60 free Holiday Traditions Trivia for Kids trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This holiday traditions for kids trivia quiz travels the calendar and the globe. It starts with Christmas customs children know best, from stockings and reindeer to candy canes, crackers and the Elf on the Shelf, then moves through Hanukkah's menorah and dreidel, Kwanzaa's seven candles, Diwali's lamps, Lunar New Year's red envelopes and lion dances, Easter eggs, jack-o'-lanterns, Thanksgiving turkey and the Macy's parade, Valentine's cards, St. Patrick's shamrocks, Day of the Dead marigolds, Eid, Holi, Songkran's water fights and New Year's Eve in Times Square and Spain. Along the way it visits Sinterklaas in the Netherlands, La Befana in Italy, Ded Moroz in Russia and the KFC Christmas dinner in Japan. Questions are written for kids roughly 7 to 12, for classrooms, family game nights and holiday parties, and most are easy or medium. Grown-ups who want more can try our main holidays around the world trivia and Christmas trivia pages. Every answer has been checked against the Wikipedia article on the holiday or tradition, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop behind Santa Claus, lived in which modern country?
Turkey
He was bishop of Myra, now the town of Demre, and was famous for secret gift-giving.
Q 02Which Dutch gift-bringer, brought to New Amsterdam, grew into the American Santa Claus?
Sinterklaas
New Amsterdam is now New York City, and Sinterklaas still arrives in the Netherlands every year by steamboat.
Q 03How many reindeer pull Santa's sleigh in the famous 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas?
Eight
Rudolph only joined the team in a 1939 story, and the last two in the poem were first called Dunder and Blixem, Dutch for thunder and lightning.
Q 04Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in a story written in which year?
1939
The song came ten years later in 1949, and now everyone assumes Rudolph was always there.
Q 05According to tradition, what does a child who has been naughty all year find in their Christmas stocking?
A lump of coal
The stocking custom itself comes from a legend about Saint Nicholas dropping gold into stockings hung by the fire to dry.
Q 06The custom of bringing a decorated Christmas tree indoors began in which part of Europe?
Germany and the Baltic states
Moravian Christians were the first to light the trees with candles, long before electric lights.
Q 07Candy canes are usually flavoured with what?
Peppermint
Some say they were first hung on trees because peppermint keeps mice and cats away from the branches.
Q 08Which fairy tale is often credited with inspiring the first gingerbread houses?
Hansel and Gretel
The city of Nuremberg in Germany has been called the Gingerbread Capital of the World since the 1600s.
Q 09What three things are usually found inside a Christmas cracker?
A paper hat, a small gift and a joke
The bang comes from a strip of card treated with the same chemical used in cap guns.
Q 10In the Elf on the Shelf tradition, where does the elf fly every night after the children are asleep?
To the North Pole to see Santa
The elf comes from a 2005 book by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell, and children must never touch it.
Q 11How many candles are on a traditional Advent wreath?
Four
One is lit each Sunday before Christmas; some wreaths add a white fifth candle in the middle for Christmas Day.
Q 12Poinsettias, the red-and-green Christmas plants, originally come from where?
Mexico and Central America
They are named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first US minister to Mexico, but their old Nahuatl name is cuetlaxochitl.
Q 13In Japan, a 1970s advertising campaign made it a Christmas custom to eat dinner from which restaurant?
KFC
Families also share a Japanese Christmas cake, a white sponge covered in cream and strawberries.
Q 21How many nights does Hanukkah last?
Eight
One more candle is lit on the menorah each night until all eight burn together, plus the helper candle called the shamash.
Q 22What is the name of the extra helper candle used to light the others on a Hanukkah menorah?
The shamash
The word means attendant, and it usually sits higher or apart from the other eight.
Q 23What is a dreidel?
A four-sided spinning top
The letters nun, gimel, hei and shin are said to stand for a great miracle happened there.
Latkes, eaten at Hanukkah, are pancakes made mostly from which vegetable?
Q 14The Dutch Saint Nicholas figure arrives each year by steamboat from which country?
Spain
He then rides a white horse; the current one is called Ozosnel, which means oh so fast.
Q 15In Italy, who flies on a broomstick on the night of January 5 to fill children's stockings?
La Befana
She is a kindly old woman who brings sweets to good children and coal to naughty ones.
Q 16Ded Moroz, the Russian gift-bringer, has a name that translates as what?
Grandfather Frost
He wears a long red or blue fur coat and leaves presents under the New Year tree, not the Christmas tree.
Q 17Which animal does Sweden's popular straw Christmas ornament, tied with red ribbons, depict?
A goat
The town of Gävle builds a giant one every year, and pranksters keep trying to burn it down.
Q 18On which date is Boxing Day celebrated?
The day after Christmas
It started in Britain as a day to give boxes of gifts to people in need.
Q 19Las Posadas, celebrated in Mexico from December 16 to 24, lasts a set number of nights to represent what?
The months Mary was pregnant
Each night, children re-enact Mary and Joseph looking for an inn, and there is often a piñata.
Q 20What are the points of a traditional star-shaped Mexican Christmas piñata said to stand for?
The seven deadly sins
Breaking the pot stands for beating evil, and the sweets that fall out are the reward.
Potatoes
They are fried in oil to remember the little jar of oil that lasted eight days.
Q 25Kwanzaa runs for a week from late December and celebrates the culture of which group?
African Americans
It was created by Maulana Karenga in 1966 and ends with a big feast called Karamu.
Q 26How many candles are on the kinara used during Kwanzaa?
Seven
One for each of the seven principles, the Nguzo Saba, and the holiday's name was even spelled with an extra a to make seven letters.
Q 27Diwali is often called the festival of what?
Lights
Families light little oil lamps called diyas and draw rangoli patterns on the floor.
Q 28On Diwali, many celebrate Rama's return to which kingdom after defeating the demon king Ravana?
Ayodhya
He came home with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana, and the people lit lamps to welcome them.
Q 29Holi, the Hindu festival of spring, is famous for people throwing what at each other?
Coloured powder
It celebrates the love of Radha and Krishna and the arrival of spring.
Q 30Chinese New Year is also known by what other name?
The Spring Festival
It runs from New Year's Eve to the Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the new year.