December Holiday
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143 free December Holiday trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
64 free December trivia questions with answers. These winter holiday trivia questions cover the whole December calendar, not just Christmas: the Hanukkah menorah and dreidel, the seven principles of Kwanzaa, St. Nicholas Day shoes, Krampus and the Icelandic Yule Lads, the winter solstice, Boxing Day, and the foods and songs that come with each of them. A round of trivia about December itself adds the month's name, birthstones and zodiac signs, the Geminid meteor shower, and the big December dates in history from the Boston Tea Party to Apollo 8. The mix runs from easy questions anyone at a holiday party can get (which reindeer has the red nose) to hard ones about the origins of Advent calendars, Christmas crackers and the Feast of the Seven Fishes, so it works as a family round or an office trivia night. Every answer has been checked against a real source and each question shows its citation, so you can settle the inevitable table argument on the spot.
30 of 143 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which European country originated the modern Christmas tree tradition in the 16th century?
Germany
The modern Christmas tree tradition arose in 16th-century Germany; Martin Luther is often credited with first adding lighted candles to an indoor evergreen.
Q 02Boxing Day, celebrated on December 26th, originated as a day for what purpose?
Tipping tradespeople and servants
Tipping tradespeople and servants was done with a 'Christmas box' of money or gifts; tradesmen went round their customers on the day to collect theirs.
Q 03In Alpine folklore, which horned figure joins Saint Nicholas on 5 December to punish naughty children?
Krampus
Krampus is said to punish the naughty with birch rods while the saint hands out small gifts; on that evening, called Krampusnacht, costumed devils parade through Alpine towns.
Q 04Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of which month of the Hebrew calendar?
Kislev
Hanukkah begins on 25 Kislev; because the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar, the festival falls anywhere from late November to late December on the civil calendar.
Q 05Which Swahili word for 'Unity' names the first principle of Kwanzaa?
Umoja
Umoja is the first day's reply to the Kwanzaa greeting 'Habari gani?', which is answered each day with that day's principle; it calls for unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Q 06Which Christmas custom began with 19th-century Protestants chalking 24 marks on the door?
Advent calendar
The Advent calendar began as 24 chalk strokes that children rubbed out one a day; printer Gerhard Lang made the best-known early printed versions in the 1900s.
Q 07Kwanzaa was created in 1966 in the aftermath of which event?
The Watts riots
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 after the 1965 Watts riots in Los Angeles; its creator's stated aim was to give Black Americans a holiday celebrating their own history rather than imitating the dominant society's.
Q 08Who authored the classic holiday novella 'A Christmas Carol'?
Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens wrote the novella in six weeks in late 1843 and divided it into five 'staves' rather than chapters; the first edition sold out by Christmas Eve.
Q 09In an old English mistletoe custom, what was plucked from the sprig after each kiss until the kissing had to stop?
A berry
A berry came off with every kiss until the sprig was bare; the custom caught on among servants in 18th-century England, and a woman who refused the kiss was said to invite bad luck.
Q 10Rovaniemi, a city on the Arctic Circle that bills itself as the official hometown of Santa Claus, is in which country?
Finland
Finland's Rovaniemi lost about nine-tenths of its buildings in the Second World War and was rebuilt to a plan by architect Alvar Aalto; it has since trademarked the 'official hometown' title.
Q 11Russia's Ded Moroz, 'Grandfather Frost', hands out New Year gifts with which granddaughter?
The Snow Maiden
The Snow Maiden, Snegurochka, joins Ded Moroz at New Year because the Soviet state banned Christmas, then let the decorated tree and the gift-giving return in the 1930s as part of a secular New Year holiday.
Q 12In Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas arrives each November by steamboat from which country?
Spain
Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat from Spain each November; he then rides a white horse over the rooftops, and older songs threatened to carry naughty children back to Spain in a sack.
Q 13Which festive novelty did London confectioner Tom Smith devise after seeing French paper-wrapped bonbons?
Christmas cracker
Q 21Which item is traditionally left in shoes or stockings on St. Nicholas Day in some European countries?
Small treats or coins
Small treats or coins echo the legend of Nicholas of Myra tossing gold through a poor family's window, where, in one telling, it landed in shoes or stockings drying by the fire.
