Christmas Traditions Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
100 free Christmas Traditions trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Christmas traditions trivia is about the why behind the things we do every December: why the tree, why the stocking, why the kiss under the mistletoe and who on earth decided a cracker should go bang. These 100 questions trace the familiar customs back to their odd beginnings and then travel the world for the ones you may never have heard of. The set covers the first Christmas trees, cards and crackers, stockings and Advent calendars, Boxing Day and Twelfth Night, plus Krampus, La Befana, Las Posadas, the Catalan pooping log, Iceland's Yule Lads and book flood, Sweden's much-burned goat, Sinterklaas and Japan's fried-chicken Christmas. Every answer is checked against a cited source and each explanation adds one more fact. Use it for the office party, the family table or a pub quiz round. Play now and see how many traditions you can trace.
30 of 100 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01A child calling a Santa number from a 1955 newspaper ad reached which kind of place instead?
A military base
A military base: whether through a misprint or a misdial, the call reached Colonel Harry Shoup at the Continental Air Defense Command, and NORAD has tracked Santa every Christmas Eve since.
Q 02Which country sends the giant Christmas tree that stands in London's Trafalgar Square every year?
Norway
Norway: it has sent the tree to London every year since 1947 in gratitude for Britain's support during World War II.
Q 03Who commissioned the first commercially produced Christmas card, in London in 1843?
Sir Henry Cole
Sir Henry Cole had helped launch the cheap Penny Post three years earlier, so a printed card drawn by John Callcott Horsley was a shrewd idea.
Q 04Tradition says the Christmas cracker was invented in 1847 by a London confectioner named what?
Tom Smith
Tom Smith had seen French bon-bons wrapped in twists of paper, and legend says the crackle of a log fire gave him the idea for the bang.
Q 05The Advent calendar, with a door to open each day, was first used by which group?
German Lutherans
German Lutherans started it, printers such as Gerhard Lang made early paper versions, and the countdown has since spread far beyond Lutheran homes.
Q 06By legend, the Christmas stocking tradition began when Saint Nicholas threw what through a poor family's window?
Bags of gold
Bags of gold: one is said to have landed in a stocking hung up to dry, which is why an orange or satsuma often sits in the toe of a stocking.
Q 07In one old version of the mistletoe custom, what had to happen after each kiss?
A berry was plucked
A berry was plucked: Washington Irving wrote that young men kissed girls under the mistletoe, plucking a berry each time, until none were left.
Q 08By one legend, a 17th-century choirmaster bent sugar sticks into canes to remind children of whom?
The shepherds
The shepherds: the bend was meant to recall a shepherd's crook, though no reference to the story appears before the mid-20th century.
Q 09Boxing Day, 26 December, is usually traced to which old British custom?
Giving out Christmas boxes
Giving out Christmas boxes: tradesmen and servants received gifts or money, and one account links the name to church charity boxes opened for the poor.
Q 10Which horned Alpine creature accompanies Saint Nicholas on 5 December to punish naughty children?
Krampus
Krampus still stars in the Krampuslauf, when young men in horned, furry costumes run through Alpine towns rattling chains and bells to scare children.
Q 11Which broomstick-riding old woman delivers gifts to Italian children on the night of 5 January?
La Befana
La Befana, in one legend, turned down the Three Wise Men's invitation to find the infant Jesus, and she has been searching and leaving gifts ever since.
Q 12The seven points of the traditional piñata broken at Las Posadas are said to stand for what?
The seven deadly sins
The seven deadly sins: the blindfold worn by the player is said to stand for faith, and smashing the piñata for overcoming sin.
Q 13At Christmas, Catalan children beat the Tió de Nadal log with sticks so that it will do what?
Poop out presents
Q 21Decorated gingerbread houses are often linked to which fairy tale?
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel: the Grimms' witch lived in a house of bread and cakes, and some historians say the tale inspired the first decorated gingerbread houses.
Q 22Who is the Snow Maiden who helps Russia's Ded Moroz deliver New Year gifts?
His granddaughter
His granddaughter: that role took hold after Soviet authorities, who had banned Christmas trees, brought them back as New Year trees in 1935.
Q 23The parol, a star-shaped lantern hung at Christmas, is a symbol of the holiday in which country?
Philippines
Philippines: parols and carols often appear from September, in what is often called the world's longest Christmas season.
Poop out presents: children 'feed' the log for days beforehand, then on Christmas strike it with sticks until sweets and small gifts appear beneath.
Q 14Iceland's Jólabókaflóð tradition makes what the country's most popular Christmas gift?
Books
Books: during World War II currency limits cut imported gifts, but imported paper was less restricted, so books became the present of choice.
Q 15What do Iceland's Yule Lads traditionally leave in a naughty child's shoe instead of a small gift?
A rotten potato
A rotten potato: the 13 lads were once menacing trolls, but in modern times they have softened into pranksters who also bring gifts.
Q 16The giant straw Gävle Goat in Sweden is famous for what repeatedly happening to it since 1966?
Being burned down
Being burned down: fire-proofing, guards and a webcam have all been tried, yet in 2001 an American tourist set it alight and spent 18 days in jail.
Q 17On Saint Lucy's Day, 13 December, Scandinavian girls lead processions wearing what on their heads?
Crowns of candles
Crowns of candles: under the old Julian calendar Saint Lucy's night fell on the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, so she brings light into the dark.
Q 18According to Dutch tradition, how does Sinterklaas arrive each year?
By steamboat from Spain
By steamboat from Spain: Dutch television broadcasts his arrival live each November, and he docks in a different town every year.
Q 19Which two cities argue over which of them put up the first recorded Christmas tree?
Riga and Tallinn
Riga and Tallinn: merchant guilds there raised trees in the 1400s and 1500s, and in one account young men danced around the tree and then set it on fire.
Q 20Joel Roberts Poinsett brought the poinsettia to the US in the 1820s from which country?
Mexico
Mexico: Poinsett was the first US minister there, and despite its toxic reputation, researchers found no poisonous dose even at about 500 leaves.
Q 24In the Elf on the Shelf tradition, what does the elf supposedly do every night?
Flies to the North Pole
Flies to the North Pole: the 2005 tale says the elf reports the day to Santa each night, and a child's touch could make its magic go.
Q 25Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was created in 1939 as a promotional booklet for which department store?
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward handed Robert L. May the copyright in 1947, and Johnny Marks turned Rudolph into the song Gene Autry recorded in 1949.
Q 26Which holiday recording is credited as the best-selling physical single of all time?
Bing Crosby, White Christmas
It has sold an estimated 50 million copies since Crosby first sang it on the radio on Christmas Day 1941.
Q 27Who is credited with staging the first live nativity scene, in the town of Greccio in 1223?
Saint Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi recreated Bethlehem's manger at Greccio to celebrate the Nativity in a new way, and the popular devotion of the crib grew from it.
Q 28The Feast of the Seven Fishes is a Christmas Eve tradition of which community?
Italian Americans
It reflects the old rule of no meat on the Christmas Eve vigil, so families feast on seafood instead.
Q 29What food has become a Christmas tradition in Japan thanks to a famous fast-food chain?
Fried chicken
Fried chicken: a canny KFC advertising campaign in the 1970s turned a bucket of the chain's chicken into a national Christmas custom.
Q 30In which country's capital do worshippers traditionally roller-skate to early-morning Mass in the days before Christmas?
Venezuela
Venezuela: in Caracas, many streets have been closed to cars until 8 a.m. so that skaters can roll safely to the early services.