Christmas
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198 free Christmas trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
104 free Christmas trivia questions with answers. Christmas trivia questions are the easiest way to get a room talking, and these are built to be played rather than read off a sheet. The pool covers films, carols, food, Santa, traditions and the odd corners of Christmas history, mixed easy to hard so nobody is frozen out. If you want Christian Christmas trivia for a church group, Sunday school or a family that keeps the season's religious side, there is a full round here on the nativity accounts in Matthew and Luke, the Magi, Advent wreaths, Epiphany, Las Posadas and the stories behind the great carols. There is also a Christmas geography round: the two Christmas Islands, Santa's Arctic Circle village in Rovaniemi, North Pole, Alaska, the Philippines' four-month season, Iceland's Yule Lads, Catalonia's Tió de Nadal, Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and Christmas in July-weather Australia. Play the whole pool for a mix, or ask for it harder or easier with the separate rounds for kids and for adults. Multiple choice, instant scoring, a one-line explanation after every answer, and a different set each time you play. Every answer has been checked against a reference page, and the source is shown under each explanation.
30 of 198 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Home Alone, the McCallister family flies from suburban Chicago to which European capital, leaving eight-year-old Kevin behind?
Paris
Paris is the destination, and Kevin, eight, is left alone to defend the family's suburban Chicago home from a pair of burglars.
Q 02Which actor plays Buddy the Elf in the 2003 movie Elf?
Will Ferrell
Will Ferrell's Buddy, raised by elves at the North Pole, heads to New York City to find a biological father who doesn't know he exists.
Q 03Which dog is forced to haul a sleigh down to Whoville for a Christmas heist?
Max
Max is disguised as a reindeer to pull the sleigh, and the heist carries off every present in Whoville.
Q 04Which festive recording holds the Guinness record as the best-selling single of all time?
White Christmas by Bing Crosby
Bing Crosby's White Christmas, introduced in the 1942 film Holiday Inn, has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide.
Q 05In A Christmas Story, what does Ralphie desperately want for Christmas?
A Red Ryder BB gun
Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun, but everyone keeps telling him he'll shoot his eye out.
Q 06What Christmas movie features the line "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings"?
It's a Wonderful Life
This iconic line is spoken near the end of the 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart.
Q 07Who wrote the Christmas ballad that won the Oscar for Best Original Song in the 1942 film Holiday Inn?
Irving Berlin
Irving Berlin presented that year's Oscar for Best Original Song, so he opened the envelope and read out his own name.
Q 08In the movie The Polar Express, what is the first gift of Christmas?
A silver bell
A silver bell is the boy's first gift of Christmas; he loses it through a hole in his pocket, Santa sends it back, and his parents can't hear it ring.
Q 09Which band originally performed "Last Christmas" in 1984?
Wham
Wham!'s Last Christmas was kept off the top by Band Aid in 1984 and didn't reach UK number one until 2021, 36 years later.
Q 10In which 1994 comedy does Tim Allen's character take over as Santa after startling the old one off his roof?
The Santa Clause
The Santa Clause is the fine print on the fallen Santa's card: whoever puts on the suit takes the job, and Scott soon gains weight and grows a white beard.
Q 11In which 1984 film does a young man receive a mogwai as a Christmas present, along with three strict rules?
Gremlins
In Gremlins the rules get broken, and the mogwai's offspring turn into gremlins that tear up the town on Christmas Eve.
Q 12What plant is traditionally hung in doorways at Christmas for people to kiss under?
Mistletoe
Mistletoe kissing was popular among servants in late 18th-century England, and in one version a berry was plucked with each kiss until none were left.
Q 13In which country is it a Christmas tradition to eat KFC for Christmas dinner?
Japan
In Japan, eating KFC for Christmas became a nationwide tradition after a hugely successful 1974 marketing campaign called Kurisumasu ni wa Kentakkii (Kentucky for Christmas).
Q 21Which rich Christmas drink is made from milk, cream and sugar, often spiked with brandy, rum or bourbon?
