Christmas Sports Trivia
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50 free Christmas Sports trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
42 free Christmas Sports trivia questions with answers. Sport does not stop for the holidays, and this quiz covers everything played between Christmas Eve and New Year's Day. It starts with the NBA's Christmas tradition since 1947, Bernard King's 60 points and the Knicks' record wins and losses; then the NFL's first Christmas games in 1971, including the longest game ever played, and the mud of the 1965 title game. Then the Boxing Day institutions: full football fixture lists in Britain, the Melbourne Test, the Sydney to Hobart yacht race and its 1998 tragedy, the King George VI Chase and Kauto Star. Plus the winter events that bridge the years: the Spengler Cup in Davos, the World Juniors, the Four Hills, the darts at Alexandra Palace, the Winter Classic, the Hawaii Bowl and the football match of the 1914 Christmas Truce. Easy questions suit anyone with a TV on Christmas Day; harder ones will test the fans of every code. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the events, and the source line appears under each question after you answer.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01NBA games on Christmas Day have been an annual tradition since which year, the league's second season?
1947
The Knicks beat the Providence Steamrollers 89-75 at Madison Square Garden in the first one.
Q 02Which team did the New York Knicks beat in the first NBA Christmas Day game?
Providence Steamrollers
The score was 89-75 at Madison Square Garden.
Q 03Which player holds the record for most points in an NBA Christmas Day game, with 60 in 1984?
Bernard King
His Knicks have both the most Christmas wins (26) and the most losses (32).
Q 04How many NBA games were scheduled on Christmas Day each year from 2008 to 2024?
Five
The five-game slate ran every Christmas from 2008 through 2024; by comparison the NFL's Thanksgiving slate has three games.
Q 05How many Christmas Day wins had the Knicks, the NBA leader, recorded through 2025?
26
The Knicks played the very first Christmas game in 1947; through 2025 their holiday record stood at 26-32.
Q 06Which coach set the record of 11 Christmas Day coaching wins, later matched by Phil Jackson in 2008?
Jack Ramsay
Ramsay coached Portland from 1976 to 1986 and called a home win on Christmas 'a perfect Christmas'.
Q 07In 2009 and 2010 the NBA scheduled the Lakers at home on Christmas to showcase which two stars head to head?
Kobe Bryant and LeBron James
The opponents were Cleveland in 2009 and Miami in 2010.
Q 08The first NFL games ever scheduled on Christmas Day were played in which year?
1971
The decision drew considerable criticism at the time.
Q 09The longest game in NFL history, on Christmas Day 1971, pitted the Dolphins against which team?
Kansas City Chiefs
It lasted 82 minutes 40 seconds and was the Chiefs' last game at Municipal Stadium.
Q 10Who kicked the winning field goal in the second overtime of the 1971 Christmas Day game?
Garo Yepremian
His 37-yarder came after 7:40 of the second OT for a 27-24 Miami win.
Q 11How long, in game time, was the longest NFL game ever?
82 minutes 40 seconds
A regulation game is 60 minutes.
Q 12The other NFL game on Christmas Day 1971 saw the Dallas Cowboys beat which team 20-12?
Minnesota Vikings
The Vikings outgained Dallas 311-183 but still lost.
Q 13On which date do the UK's major football leagues traditionally play a full programme of fixtures?
26 December
Rugby league also long kept festive fixtures.
Q 14The Boxing Day Test is played annually where?
Q 21Approximately how long is the Sydney to Hobart course?
630 nautical miles
That is about 1,170 km down the New South Wales coast and across Bass Strait.
Q 22Which yacht set a Sydney to Hobart race record of 1 day, 9 hours, 15 minutes in 2017?
LDV Comanche
It beat Perpetual Loyal's mark from the year before.
Q 23In which year of the First World War was the Christmas Truce?
1914
Germans placed candles on their trenches and sang carols.
Q 24What was the score in Robert Graves's 1962 fictional Christmas Truce football match?
The MCG
A Victoria v New South Wales Sheffield Shield match had been played there over Christmas since 1865.
Q 15In which year did the Australian Cricket Board formalise the Boxing Day Test tradition?
1980
It coincided with the Nine Network buying the TV rights.
Q 16The MCG's largest-ever Boxing Day crowd came in which year, for the fourth Ashes Test?
2025
Big Bash competition has made attendance vary in other years.
Q 17On which date does the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race start?
26 December
It is hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia.
Q 18The inaugural Sydney to Hobart race in 1945 was won by which yacht?
Rani
John Illingworth's boat took six days, 14 hours and 22 minutes.
Q 19The Sydney to Hobart event began after a visiting British naval officer suggested what?
Turning a planned cruise into a competition
Peter Luke and friends had planned a cruise; Captain John Illingworth said race it.
Q 20How many people died in the storm that hit the 1998 Sydney to Hobart race?
Six
Five boats sank in winds like a low-category hurricane.
3-2 to the Germans
Many accounts of the truce mention football, but details vary and some are embellished.
Q 25The Spengler Cup, the world's oldest invitational hockey tournament, is played each year in which town?
Davos
It runs from 26 to 31 December, hosted by HC Davos.
Q 26Which club had won the most Spengler Cups, 17, by the end of 2025?
HC Davos
Swiss teams as a group had won 23 by then.
Q 27The Spengler Cup was first held in which year?
1923
Carl Spengler founded it partly to promote German-speaking teams shunned after World War I.
Q 28The King George VI Chase moved to Boxing Day in which year, after the war?
1947
It was first run in February 1937 and named for the new king.
Q 29Which horse won the King George VI Chase a record five times?
Kauto Star
Desert Orchid won it four times.
Q 30The King George VI Chase is run at which racecourse?
Kempton Park
It is about three miles with eighteen fences.