Q 01/05

A child calling a Santa number from a 1955 newspaper ad reached which kind of place instead?

A) A military base

B) The White House

C) A radio station

D) A toy factory

Answer · why

A) A military base

A military base: whether through a misprint or a misdial, the call reached Colonel Harry Shoup at the Continental Air Defense Command, and NORAD has t...

Q 02/05

Which country sends the giant Christmas tree that stands in London's Trafalgar Square every year?

A) Sweden

B) Canada

C) Norway

D) Finland

Answer · why

C) Norway

Norway: it has sent the tree to London every year since 1947 in gratitude for Britain's support during World War II.

Q 03/05

Who commissioned the first commercially produced Christmas card, in London in 1843?

A) Sir Robert Peel

B) Prince Albert

C) Sir Rowland Hill

D) Sir Henry Cole

Answer · why

D) Sir Henry Cole

Sir Henry Cole had helped launch the cheap Penny Post three years earlier, so a printed card drawn by John Callcott Horsley was a shrewd idea.

Q 04/05

Tradition says the Christmas cracker was invented in 1847 by a London confectioner named what?

A) Tom Smith

B) John Cadbury

C) Joseph Fry

D) William Terry

Answer · why

A) Tom Smith

Tom Smith had seen French bon-bons wrapped in twists of paper, and legend says the crackle of a log fire gave him the idea for the bang.

Q 05/05

The Advent calendar, with a door to open each day, was first used by which group?

A) German Lutherans

B) Spanish Catholics

C) Dutch Calvinists

D) English Anglicans

Answer · why

A) German Lutherans

German Lutherans started it, printers such as Gerhard Lang made early paper versions, and the countdown has since spread far beyond Lutheran homes.