Rudolph Trivia
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86 free Rudolph trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free Rudolph trivia questions with answers. Rudolph is younger than most people assume. He was invented in 1939 as a giveaway booklet for a department store, by a copywriter who nearly called him Rollo, and whose bosses first rejected the glowing nose because in the 1930s a red nose meant a drunk. This quiz follows the whole chain: the booklet and its 2.4 million copies, the 1949 song, and the 1964 stop-motion special that was voiced in Toronto, animated in Tokyo, sponsored by General Electric and has aired every December since. There are questions on Hermey the would-be dentist, Yukon Cornelius, King Moonracer and the Abominable Snow Monster, plus a final round on the real animal, which is the only deer whose females grow antlers. Every answer is written against a sourced account with the sentence that establishes it attached. Good for a Christmas quiz, a family movie night, or the argument about which network is supposed to show it.
30 of 86 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who created the character of Rudolph, in 1939?
Robert L. May
Robert L. May, a copywriter at a Chicago mail-order retailer, wrote the Rudolph booklet in 1939 as a work assignment: his employer wanted a Christmas giveaway of its own.
Q 02Which department store commissioned the original booklet?
Montgomery Ward
Montgomery Ward, the Chicago mail-order chain, had been buying Christmas colouring booklets to give away and in 1939 decided that producing its own would be cheaper.
Q 03Which two names did the author consider before settling on Rudolph?
Rollo and Reginald
The author first tried Rollo and Reginald, rejecting Rollo as too cheerful and Reginald as too British, before settling on Rudolph.
Q 04How many copies did the store give away in the first year?
2.4 million
The store handed out 2.4 million copies of the booklet in the 1939 Christmas season; wartime paper shortages then halted reprints until 1946.
Q 05What gave the author the idea for the glowing nose?
Fog off Lake Michigan
The author said a dense fog rolling in off Lake Michigan, seen from his Chicago office window, gave him the idea of a reindeer with a glowing nose.
Q 06Why was the red nose idea initially rejected?
It suggested alcoholism
In 1930s popular culture a bright red nose meant a drunkard, and management took some convincing.
Q 07Which illustrator's sketches convinced management to approve the story?
Denver Gillen
Denver Gillen, an artist in the store's art department, sketched live reindeer at Lincoln Park Zoo; his lively drawings persuaded management to approve the project.
Q 08In which poetic metre is the original story written?
Anapestic tetrameter
The author wrote the booklet in anapestic tetrameter, the galloping da-da-DUM metre of 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', so it scans like a Christmas Eve poem.
Q 09Which publisher issued the first mass-market edition, in 1947?
Maxton Books
Maxton Books printed the first commercial edition in 1947, the year the store that had owned the booklet signed its copyright over to the author.
Q 10What was the 1954 sequel called?
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again
The author's 1954 sequel was titled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again; it followed the 1939 booklet by fifteen years and was again written in verse.
Q 11Which unpublished 1947 sequel finally appeared in 1992?
Rudolph's Second Christmas
Rudolph's Second Christmas was written by the author in 1947 but sat unpublished for 45 years until Applewood Books issued it in 1992.
Q 12Who wrote the 1949 song that made the character famous?
Johnny Marks
Johnny Marks, the author's brother-in-law, turned the booklet into the 1949 song; the later television special took its title and much of its story from it.
Q 13Which song do the elves perform for an unimpressed Santa?
We Are Santa's Elves
The elves rehearse 'We Are Santa's Elves' and perform it for Santa, who walks out muttering that it needs work and he has to go.
Q 21What job does Hermey the elf want instead of making toys?
Dentist
Hermey wants to be a dentist rather than make toys; the head elf mocks the idea, so he walks out of the workshop and later meets Rudolph on the ice.
Q 22What is Yukon Cornelius searching for?
Silver and gold
Yukon Cornelius is prospecting for silver and gold, and keeps tossing his pickaxe and licking it to taste for either; he never strikes any.
Q 23Who rules the Island of Misfit Toys?
King Moonracer, a winged lion
King Moonracer, a winged lion, rules the Island of Misfit Toys; he flies around the world each night gathering unwanted toys and bringing them to the island.
Q 14Which sponsor backed the special's first broadcast?
General Electric
The umbrella title on air was The General Electric Fantasy Hour.
Q 15Which studio made the 1964 special?
Videocraft International
Videocraft International, the New York company of Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass, produced the special; the firm was later renamed Rankin/Bass Productions, the name most people know.
Q 16What is the stop-motion process used in it called?
Animagic
Rankin/Bass branded its stop-motion puppet technique 'Animagic' and used the name on its later puppet specials such as Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town.
Q 17In which city was the special's animation actually shot?
Tokyo
The animation was shot in Tokyo by Tadahito Mochinaga's MOM Production studio, which Rankin/Bass used for its early stop-motion specials.
Q 18Which folk singer voiced Sam the Snowman?
Burl Ives
Burl Ives, the folk singer behind 'A Little Bitty Tear', voiced Sam the Snowman and sang 'A Holly Jolly Christmas' in the special.
Q 19Which actress voiced the title character?
Billie Mae Richards
Most of the cast were Canadian, recorded over two days at RCA Studios in Toronto.
Q 20In which city were the voices for the special recorded?
Toronto
The voices were recorded at RCA Victor's studios in Toronto, where Rankin/Bass cast mostly Canadian radio and television actors for its 1960s specials.
Q 24What job does the tamed monster do at the end?
Trimming a Christmas tree
Yukon explains that its bouncing ability had saved all their lives on the way home.
Q 25Which network aired the special annually starting in 1972?
CBS
CBS took over the special in 1972, after its first years on NBC, and made it a fixture of its December schedule.
Q 26What did the special's broadcast network unveil in 2005?
A digitally remastered version
In 2005 the network aired a digitally remastered version of the special, restored from the original film elements with a cleaned-up picture and soundtrack.
Q 27On the Island of Misfit Toys, the cowboy rides which animal?
An ostrich
The cowboy on the Island of Misfit Toys rides an ostrich instead of a horse; the island's other residents include a train with square wheels and a spotted elephant.
Q 28In the 2020s, which rights holder controlled the Rudolph story?
The Rudolph Company, LP
The Rudolph Company, LP, the author's family rights company, controlled the Rudolph character and story through the early 2020s, with Character Arts handling licensing and DreamWorks Classics owning the television special.
Q 29Where does Rudolph sit among Santa's reindeer?
Ninth and youngest
Rudolph is the ninth and youngest of Santa's reindeer; the other eight were named in the 1823 poem, and the special presents him as Donner's newborn fawn.
Q 30What does his nose do for the team?
Lights the path through bad weather
Rudolph's glowing nose lights the path through bad weather: on a foggy Christmas Eve, Santa asks him to lead the sleigh so the team can see where it is going.