Q 01/05

Saint Nicholas, the 4th-century bishop behind Santa Claus, lived in which modern country?

A) Turkey

B) Greece

C) Norway

D) Finland

Answer · why

A) Turkey

He was bishop of Myra, now the town of Demre, and was famous for secret gift-giving.

Q 02/05

Which Dutch gift-bringer, brought to New Amsterdam, grew into the American Santa Claus?

A) Ded Moroz

B) La Befana

C) Krampus

D) Sinterklaas

Answer · why

D) Sinterklaas

New Amsterdam is now New York City, and Sinterklaas still arrives in the Netherlands every year by steamboat.

Q 03/05

How many reindeer pull Santa's sleigh in the famous 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas?

A) Eight

B) Twelve

C) Nine

D) Six

Answer · why

A) Eight

Rudolph only joined the team in a 1939 story, and the last two in the poem were first called Dunder and Blixem, Dutch for thunder and lightning.

Q 04/05

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer first appeared in a story written in which year?

A) 1965

B) 1901

C) 1823

D) 1939

Answer · why

D) 1939

The song came ten years later in 1949, and now everyone assumes Rudolph was always there.

Q 05/05

According to tradition, what does a child who has been naughty all year find in their Christmas stocking?

A) A wooden spoon

B) A lump of coal

C) An empty sock

D) A rotten apple

Answer · why

B) A lump of coal

The stocking custom itself comes from a legend about Saint Nicholas dropping gold into stockings hung by the fire to dry.