Rankin/Bass
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50 free Rankin/Bass trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
For decades of Decembers, television meant Rankin/Bass. Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass built a New York studio whose doll-like puppets and hand-drawn snowmen became part of the holiday itself, starting with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and carrying on through Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and The Year Without a Santa Claus. This quiz covers the specials scene by scene: the misfits and villains, the famous narrators, the songs, and the sequels for Easter and New Year. It also follows the studio beyond Christmas, into its Tolkien adaptations, The Last Unicorn, Mad Monster Party and the action cartoons of the 1980s. It is written for anyone who grew up watching these shows every year, and for hosts who want a holiday trivia round with a few surprises in it. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you will learn how the specials were made as well as what happens in them.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Hermey quits Santa's workshop to follow which career dream?
A dentist
A dentist is what Hermey longs to be, and the dream pays off: he pulls the Abominable Snow Monster's teeth, leaving the beast harmless.
Q 02Staff from Topcraft, animators of Rankin/Bass's The Last Unicorn, went on to form which famous company?
Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli grew out of Topcraft: after the Rankin/Bass jobs, Hayao Miyazaki hired the studio to make Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and its core members went on to found the new company.
Q 03Which comedian narrated Rankin/Bass's Frosty the Snowman, having recorded the song himself back in 1950?
Jimmy Durante
Jimmy Durante made the special his final film role. He tells the story, sings the title song, and a cartoon version of him marches in the closing parade.
Q 04Which star replaced the first voice of Sam the Snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer to please NBC?
Burl Ives
Burl Ives took over the part from Larry D. Mann, who stayed on as Yukon Cornelius. Hiring a famous narrator became the studio's habit for later specials.
Q 05In Frosty the Snowman, where does Professor Hinkle lock Frosty inside, causing the snowman to melt?
A greenhouse
A greenhouse was meant as a kindness: Frosty carries his freezing young friend inside to warm her up, and Hinkle shuts the door behind them.
Q 06In The Year Without a Santa Claus, who is asked to settle the Miser brothers' weather feud?
Mother Nature
Mother Nature is the feuding pair's own mother. She summons both sons, over their protests, and forcefully persuades them to strike a compromise.
Q 07Which film star voiced mailman S.D. Kluger in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and an Easter follow-up?
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire plays Kluger as a postman whose truck breaks down, so he answers children's letters with Santa's life story. He returned to explain the Easter Bunny's origins.
Q 08Which lost animal does Kris Kringle befriend and name Topper in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
A penguin
A penguin far from home, Topper joins Kris on his first trip to deliver toys and is still at his side when the mailman narrator heads north at the end.
Q 09Which modern holiday film is heavily influenced by the look and style of Rankin/Bass's Christmas specials?
Elf
Elf wears the debt openly, and it is not alone: the specials' doll-like puppet style has been parodied everywhere from Saturday Night Live to South Park.
Q 10Which appraisal show featured surviving Santa and Rudolph puppets from the Rankin/Bass special in 2006?
Antiques Roadshow
Antiques Roadshow valued the battered pair at up to $10,000 after years in a family attic. Restored, they fetched $368,000 at auction in 2020.
Q 11What has prospector Yukon Cornelius spent his life hunting for in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Silver and gold
Silver and gold is also the title of his theme song in the score, yet it is the narrator who sings it rather than the prospector himself.
Q 12Professor Hinkle's rabbit, who brings the magic hat back in Frosty the Snowman, goes by what name?
Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus swaps the hat for a lamppost wreath to fool his master, then leads the search for Santa when the snowman's trip north goes wrong.
Q 13Which gift from Kris Kringle wins over the Winter Warlock in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
A toy train
A toy train turns the captor into a friend. The Warlock later repays Kris from a prison cell, spending the last of his magic to help him escape.
Q 21Which creature is King Moonracer, ruler of the Island of Misfit Toys in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
A winged lion
A winged lion, he flies out to collect unloved toys and shelters them until children can be found for them, a job he asks Santa to help with.
