Santa Claus
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144 free Santa Claus trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
50 free Santa Claus trivia questions with answers. How well do you know Santa Claus? From his origins as Saint Nicholas to modern Christmas traditions, this comprehensive 144-question trivia quiz will test your knowledge of the jolly man in red. Challenge yourself and discover fascinating facts about Santa, his reindeer, the North Pole, and beloved holiday customs celebrated worldwide.
30 of 144 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Saint Nicholas, whose legend grew into Santa Claus, led the church of which city in Lycia?
Myra
Myra made him bishop by chance, legend says: its clergy agreed to consecrate the first man to enter the church that morning, and Nicholas walked in. Its ruins lie beside modern Demre.
Q 02In the 1823 poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', what does the father watch his visitor fill after landing on the roof?
The stockings
The stockings were 'hung by the chimney with care'; the custom is traced to a legend of the saint in which, in one telling, the gold he gave three poor sisters landed in stockings drying by the fire.
Q 03What snack do children traditionally leave out for Santa's reindeer on Christmas Eve?
A carrot
A carrot is the usual treat, though Scotland's Cairngorm reindeer herders say the real animals cannot eat one: with no upper front teeth they cannot chew it small enough to digest, and prefer lichen.
Q 04Who is traditionally credited as the author of the 1823 poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'?
Clement Clarke Moore
Clement Clarke Moore's poem first ran unsigned; he was named as its author in 1837 and printed it in his own Poems in 1844. Henry Livingston Jr.'s descendants credit him instead, though he never claimed it.
Q 05In Katharine Lee Bates's 1889 poem 'Goody Santa Claus on a Sleigh Ride', the title 'Goody' is short for what?
Goodwife
'Goody' is short for 'Goodwife', an old polite title for a married woman of humble rank; in the poem she talks Santa into taking her along, asking why he should have all the glory.
Q 06Which of these is one of the eight reindeer named in the 1823 poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas'?
Dasher
Dasher is the first name the driver calls. The last two of the eight were printed in 1823 as Dunder and Blixem; they had become Donder and Blitzen by an 1844 printing, and Donner came later still.
Q 07Which company's Christmas advertising in the 1930s, painted by Haddon Sundblom, is credited with fixing Santa's portly, red-suited image?
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola's ads from 1931 onward spread the portly, white-bearded Santa in red, though the look itself was already established before Sundblom painted it.
Q 08In the 1823 poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', what does the visitor hold tight in his teeth?
A pipe
A pipe: 'the stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth'. In 2012 a Canadian publisher issued a smoke-free edition that cut the line and added a letter from Santa renouncing tobacco.
Q 09In 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', what does the visitor lay beside his nose before rising up the chimney?
A finger
A finger: he lays it 'aside of his nose', gives a nod and is gone. Indoors he says nothing at all; every word he speaks in the poem is shouted from the sleigh.
Q 10In 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', Santa's belly shakes when he laughs like a bowl full of what?
Jelly
Jelly fits a Santa the poem draws small: a 'little old driver' in 'a miniature sleigh' pulled by 'eight tiny reindeer', far from the towering figure of later pictures.
Q 11In Alpine folklore, which horned figure accompanies Saint Nicholas to punish naughty children?
Krampus
Krampus has outlasted his critics: the Catholic Church tried to suppress him and Austria's government banned the custom in the 1930s, yet costumed Krampus runs still fill Alpine streets.
Q 12In 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', visions of which sweets dance in the sleeping children's heads?
Sugar-plums
Sugar-plums usually held no plum at all: in 1823 the word meant a small round sweet of hardened sugar, named for its size and shape.
Q 13Italy's broomstick-riding Befana brings children their gifts on the eve of which feast?
Epiphany
Q 21The 1823 poem 'A Visit from St. Nicholas' ends with Santa calling 'Happy Christmas to all, and to all a' what?
Good night
Good night: he shouts it as he drives out of sight, after whistling to his team, which flies off 'like the down of a thistle'.
Q 22The historical Saint Nicholas was a bishop from which modern-day country?
Turkey
Turkey: Nicholas was Greek by descent, but his see was a port on what is now Turkey's Mediterranean coast, then a Greek-speaking Roman province; tradition has him born nearby around 270.
