Christmas Book Trivia
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46 free Christmas Book trivia questions with answers — literature quiz, new questions added Sep 2026.
50 free Christmas Book trivia questions with answers. Christmas has its own shelf of literature, and this quiz walks the whole length of it. Fifty questions cover Dickens and A Christmas Carol (plus his four forgotten follow-ups), Dr. Seuss's Grinch, The Polar Express, the disputed authorship of 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', Hoffmann's Nutcracker, O. Henry's Gift of the Magi, Rudolph's department-store origins, Raymond Briggs's Snowman, Andersen's winter tales, Tolkien's letters from Father Christmas, Capote, Dylan Thomas, Pratchett's Hogfather, Agatha Christie's Christmas murder and the modern picture books from The Elf on the Shelf to The Christmas Pig. Easy questions ask who wrote The Polar Express and what the Grinch's dog is called; the hard ones want the reindeer names in the 1823 printing, the name Dickens nearly gave Tiny Tim and the tavern where O. Henry supposedly wrote his story. Good for book clubs, classrooms and anyone who rereads the same story every December. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the books and their authors, and each question carries the sentence that backs it up.
30 of 46 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which London firm published A Christmas Carol in December 1843?
Chapman & Hall
Chapman & Hall published it, but Dickens insisted on a lavish five-shilling edition, so the first edition earned him only a small profit.
Q 02When his nephew greets him cheerfully, what two-word retort does Scrooge give?
Bah! Humbug!
Bah! Humbug! is Scrooge's answer, and the exclamation passed into everyday English as a retort to anything too festive.
Q 03What did Dickens call the five sections of A Christmas Carol, in keeping with the musical title?
Staves
Staves divide the book, and in the fifth Scrooge learns he hasn't missed Christmas at all: the spirits did it all in one night.
Q 04Which two emaciated children does the Ghost of Christmas Present reveal beneath his robe?
Ignorance and Want
Ignorance and Want crawl from the spirit's robe, and he warns Scrooge to beware them both, but most of all the boy, whose brow bears the word Doom.
Q 05Trotty Veck, an elderly ticket-porter visited by goblins, stars in which Dickens Christmas book?
The Chimes
The Chimes follows Trotty as he wonders whether the poor are born bad, until the goblins of the bells show him the lives of the people he loves.
Q 06What is the name of the Grinch's long-suffering dog, who pulls his sleigh disguised as a reindeer?
Max
Max hauls the Grinch's overloaded sleigh, and in the 1966 TV special he is rewarded with the first slice of roast beast.
Q 07What is wrong with the Grinch's heart at the start?
Two sizes too small
Two sizes too small is the Grinch's heart, until the Whos sing on Christmas morning without their presents and it grows three sizes.
Q 08Which little Who catches the Grinch taking her family's Christmas tree in Dr. Seuss's book?
Cindy-Lou Who
Cindy-Lou Who catches him, and the Grinch, still dressed as Santa, tells her a crafty lie about fixing the tree before sending her back to bed.
Q 09Who wrote and illustrated The Polar Express (1985)?
Chris Van Allsburg
Chris Van Allsburg built the story from a picture in his mind of a child in foggy woods, seeing a train and wondering where it was going.
Q 10Which book won the creator of The Polar Express his first Caldecott Medal, before the 1986 one?
Jumanji
Jumanji took the 1982 medal, and the picture book went on to inspire the 1995 film Jumanji.
Q 11In The Polar Express, what does the boy ask Santa for as the first gift of Christmas?
A silver bell
A silver bell from a reindeer's harness is the gift, but it falls through a hole in his pocket, turns up behind the tree, and his parents can't hear it ring.
Q 12'A Visit from St. Nicholas' was first printed anonymously in 1823 in which New York town?
Troy
Troy's Sentinel printed it anonymously, and Moore is said to have written the poem for his own children.
Q 13Whose descendants have long claimed that their ancestor, not Clement Clarke Moore, wrote 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'?
Henry Livingston Jr.