Q 22Which schoolgirl rides north in a refrigerator car with Frosty in Rankin/Bass's Frosty the Snowman?
Karen
Karen stows away with Frosty because neither has money for a ticket. The cold that keeps him frozen chills her badly, forcing them off the train.
Q 23Mad magazine artist Paul Coker Jr. was hired so that Frosty the Snowman would have the look of what?
A Christmas card
Q 14Which star voiced Santa in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town and again in The Year Without a Santa Claus?
Mickey Rooney
Mickey Rooney played the role a third time in Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas in July, making him the studio's regular Santa through the 1970s.
Q 15Burgermeister Meisterburger bans toys as mayor of which town in Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town?
Sombertown
Sombertown loses its toys because the mayor trips over a toy duck. Kris gets round the locked doors by coming down chimneys and filling stockings.
Q 16In The Year Without a Santa Claus, Southtown's mayor will free a reindeer only if his visitors do what?
Make it snow
Make it snow was the mayor's joke about his warm Southern town. When flakes do fall, he is stunned into calling for an official day off for Santa.
Q 17In Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which doe calls Rudolph cute at the reindeer games, sending him flying?
Clarice
Clarice stands by Rudolph after the others mock his nose, and later joins his parents in searching for him, only to be captured by the snow monster.
Q 18Which job does the tamed Abominable Snow Monster do at the end of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?
Trimming the tree
Trimming the tree is the trick Yukon Cornelius has taught him. Both were thought lost over a cliff, but the monster's bounce saved them.
Q 19Which demonic sorcerer battles Lion-O for the Eye of Thundera in Rankin/Bass's hit cartoon ThunderCats?
Mumm-Ra
Mumm-Ra is a mummified sorcerer who recruits the Mutants of Plun-Darr to his cause. ThunderCats became the most successful series the studio ever made.
Q 20Which family pop group starred in a Rankin/Bass Saturday-morning cartoon that began on ABC in 1971?
The Jackson 5
The Jackson 5 were too busy to voice themselves, so actors played the brothers while their real records supplied the songs. Motown co-produced the series.
A Christmas card was the look the producers wanted, and Coker also drew greeting cards for a living. He went on to design more than 40 of the studio's shows.
Q 24Which actor voiced the evil rabbit January Q. Irontail in Rankin/Bass's Here Comes Peter Cottontail?
Vincent Price
Vincent Price gives Irontail his grudge: a child once roller-skated over his tail, leaving him with an iron replacement and a plan to ruin Easter.
Q 25Rankin/Bass followed The Hobbit by animating which Tolkien volume for television in 1980?
The Return of the King
The Return of the King jumps straight to Tolkien's final volume, summing up the first two in a brief opening. A lawsuit from the Tolkien Estate over television rights was settled in time for it to air.
Q 26Which injured animal is healed after Aaron plays for the newborn Jesus in The Little Drummer Boy?
A lamb
A lamb named Baba is struck by a Roman chariot in Bethlehem. Having no gift for the baby, Aaron offers his drumming, and Baba recovers.
Q 27Most of the voice cast of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, including Rudolph, came from which country?
Canada
Canada still had a busy radio-drama scene, which gave the producers a deep pool of voice talent. The recording sessions took just two days.
Q 28Viewer letters led Rankin/Bass to add a scene to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer showing Santa doing what?
Rescuing the Misfit Toys
Rescuing the Misfit Toys was missing from the first broadcast, which left them stranded. Viewers wrote in, so the scene was animated and added in 1965.
Q 29Which of Santa's reindeer is seized by a dog catcher in Southtown in The Year Without a Santa Claus?
Vixen
Vixen, the youngest of the team, is carrying two of Santa's helpers on a search for Christmas spirit when she is hauled off to the town pound.
Q 30What do Father Mouse and the Trundles build to win Santa back in 'Twas the Night Before Christmas?
A clock tower
A clock tower that plays a special song is their apology, after a letter in the town paper claimed Santa did not exist. The letter's author then breaks the clock.