carol, what is the name of Scrooge's cheerful nephew, who invites him to Christmas dinner every year?
Fred
Fred, the only child of Scrooge's late sister, keeps inviting his uncle to Christmas dinner despite constant rejection and toasts him anyway.
Q 09Sales of which Dickens novel were slumping, deepening his money troubles, when he began A Christmas Carol?
Martin Chuzzlewit
Martin Chuzzlewit's monthly numbers were selling poorly and Chapman & Hall threatened to cut Dickens's income by £50, so he financed the Carol's production himself to keep the profits.
Q 10What does Scrooge buy for the Cratchit family after his transformation?
A prize turkey
Scrooge sends the prize turkey, 'twice the size of Tiny Tim', anonymously by cab from the poulterer's; the Cratchits had been making do with a goose.
Q 11What is wrong with Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol?
He walks with a crutch
He walks with a crutch and wears an iron frame on his limbs; Dickens never names the illness, only that the boy will die unless the future changes.
Q 12What does Marley's ghost wear when he appears to Scrooge?
A long chain of cash-boxes
The chain is wound round him "like a tail" and made of cash-boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers and steel purses — every link forged, he says, by his own greed in life.
Q 13In what year was A Christmas Carol first published?
1843
Chapman & Hall published it on 19 December 1843; the first run of 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve and thirteen editions had appeared by the end of 1844.
Q 21Which actor played Scrooge in the classic 1951 black-and-white film adaptation?
Alastair Sim
Alastair Sim starred in the 1951 British film, titled Scrooge in the UK and released as A Christmas Carol in the US; his performance is widely regarded as the definitive screen Scrooge.
Q 22In The Muppet Christmas Carol, which Muppet plays Scrooge's humble clerk Bob Cratchit?
Kermit the Frog
Kermit the Frog, with Miss Piggy as Mrs. Cratchit and Robin the Frog as Tiny Tim; the human Scrooge insisted on playing every scene straight.
Q 23Who played Scrooge in The Muppet Christmas Carol?
Michael Caine
Michael Caine said he would play it 'like I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company'; David Hemmings, Ron Moody and George Carlin had been considered.
Q 14What are the chapters of A Christmas Carol called?
Staves
The five chapters are called "staves," a musical term for the lines on which notes are written. This fits the musical metaphor of the title — a "carol" being a song. The staves are titled: Marley's Ghost, The First of the Three Spirits, The Second of the Three Spirits, The Last of the Spirits, and The End of It.
Q 15What does the Ghost of Christmas Present show Scrooge beneath his robe?
Two children, Ignorance and Want
Two children, Ignorance and Want, cling to the spirit's legs; the Ghost tells Scrooge to beware the boy above all, for on his brow is written Doom.
Q 16At what hour does Marley's ghost say the first of the three spirits will come?
One o'clock
Marley says the first spirit will come at one o'clock, 'when the bell tolls One'; the three visits, promised on successive nights, in fact all arrive in one night.
Q 17What is the name of Scrooge's former employer who threw generous Christmas parties?
Mr. Fezziwig
Mr. Fezziwig was Scrooge's kind and jovial employer when Scrooge was a young apprentice. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge a memory of Fezziwig's legendary Christmas party, reminding him that generosity and joy once mattered to him.
Q 18What is the name of Scrooge's sister who is shown by the Ghost of Christmas Past?
Fan
Little Fan comes to fetch him home from boarding school and is described as having "a large heart". She died young, leaving one child — the nephew who keeps inviting Scrooge to dinner.
Q 19What is the name of the woman who was once engaged to Scrooge?
Belle
Belle was Scrooge's fiancee who broke off their engagement because his love of money had replaced his love for her. The Ghost of Christmas Past shows Scrooge this painful memory, revealing how his greed cost him happiness.
Q 20What is Scrooge's first name?
Ebenezer
Ebenezer is a Hebrew name meaning 'stone of help', a memorial stone Samuel raised in the Bible; 'scrooge' has since become a common noun for a miser.
Q 24Which Muppet character serves as the narrator in The Muppet Christmas Carol?
Gonzo the Great
Gonzo narrates in the role of the author himself, with Rizzo the Rat as a Greek chorus. Brian Henson said Gonzo was picked because he was the least likely choice to play the part.
Q 25In the 1988 film Scrooged, Bill Murray plays a modern-day Scrooge who works as what?
A TV network president
Murray's Frank Cross is president of the IBC television network, staging a live broadcast of A Christmas Carol when the ghosts arrive; Karen Allen plays his lost love Claire.
Q 26Which actor starred as Scrooge in the faithful 1984 TV film of A Christmas Carol, shot in Shrewsbury?
George C. Scott
George C. Scott; director Clive Donner had edited the 1951 British film, and David Warner plays Bob Cratchit.
Q 27What technology was used to create the 2009 Disney film A Christmas Carol starring Jim Carrey?
Motion capture
Motion capture: Robert Zemeckis had used the same performance-capture technique on The Polar Express and Beowulf, and Jim Carrey plays Scrooge at every age plus the three Christmas ghosts.
Q 28Which actor toured a one-man stage version of A Christmas Carol, playing every part, before a 1999 TV film?
Patrick Stewart
Patrick Stewart played all forty-odd characters himself on Broadway and in London; the 1999 TNT film earned him a Screen Actors Guild nomination.
Q 29How long did it take Dickens to write A Christmas Carol?
Six weeks
Six weeks: Dickens began in October 1843 and finished the manuscript in early December, in time for publication on 19 December, composing much of it on long night walks.
Q 30What was Dickens' primary motivation for writing A Christmas Carol?
To protest child poverty
To protest child poverty: a tour of Cornish tin mines and a visit to a ragged school for London's street children left Dickens outraged, and he judged a story would hit harder than a pamphlet.