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

Central Europe and the Baltics: German settlers later carried the custom across the Atlantic to North America.

Q 02/05

A 1539 record puts a Christmas tree inside which cathedral, then led by the reformer Martin Bucer?

A) Cologne

B) Notre-Dame

C) Canterbury

D) Strasbourg

Answer · why

D) Strasbourg

Strasbourg: the city had turned Protestant in the Reformation, and in 1681 Louis XIV of France seized it.

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

The Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild of unmarried merchants, set up trees in their guild houses in Tallinn from 1441 and in Riga by 1510; a 1584 chr...

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

Martin Luther is said to have added the candles, and electric Christmas lights later took their place.

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

The Illustrated London News printed an engraving of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's decorated tree at Windsor Castle in December 1848, and the fash...