Q 01/05

In which region did the modern Christmas tree custom first develop?

A) Scandinavia and Iceland

B) Central Europe and the Baltics

C) The British Isles and Ireland

D) New England and New York

Answer · why

B) Central Europe and the Baltics

Protestant Christians in Germany and Livonia, now Estonia and Latvia, were the first to bring decorated trees indoors.

Q 02/05

The earliest record of a Christmas tree in a church is from 1539 in which cathedral?

A) Cologne

B) Notre-Dame

C) Canterbury

D) Strasbourg

Answer · why

D) Strasbourg

It was put up under the Protestant reformer Martin Bucer.

Q 03/05

Which guild in Tallinn and Riga put up holiday trees as early as 1441?

A) The Hanseatic League

B) The Teutonic Knights

C) The Brotherhood of Blackheads

D) The Guild of St Nicholas

Answer · why

C) The Brotherhood of Blackheads

They set the trees up in their guild houses, and one 1584 account describes the young men dancing round the tree and setting it alight.

Q 04/05

Which Protestant reformer is sometimes credited with first putting lighted candles on an evergreen tree?

A) John Calvin

B) John Knox

C) Ulrich Zwingli

D) Martin Luther

Answer · why

D) Martin Luther

Moravian Christians later made candlelit trees common, before electric lights took over.

Q 05/05

An 1848 engraving of which royal family's tree made Christmas trees fashionable in Britain and America?

A) Emperor Napoleon III of France's

B) Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's

C) Tsar Nicholas I of Russia's

D) King Ludwig I of Bavaria's

Answer · why

B) Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's

When an American magazine copied the picture two years later it removed the queen's tiara and Albert's moustache to make it look American.