Christmas in Sweden
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40 free Christmas in Sweden trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Christmas in Sweden runs on rituals. The big day is 24 December rather than the 25th, the whole country sits down in front of the same television programme, and the season does not officially end until well into January. This quiz covers the facts people go looking for: the white-gowned Lucia processions of 13 December, the dishes and drinks of the julbord, the folklore of farm spirits and straw ornaments, the church traditions, and the films, books and songs that Swedes return to every winter. It is written for anyone curious about Swedish customs, from families with Swedish roots to teachers, travellers and quiz hosts planning a festive round. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will pick up a fact even when you guess wrong.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Julmust, Sweden's dark spiced Christmas soda, is famous for outselling which global rival every December?
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola sales in Sweden reportedly fall by as much as half over the holiday, when julmust accounts for around half of all the soft drink the country gets through.
Q 02Swedes celebrate Christmas on 24 December because medieval Sweden began each new day at what moment?
Sunset
Sunset on 24 December once marked the start of Christmas Day, and the evening celebration stayed put even after Sweden switched to counting days from midnight.
Q 03What does the girl chosen as Lucia wear in a crown on her head in Sweden's 13 December processions?
Candles
Candles in the crown stand for the light Lucia carries into the dark Swedish winter, although these days the flames are usually electric.
Q 04What is hidden in the Christmas rice porridge in Sweden, said to bring luck to whoever finds it?
An almond
An almond in the bowl means a lucky year ahead for its finder in Sweden and Finland, while in Norway and Denmark whoever gets it wins a small present instead.
Q 05Which animal, now a straw ornament, brought Swedish Christmas presents before Santa Claus took over?
Goat
Goat costumes were worn by a man of the family to hand out the gifts in the 1800s, and Finland's Santa still carries the old name, Joulupukki.
Q 06How does Jultomten, the Swedish Santa, traditionally deliver the presents on Christmas Eve?
Knocking at the door
Knocking at the door with a sack of gifts is the Swedish way, so someone slips out of the party, dresses up and comes back to hand the presents over in person.
Q 07Which Swedish city's giant straw Christmas figure has been burned or wrecked in most years since 1966?
Gävle
Gävle raises the 13-metre figure in its Castle Square each winter, and an American tourist who set it alight in 2001 told the court he thought burning it was a legal tradition.
Q 08Lutfisk, the dried fish of the Swedish Christmas table, is soaked in water and what else before cooking?
Lye
Lye makes the dried fish swell into a jelly-like texture, and it then needs days more soaking in fresh water before it is fit to eat.
Q 09Which spice gives Sweden's S-shaped Saint Lucy's Day buns their golden-yellow colour?
Saffron
Saffron colours the raisin-studded dough, and Lucia herself traditionally serves the buns with coffee, a custom that dates back to the 1880s.
Q 10Sweden's golden Lucia buns are shaped to look like which curled-up animals, with raisins for eyes?
Cats
Cats give the buns their Swedish name, lussekatter, and the simplest version is a curled S with a raisin tucked into each end.
Q 11The tune Swedes sing in Saint Lucy's Day processions began as a boatman's song from which Italian city?
Naples
Naples has a waterfront district called Borgo Santa Lucia, and the original words are a boatman's invitation to an evening ride, with no saint or winter in them at all.
Q 12Saint Lucy, honoured across Sweden every 13 December, was a martyr from Syracuse on which Mediterranean island?
Sicily
Sicily keeps its own legend of her feast day: a famine is said to have ended when ships loaded with grain sailed into the harbour.
Q 13In Swedish folklore, what could all animals do on Lucia Night, once reckoned the longest night of the year?
Speak
Speak they could, on a night when supernatural beings were abroad, and people were urged to eat seven or nine hearty breakfasts to recover.
Q 21A Swedish julbord traditionally opens with which pickled fish, served with sour cream and chives?
Herring
Herring opens a buffet that can run to seven courses, moving on through cold fish, sliced meats and warm dishes before the cheese and the sweets.