Q 22What colour is the centre candle on a Kwanzaa candle holder, lit first?
Black
Black sits in the centre and is lit first, with three red candles to its left and three green to its right: the same three colours as the Pan-African flag adopted by Marcus Garvey's movement in 1920.
Q 23What is the name of the extra candle on a Hanukkah menorah that is used to light the others?
Shamash
The Christmas cracker began as Tom Smith's sweet in a twist of paper with a motto inside; the bang came later, and his son Walter added the paper hats.
Q 14In Catalonia, children feed and blanket a hollow log before Christmas so that it will do what?
'Excrete' presents when beaten
The Tió de Nadal will 'excrete' presents when beaten: on Christmas Eve or Day the family thumps it with sticks and sings, then finds sweets and small gifts under its blanket.
Q 15In Japan, a 1974 marketing campaign turned which food into the classic Christmas dinner?
Fried chicken
Fried chicken from KFC caught on through the 'Kentucky for Christmas' campaign, which grew from manager Takeshi Okawara's 'party barrel', sold as a stand-in for the roast bird of an American Christmas.
Q 16The real 'Good King Wenceslas' of the Christmas carol was a 10th-century duke of which land?
Bohemia
Bohemia's Wenceslas was only a duke in his lifetime; an emperor granted him the title of king after his death, and an English hymnwriter turned his legend into the carol in 1853.
Q 17What is the four-sided spinning top, marked with Hebrew letters, that children play with during Hanukkah?
Dreidel
Dreidel letters are popularly read as an acronym for 'a great miracle happened there', though the game itself likely derives from the European teetotum.
Q 18Which of Kwanzaa's Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba) means collective work and responsibility?
Ujima
Ujima, collective work and responsibility, means treating a neighbour's problems as your own to solve; it is the reply to the greeting 'Habari gani?' on the third day.
Q 19Hanukkah, which lasts eight nights, shares which nickname with the Hindu celebration of Diwali?
Festival of Lights
Festival of Lights goes back to the historian Josephus, who called the holiday 'Lights'; its eight nights recall a one-day supply of Temple oil said to have burned for eight days.
Q 20What is the traditional name for the communal feast held on the sixth day of Kwanzaa?
Karamu
The Karamu, held on 31 December, the sixth day of Kwanzaa, gathers family and community for food, music and reflection before the final day of the celebration.
The shamash exists because the Hanukkah flames themselves may not be used for any practical task; it sits higher or lower than the row it serves.
Q 24What is the name of the candle holder used in Kwanzaa celebrations?
Kinara
The kinara is the Kwanzaa candle holder; the first one was little more than a wooden log with holes drilled in it to hold the candles.
Q 25In which country was the Yule Goat once regarded as an invisible spirit that checked Christmas preparations were done right?
Sweden
Sweden's Julbocken appeared some time before Christmas to make sure the Yule preparations were done right; the goat remains a Christmas decoration there and across Scandinavia.
Q 26What traditional fried potato dish is often eaten during Hanukkah?
Latkes
Latkes are fried in oil to recall the Temple oil said to have burned far longer than its supply allowed; cheese pancakes were the usual latke until potatoes reached Eastern Europe in the 19th century.
Q 27Which Christmas standard was first published in 1857 under the title 'The One Horse Open Sleigh'?
Jingle Bells
Jingle Bells was not written as a Christmas song; in December 1965 the Gemini 6 astronauts played it on a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells, one of the first songs broadcast from space.
Q 28Iceland's thirteen Christmas mischief-makers, among them Spoon-Licker and Door-Slammer, are known by what name?
Yule Lads
The Yule Lads come to town one a night over the 13 nights before Christmas, leaving small gifts in shoes on the windowsill, or a rotten potato for a child who has misbehaved.
Q 29Kwanzaa begins on 26 December and ends on which holiday?
New Year's Day
New Year's Day is the last of seven days because one candle is lit each evening for each of the seven principles, beginning the day after Christmas.
Q 30Hanukkah gelt given to children is most often sold in what form?
Foil-wrapped chocolate coins
Foil-wrapped chocolate coins replaced or supplemented real money in the 20th century; in 1958 the Bank of Israel even issued commemorative coins for use as gelt.