Eggnog
Eggnog gets its frothy texture from whipped eggs, and it likely evolved from posset, a medieval drink of hot milk curdled with wine or ale.
Q 22What was the original purpose of Boxing Day, held on 26 December in many Commonwealth countries?
Gifts for servants and the poor
Gifts for servants and the poor came via employers' Christmas boxes and church alms boxes, though the name's exact origin is still debated.
Q 23Which Christmas carol contains the lyrics "O tidings of comfort and joy"?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Q 14In which 2003 film does Hugh Grant play a British prime minister who falls for a member of his staff?
Love Actually
Love Actually plays out over the weeks before Christmas, and the Prime Minister's crush is Natalie, the junior staffer who brings him his tea.
Q 15Which Christmas carol borrows its tune from 'Nos Galan', a Welsh New Year's Eve song?
Deck the Halls
Deck the Halls got its English words from Scottish musician Thomas Oliphant in 1862, set to a Welsh tune published in 1794 but much older.
Q 16Which company's 1930s ads, painted by Haddon Sundblom, spawned the myth that Santa wears red for its brand colours?
Coca-Cola
Haddon Sundblom's 1930s paintings gave rise to the legend that Coca-Cola invented Santa's red and white. Santa already appeared in his modern form on Puck magazine covers early in the 20th century; White Rock Beverages used him from 1915.
Q 17What is the name of the main character in the 1843 novella A Christmas Carol?
Ebenezer Scrooge
Ebenezer Scrooge is the miserly protagonist of A Christmas Carol, published in 1843. He is visited by three ghosts who help him rediscover the meaning of Christmas.
Q 18Which saint's feast on 13 December is marked in Sweden by processions in white gowns and crowns of candles?
Saint Lucia
Saint Lucia's name comes from the Latin for light, and under the old Julian calendar her feast fell on the winter solstice, the darkest night of the year.
Q 19What Christmas decoration was originally made from strands of silver?
Tinsel
Modern tinsel was invented in Nuremberg in 1610 and was originally made from shredded silver. Because silver tarnishes quickly, other shiny metals were substituted, notably lead, and later plastics took over.
Q 20In 'The Gift of the Magi', what does Della sell to buy a chain for Jim's watch?
Her hair
Della sells her hair for Jim's watch chain, while Jim sells his watch to buy her combs for the hair she no longer has.
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen: 'rest you merry' once meant 'keep you merry', so the opening wishes the gentlemen well rather than calling them merry.
Q 24Which French city calls itself the 'Capital of Christmas' and has held a Christmas market since 1570?
Strasbourg
Strasbourg's Christkindelsmärik, a market dedicated to the Christ Child, dates from 1570, yet the city only proclaimed itself Capital of Christmas in 1992.
Q 25What is the traditional Christmas flower, originally from Mexico, that turns red in winter?
Poinsettia
The poinsettia is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first US minister to Mexico, and its red 'petals' are really bracts, which are leaves.
Q 26In the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," what gift is given on the fifth day?
Five golden rings
Five golden rings began as 'five gold rings', and Mitch Miller's 1961 recording made 'golden' more usual in North America, one syllable per note.
Q 27Which character in A Christmas Carol says 'God bless us, every one'?
Tiny Tim
Tiny Tim, the sickly young son of Bob Cratchit, speaks this famous line in A Christmas Carol. It has become one of the most quoted phrases associated with the Christmas spirit.
Q 28Which thriller writer wrote 'Skipping Christmas', the comic novel filmed as Christmas with the Kranks?
John Grisham
John Grisham's Kranks skip Christmas for a Caribbean cruise, until their daughter unexpectedly comes home for the holidays.
Q 29In which European country do children leave their shoes out for Sinterklaas to fill with gifts?
The Netherlands
In the Netherlands, children leave a shoe by the fireplace on Sinterklaas's eve, and he fills it with small gifts and treats.
Q 30What fruit is traditionally placed in the toe of a Christmas stocking?
Orange
An orange in the toe may echo the gold a bishop of Myra secretly gave three poor sisters, gold balls that are sometimes shown as oranges.