50 free Spanish Christmas trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Spanish Christmas trivia quiz covers how Spain celebrates from Nochebuena on 24 December through Epiphany on 6 January: the big family dinner, Misa de Gallo, the Christmas lottery and its singing schoolchildren, Día de los Santos Inocentes, the Twelve Grapes at Puerta del Sol, the Cabalgata de Reyes and the roscón with a bean baked inside. It also covers the regional characters that make Spain unusual, from Catalonia's Caga Tió and the caganer to the Basque Country's Olentzero. There are questions on food too, including turrón from Jijona, Toledo marzipan and polvorones from Andalusia, plus villancicos and the belén tradition. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone who has spent a December in Spain, a third need a closer knowledge of the customs, and the rest reward people who know the history behind them, such as the year the lottery started and where the oldest Three Kings parade was held. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the traditions before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the Spanish name for Christmas Eve, the night of the big family dinner?
Nochebuena
The name literally means "Good Night", and in most regions it is the night of the biggest meal of the season.
Q 02Which feast marks the traditional end of the Spanish Christmas season?
Epiphany
The day of the Three Kings is when Spanish children have traditionally received their presents.
Q 03What is the Spanish word for the nativity scene displayed in homes, schools and shops?
Belén
The word is simply the Spanish name for Bethlehem, and it is also used in the Philippines.
Q 04Which saint's day is celebrated in Catalonia on 26 December with another family gathering?
Stephen
Sant Esteve gives Catalans a second day of feasting after Christmas Day.
Q 05Traditionally, who brought Spanish children their presents on the night of 5 January?
The Three Magi
Christmas Day gifts from Papá Noel are a recent, imported addition in most of Spain.
Q 06What is the Spanish name for New Year's Eve?
Nochevieja
After the family feast, young people head out to a cotillón in the bars and dance until morning.
Q 07What is traditionally eaten for breakfast after a Spanish New Year's Eve party?
Churros with chocolate
The cotillón in bars and pubs runs until the next morning, when the churros come out.
Q 08What do Spanish children put out on the night of 5 January to receive presents from the Three Wise Men?
Their shoes
They leave the shoes on a balcony or window, along with sweets for the Kings and water for the camels.
Q 09What is the Spanish name for the Three Kings parade held on the evening of 5 January?
Cabalgata de Reyes
The parades pass through practically every city and village and are often televised.
Q 10Where was the oldest documented Three Kings cavalcade held, in 1855?
Barcelona
The longest-running one is in Alcoi, in the Valencia region, first documented in 1866 and held every year since 1885.
Q 11Since what year has Televisión Española broadcast the great cavalcade of Madrid live?
1964
Regional channels broadcast their own parades, and Poland took up the custom in Warsaw in 2009.
Q 12How do the Magi enter Spanish children's homes, according to the tradition?
Through the balconies using ladders
Children leave sweets and a drink for the Kings and a bucket of water for their camels.
Q 13By what measure is the Spanish Christmas Lottery considered the biggest lottery draw in the world?
Total prize payout
In 2026 the maximum available for all prizes was €4.1 billion, seventy per cent of ticket sales.
Q 21What do Spaniards eat with each of the twelve midnight bell strikes on New Year's Eve?
Grapes
Each grape stands for one of the coming twelve months and is supposed to bring good luck.
Q 22Growers from which region popularised Spain's midnight New Year's grape custom in 1909 to shift a bumper harvest?
Alicante
The custom is recorded from at least 1895, but the surplus of 1909 turned it into a national habit.
Q 23Which Madrid square's clock marks the twelve strokes of the New Year on national television?
Puerta del Sol
The square is also Spain's kilometre zero, the point from which all radial roads are measured.
Q 14What is the nickname of the first prize in the Spanish Christmas Lottery?
El Gordo
The name means "the fat one" and is actually used for the top prize of any Spanish lottery.
Q 15Who sings out the winning numbers of the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw?
Pupils of the San Ildefonso school
The school was formerly reserved for orphans of public servants, and only boys took part until 1984.
Q 16Where has the Spanish Christmas Lottery draw been held since 2012?
The Teatro Real in Madrid
Earlier draws took place at the lottery headquarters and, in 2010 and 2011, at the Palacio de Congresos.
Q 17In what year was the first Lotería Nacional draw held at Christmas, in Cádiz?
1812
The winning number that first year was 03604; the name Sorteo de Navidad was not official until 1897.
Q 18What is a décimo in the Spanish Christmas Lottery?
A one-tenth share of a ticket
A full ticket costs €200, so it is sold as a perforated sheet of ten €20 fractions.
Q 19Who became the first girl to sing the lottery results, in 1984?
Mónica Rodríguez
Until then only boys from San Ildefonso had taken part in the draw.
Q 20In 2011 the entire El Gordo prize was sold in Grañén, a town in which province?
Huesca
The town of about 2,000 people held all 180 series of the number 58268.
Q 24In what year did television broadcasts of the Madrid New Year's chimes begin?
1962
Televisión Española carried the first broadcast, and the chimes are now shown on every major network.
Q 25What is hidden inside a Spanish roscón de reyes that obliges the finder to pay for the cake?
A dried bean
A figurine of one of the Three Wise Men is also baked in, and finding that one brings luck rather than the bill.
Q 26What is the roscón de reyes dough flavoured with in Spain?
Orange blossom water
It is a sweet brioche decorated with candied fruit and often filled with cream or almond paste.
Q 27What are the main ingredients of turrón, the nougat eaten across Spain at Christmas?
Honey, sugar, egg white and almonds
It comes as a hard rectangular tablet or a soft round cake, and Italy's torrone is a close cousin.
Q 28Jijona, the town that has made turrón since at least the 15th century, was formerly known by what name?
Sexona
Its name is still printed on the boxes of the soft variety of the nougat.
Q 29Which Spanish city's marzipan, first documented in 1512, holds EU protected status alongside Lübeck's?
Toledo
Elsewhere in Spain mazapán is a Christmas sweet, but in Toledo it is eaten all year round.
Q 30Polvorones, the crumbly Christmas shortbread, are mostly produced in which Spanish region?
Andalusia
About 70 factories there belong to a syndicate that makes polvorones and mantecados; the name comes from polvo, meaning dust.