Q 23Which one-of-a-kind postal code does one national post service use for children's letters to Santa at the North Pole?
H0H 0H0
H0H 0H0 began with kindness: in 1974 Montreal postal workers started answering children's undeliverable letters to Santa themselves. Codes starting with H otherwise belong to Montreal.
Epiphany: in one telling the Befana turned down the Magi's invitation to visit the Christ child, changed her mind too late, and has searched for him every 5 January night since.
Q 14In legend, Saint Nicholas ended a famine by persuading sailors to unload part of which cargo?
Wheat
Wheat: the sailors feared coming up short at the emperor's granaries, but in the legend the cargo measured the same on arrival, and the share Nicholas kept fed his people for two years.
Q 15The Finnish name for Santa, Joulupukki, literally translates as 'Christmas' what?
Goat
Goat: before Santa reached Finland, presents were handed out by a man dressed as a billy goat, a Yule custom shared with Sweden; the red suit and a home on Korvatunturi fell came later.
Q 16In Icelandic folklore, the giant Yule Cat eats anyone who has not received which gift by Christmas?
New clothes
New clothes were the reward for farm workers who finished processing the autumn wool before Christmas, so the story is thought to have been a threat to get the work done.
Q 17In 'A Visit from St. Nicholas', Santa's nose is compared to which fruit?
A cherry
A cherry, beside cheeks 'like roses': before this portrait caught on, Americans pictured St. Nicholas in many different ways, and it became the foundation of the Santa drawn ever since.
Q 18What is Russia's traditional winter gift-giver, accompanied by granddaughter Snegurochka, called?
Ded Moroz
Ded Moroz, or 'Grandfather Frost', was denounced by Soviet officials in 1928 as an ally of priests and rich peasants, then brought back in 1935 as a secular children's favourite.
Q 19Norman Rockwell painted Santa Claus for Christmas covers of which American magazine?
The Saturday Evening Post
The Saturday Evening Post's cover for 29 December 1956, Rockwell's 'The Discovery', turns the legend around: a boy has just found a Santa suit in a bottom drawer.
Q 20In France, which figure brings children their presents on Christmas Eve?
Père Noël
Père Noël brings the presents; Père Fouettard, the 'whipping father', is the dark-clad companion of Saint Nicolas who deals with badly behaved children in eastern France.
Q 24In Alpine folklore, Saint Nicholas's horned companion punishes misbehaving children with what?
Birch rods
Birch rods come in a bundle for swatting, and in some tellings the horned companion also straps a sack or basket to his back to cart the worst children away.
Q 25Which city in Finnish Lapland is home to Santa Claus Village, a year-round visitor attraction?
Rovaniemi
Rovaniemi bills itself as the official hometown of Santa Claus; visitors to the village step over a painted line marking the Arctic Circle and can meet Santa there every day of the year.
Q 26Whose satirical 1809 History of New York pictured Santa Claus as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor?
Washington Irving
Washington Irving published the parody as 'Diedrich Knickerbocker', and its St. Nicholas, riding over the treetops in a wagon full of presents, fed straight into the 1823 poem.
Q 27In The Santa Clause 2 (2002), what must Scott Calvin do by Christmas Eve to stay on as Santa?
Get married
Get married: his contract turns out to hide a second clause requiring a Mrs. Claus, so he heads home to find a wife and leaves a life-sized toy double in charge of the North Pole.
Q 28The name 'Kris Kringle' for Santa Claus has origins in which language?
German
German: 'Kris Kringle' is a worn-down form of Christkindl, 'Christ child', so the name first belonged to the infant Jesus as bringer of gifts, not to Santa Claus at all.
Q 29Thanks to the three bags of gold legend, Saint Nicholas is patron saint of which trade?
Pawnbrokers
Pawnbrokers hang three gold balls outside their shops, a sign one tradition traces to the saint's three bags of gold, though another credits the crest of the Medici bankers.
Q 30Which US state's town of Santa Claus is home to the Holiday World theme park?
Indiana
Indiana's town meant to be called Santa Fe, but in 1856 its request for a mail service came back because the state already had a Santa Fe; the townspeople settled on Santa Claus instead.