50 free Christmas cartoon trivia questions with answers. This Christmas cartoon trivia quiz is all about the animated specials and films, not the live-action movies. It starts with the classics that still air every December - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and The Year Without a Santa Claus - and asks about the narrators, villains, sidekicks and sponsors behind them. From there it moves through Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Snowman, the very first Simpsons episode, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Polar Express, Klaus, Arthur Christmas, Olive the Other Reindeer, Prep & Landing and the Christmas episodes of SpongeBob, Hey Arnold!, Rugrats and Futurama, plus deep cuts like Nestor the donkey, Jack Frost and the 1948 Rudolph short made for a department store. Roughly a third of the questions are easy enough for kids who know the specials by heart; the rest climb toward the trivia only a Rankin/Bass devotee would get. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In the 1964 stop-motion special, what does Hermey the elf dream of becoming instead of a toymaker?
A dentist
He finally gets his wish and pulls every one of the Abominable Snow Monster's teeth, which is what makes the beast harmless.
Q 02Which folk singer voiced Sam the Snowman, narrator of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)?
Burl Ives
He also sang 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' for it, and the special has aired every year since 1964, making it the longest continuously running Christmas TV special.
Q 03In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, what has prospector Yukon Cornelius spent his life seeking?
Silver and gold
He tests every strike by licking his pickaxe, and the Abominable Snow Monster ends up as his reformed sidekick.
Q 04Who rules the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
King Moonracer
He is a winged lion who flies around the world each night collecting unloved toys until homes can be found for them.
Q 05What does Yukon Cornelius nickname the Abominable Snow Monster in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Bumble
The original 1964 broadcast never showed Santa collecting the misfit toys; that scene was added after viewers wrote in to complain.
Q 06The jazz score for A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) was written and performed by which pianist's trio?
Vince Guaraldi
Along with 'Linus and Lucy', he wrote 'Christmas Time Is Here' and 'Skating' for the special, whose soundtrack was added to the National Recording Registry in 2012.
Q 07Whom did the producers of A Charlie Brown Christmas hire to voice the Peanuts gang, an unusual choice then?
Actual child actors
Charles Schulz also refused to let CBS add a laugh track, and the special was made on a small budget in about half a year.
Q 08When Linus explains what Christmas is all about, which book of the Bible does he recite from?
Luke
He drops his security blanket as he speaks, a detail fans have pored over for decades.
Q 09What does Lucy tell Charlie Brown to go and buy for the play?
A pink aluminum tree
He ignores her and picks the only real tree on the lot, a tiny sapling that sheds needles when a single ornament is hung on it.
Q 10Which horror-film legend narrated and voiced the Grinch in the 1966 TV special?
Boris Karloff
The book's Grinch was drawn in black and white; the green skin was invented for television because director and author agreed nothing else looked right.
Q 11The uncredited bass singer of 'You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch' was better known as which cereal mascot's voice?
Tony the Tiger
Because his name was left off the credits, the song was misattributed for years to the special's narrator and to Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Q 12Which Looney Tunes director co-produced and directed the 1966 Grinch special?
Chuck Jones
He and Dr. Seuss had worked together before, on the Private Snafu training cartoons during World War II.
Q 13Which voice of Rocky the Flying Squirrel played Cindy Lou Who in the 1966 Grinch special?
June Foray
She went uncredited here and returned to Christmas cartoons as the little girl Karen in a snowman special a few years later.
Q 21Which Disney regular voiced the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
Keenan Wynn
The Warlock's melted heart is what leads to the song 'Put One Foot in Front of the Other', and his last bit of magic makes the reindeer fly.
Q 22In The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), Snow Miser and Heat Miser are the feuding sons of whom?
Mother Nature
She forces the brothers to compromise so it can snow in Southtown, the small Southern town where the story unfolds.
Q 23Which Oscar-winning actress narrated The Year Without a Santa Claus as Mrs. Claus?
Shirley Booth
Santa himself has come down with a cold in early December and decided to skip his Christmas Eve run altogether.
Q 14By how many sizes does the Grinch's heart grow at the end of the story?
Three
With his newly enlarged heart he saves the sleigh from tumbling off Mount Crumpit and returns everything to Whoville.
Q 15Which gravel-voiced entertainer narrates the 1969 special Frosty the Snowman?
Jimmy Durante
Unlike the puppet-animated Rudolph, this special used traditional hand-drawn animation with character designs by Mad magazine's Paul Coker Jr.
Q 16What is the name of the magician's rabbit who steals the hat and befriends Frosty?
Hocus Pocus
The rabbit was voiced by Paul Frees, who also played Santa and the traffic cop in the same special.
Q 17Frosty the Snowman's animation was outsourced to which Japanese studio, founded by Astro Boy's creator?
Mushi Production
Osamu Tezuka's studio was busy at the time with its own TV series, but Rankin/Bass relied on Japanese animators for nearly all its output.
Q 18Which dancing legend narrates Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town (1970) as the mailman S.D. Kluger?
Fred Astaire
The special sets out to answer the questions children ask about Santa: why the red suit, why the chimney, why the stockings.
Q 19Which grouchy mayor outlaws all toys in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
Burgermeister Meisterburger
He tripped over a toy duck on his front steps, which is what set off the ban in his gloomy town of Sombertown.
Q 20What does young Kris name the lost penguin he befriends in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
Topper
Kris was raised by the Kringles, a family of toy-making elves, after animals rescued him as a foundling on their doorstep.
Q 24Which two elves does Mrs. Claus send south for Christmas spirit in The Year Without a Santa Claus?
Jingle and Jangle
The story comes from a 1956 book by Phyllis McGinley, a poet who won a Pulitzer Prize five years later.
Q 25Mickey's Christmas Carol was released to theaters in 1983 in front of a re-issue of which Disney feature?
The Rescuers
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short but lost to a claymation short called Sundae in New York.
Q 26The 1982 film The Snowman is based on a wordless picture book by which author-illustrator?
Raymond Briggs
The film keeps the book's silence: apart from its one song, there is no dialogue at all.
Q 27Who sang 'Walking in the Air' in the original 1982 film The Snowman?
Peter Auty, a St Paul's Cathedral choirboy
Aled Jones's cover came in 1985 and reached number five on the UK singles chart, which is why he is so often wrongly credited.
Q 28In the first Simpsons episode broadcast, a 1989 Christmas special, what job does Homer take?
Shopping mall Santa
The greyhound the family adopts, Santa's Little Helper, was a 99-to-1 long shot Homer bet on at the dog track.
Q 29'Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire' aired first, but where did it fall in production order?
Eighth
It went out first because other early episodes had animation problems, which is why it looks more polished than the episodes that followed.
Q 30Who directed the 1993 stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas?
Henry Selick
Tim Burton wrote the original poem and produced, but Selick ran the shoot; he later directed Coraline.