Henry Livingston Jr.'s family learned of Moore's claim around 1860 but waited until after Moore died to argue that Livingston had written it first.
Q 21Raymond Briggs's 1978 picture book The Snowman is told entirely without what?
Words
Words never appear in the book, and neither does Father Christmas: only the 1982 film sends the boy off to meet him.
Q 22John Grisham's 2001 novel Skipping Christmas became which 2004 Tim Allen film?
Christmas with the Kranks
Christmas with the Kranks follows a couple who swap Christmas for a Caribbean cruise, until their daughter calls to say she's coming home.
Q 23Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 as a giveaway booklet for which retailer?
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward had been buying Christmas colouring books to give away, so it had its own copywriter write a story instead, and 2.4 million copies went out in 1939.
Q 14In the poem's 1823 printing, which Dutch-flavoured pair stood in for 'Donner and Blitzen'?
Dunder and Blixem
Dunder and Blixem echo the Dutch words for thunder and lightning, and Moore's own 1844 collection changed them to Donder and Blitzen.
Q 15By profession, Clement Clarke Moore was a professor of what?
Oriental and Greek literature
Oriental and Greek literature was the scholar's field, and he waited more than a decade after the 1823 printing to claim the poem as his own.
Q 16Who wrote the 1816 tale 'The Nutcracker and the Mouse King'?
E. T. A. Hoffmann
E. T. A. Hoffmann ends the tale with Marie promising to love the Nutcracker however ugly he is, which breaks the spell so Drosselmeier's nephew can marry her.
Q 17Tchaikovsky's 1892 Nutcracker ballet was based on which French author's retelling of the 1816 German tale?
Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas framed his retelling as a story he was made to tell a crowd of unruly children.
Q 18Which American writer published the short story 'The Gift of the Magi' in 1905?
O. Henry
O. Henry ends the story by calling the young couple, who looked so foolish in their sacrifices, the wisest of all givers: 'They are the magi.'
Q 19What does Della sell to buy Jim's Christmas present in 'The Gift of the Magi'?
Her hair
Her hair fetches $20 for a platinum watch chain, while Jim has sold his prized watch to buy her a set of combs.
Q 20'The Gift of the Magi' was allegedly written in which New York City establishment?
Pete's Tavern
Pete's Tavern kept its bar in business all through Prohibition by posing as a flower shop.
Q 24Which two names did Robert L. May consider for his red-nosed reindeer before settling on Rudolph?
Rollo and Reginald
Rollo and Reginald lost out to Rudolph, and the nose came to May as fog from Lake Michigan swirled past his Chicago office window.
Q 25What did retail president Sewell Avery hand to Robert L. May in the 1940s, setting him up for life?
The copyright to Rudolph
May had been deep in debt from his wife's medical bills; the transfer took effect on 1 January 1947 and the first commercial edition followed that Christmas.
Q 26In Little Women, Marmee asks the sisters to give their Christmas breakfast to which poor family?
The Hummels
The Hummels get the March girls' Christmas breakfast, and that evening their wealthy neighbour Mr Laurence rewards them with a surprise dinner.
Q 27Which accident-prone helper causes chaos in Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas?
The North Polar Bear
The North Polar Bear once went climbing and fell straight through the roof of Father Christmas's house.
Q 28In The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, which notorious sibling clan grabs all the lead pageant roles?
The Herdmans
The Herdmans grab every lead role and the town expects disaster, but the six misfits end up showing everyone the true meaning of Christmas.
Q 29In Pratchett's Hogfather, which Discworld regular dons the red robe and false beard when the Hogfather vanishes?
Death
Death dons the red robe on Hogswatchnight, the 32nd of December, buying time while his granddaughter Susan hunts for the real Hogfather.
Q 30In The Snow Queen, splinters of what lodge in Kai's eye and heart, turning him cruel?
A magic mirror
A magic mirror, made by a troll or 'wicked sprite' depending on the translation, shatters as it is flown toward heaven, and its splinters lodge in people's eyes and hearts.