Q 22Pepparkakor, the thin crisp biscuits baked across Sweden each December, are a version of which bake?
Gingerbread
Gingerbread in Sweden is rolled wafer-thin and cut into shapes, and although the name means pepper cakes, the main spices are ginger, cinnamon and cloves.
Q 23Which flower traditionally fills Swedish homes with its powerful scent in the days around Christmas?
Hyacinths
Hyacinths share the room with wall hangings, patterned tablecloths, angels and little Santa figures once Swedes start decorating in December.
Q 14What kind of business revived Sweden's Lucia custom in 1927 with a contest to pick Stockholm's official Lucia?
A newspaper
A newspaper, Stockholms Dagblad, sponsored the competition, which grew into a grand parade through the streets and a crowning at the city hall.
Q 15In a Swedish Lucia procession, what name is given to the male attendants in white gowns and tall paper cone hats?
Star boys
Star boys carry a star on a stick because the role began as a Twelfth Night custom about the Three Wise Men, when boys went singing from farm to farm.
Q 16Which Stockholm open-air museum, the oldest in Sweden, has held a popular Christmas market since 1903?
Skansen
Skansen was opened in 1891 to show how Swedes lived before the industrial era, and it became the model for open-air museums across Scandinavia.
Q 17Sweden's Christmas soft drink julmust was invented in 1910 as an alcohol-free alternative to which drink?
Beer
Beer drinkers were the target for Harry Roberts and his father, who flavoured it with hops and malt, and the syrup is still made only by the Roberts company in Örebro.
Q 18Which hot spiced wine do Swedes serve with blanched almonds and raisins in the weeks before Christmas?
Glögg
Glögg takes its name from the Swedish verb glödga, to heat up, and many Swedes pour a cup on each of the four Sundays that lead up to Christmas.
Q 19Sweden's Christmas ham is painted with egg, breadcrumbs and which condiment before it is browned in the oven?
Mustard
Mustard goes into the glaze and onto the plate too, while the stock left from boiling the ham is kept for dipping bread, a ritual called dopp i grytan.
Q 20Which creamy potato and sprat casserole on Sweden's Christmas table may have been named after a 1928 film?
Jansson's Temptation
Jansson's Temptation layers potato strips with onion, cream and pickled sprats, which English recipes often mistranslate as anchovies because Swedes call them ansjovis.
Q 24In Nordic folklore, the farm tomte flies into a rage if his Christmas Eve porridge comes without what on top?
Butter
Butter mattered so much that in one much-told tale the spirit killed the farm's cow over a bare bowl, then found the pat had been hidden underneath all along.
Q 25For which creatures did Swedish farms traditionally put out a sheaf of oats at Christmas?
Birds
Birds got their oat sheaf while the farm's guardian spirit got a plate of porridge, and fresh straw was laid over the cottage floor.
Q 26In old Swedish belief, the Christmas food was left on the table overnight so that who could come and feast?
The dead
The dead were also thought to hold a church service of their own that night, leaving traces of earth in the pews for the living to find on Christmas morning.
Q 27On Boxing Day, old Swedish custom had farmers rise early to water which animals in honour of Saint Stephen?
Horses
Horses were led to streams that ran north, because Saint Stephen was their patron saint and was said to have watered his own in the same way.
Q 28Before real presents caught on, what did Swedes wrap up and toss into someone's home as a Christmas joke?
A log of wood
A log of wood was the usual anonymous joke gift, and Swedes only began handing one another real presents in the 1900s.
Q 29Which saint's day on 13 January ends the Swedish Christmas, when children strip the tree of its last sweets?
Knut
Saint Knut's Day is the twentieth day of Christmas, and the party at which the tree is stripped and thrown out is called julgransplundring, or Christmas tree plundering.
Q 30Julotta, the Swedish Christmas Day service worshippers once raced home from, is held at what time?
Before dawn
Before dawn is the rule, since otta means the hour before daybreak, and whoever raced home first afterwards was said to be favoured at the next harvest.