38 Christmas Trivia Questions and Answers
Christmas trivia for a party, a classroom or the dinner table: carols and songs, films and television specials, the Nativity story and the customs that have grown up around the day. Each question was written for this page and checked against its source. The answers are printed under the questions.
There are 38 questions on this page. They are free to use for quiz nights, classrooms and pub quizzes, and each one links to its own page.
Related lists: Thanksgiving trivia questions, Halloween trivia questions, Bible trivia questions, Disney trivia questions, Music trivia questions.
1.In the poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("'Twas the night before Christmas"), how many reindeer pull St. Nicholas's sleigh?
Answer: Eight
Open this question2.Which Charles Dickens story, first published in 1843, features the miser Ebenezer Scrooge?
Answer: A Christmas Carol
Open this question3.In "A Christmas Carol", what is the name of Scrooge's dead business partner, whose ghost visits him on Christmas Eve?
Answer: Jacob Marley
Open this question4.In "A Christmas Carol", what is the name of Bob Cratchit's young, ailing son?
Answer: Tiny Tim
Open this question5.Which Christmas carol was composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber, to words by Joseph Mohr, in the Austrian village of Oberndorf?
Answer: Silent Night
Open this question6.Which songwriter wrote "White Christmas" for the 1942 film "Holiday Inn"?
Answer: Irving Berlin
Open this question7.In the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas", which gift is given on the first day?
Answer: A partridge in a pear tree
Open this question8.Which red-nosed reindeer was created in 1939 by Robert L. May as an assignment for the Montgomery Ward stores?
Answer: Rudolph
Open this question9.Whose recording of "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" reached number one in the US charts at Christmas 1949?
Answer: Gene Autry
Open this question10.Which country first sent a Christmas tree to London's Trafalgar Square in 1947, in thanks for British support during World War II?
Answer: Norway
Open this question11.The poinsettia is named after Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States minister to which country?
Answer: Mexico
Open this question12.In which Dr. Seuss book of 1957 does a grumpy creature try to stop Christmas from coming to Whoville?
Answer: How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
Open this question13.According to the Gospel of Matthew, which three gifts did the Magi bring to the infant Jesus?
Answer: Gold, frankincense and myrrh
Open this question14.Which is the only one of the four Gospels to describe the visit of the Magi?
Answer: Matthew
Open this question15.According to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, in which town was Jesus born?
Answer: Bethlehem
Open this question16.Saint Nicholas, the model for Santa Claus, was a fourth-century bishop of which city in Asia Minor (modern Turkey)?
Answer: Myra
Open this question17.Which composer's oratorio "Messiah" was first performed in Dublin in 1742?
Answer: George Frideric Handel
Open this question18.Which composer wrote the music for the ballet "The Nutcracker", first staged in 1892?
Answer: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Open this question19.What name is given to the holiday celebrated on December 26, the day after Christmas Day?
Answer: Boxing Day
Open this question20.Which American cartoonist's drawings for Harper's Weekly in the nineteenth century helped fix the modern picture of Santa Claus?
Answer: Thomas Nast
Open this question21.Which Christmas song about a snowman was first recorded by Gene Autry in 1950?
Answer: Frosty the Snowman
Open this question22.Which child actor played Kevin McCallister in the 1990 film "Home Alone"?
Answer: Macaulay Culkin
Open this question23.Who was crowned King of England in London on Christmas Day 1066?
Answer: William the Conqueror
Open this question24.Which ruler was crowned "emperor of the Romans" by Pope Leo in Rome on Christmas Day in the year 800?
Answer: Charlemagne
Open this question25.In which 1947 film does a department-store Santa called Kris Kringle claim to be the real Santa Claus?
Answer: Miracle on 34th Street
Open this question26.In which year was the television special "A Charlie Brown Christmas" first broadcast?
Answer: 1965
Open this question27.In the carol, Good King Wenceslas "looked out" on the feast of which saint?
Answer: Saint Stephen
Open this question28.Which plant is traditionally hung up as a Christmas decoration for people to kiss beneath?
Answer: Mistletoe
Open this question29.Under what title was the song "Jingle Bells" first published in 1857?
Answer: The One Horse Open Sleigh
Open this question30.Who wrote the song "Jingle Bells"?
Answer: James Lord Pierpont
Open this question31.In which Christmas film does James Stewart play George Bailey, a man whose intended suicide on Christmas Eve brings a visit from his guardian angel?
Answer: It's a Wonderful Life
Open this question32.In the Western Christian calendar, what name is given to the season of preparation that begins four Sundays before Christmas?
Answer: Advent
Open this question33.In which year did Christmas Day become a federal holiday in the United States?
Answer: 1870
Open this question34.Which singer voiced Sam the Snowman, the narrator of the 1964 television special "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"?
Answer: Burl Ives
Open this question35.Which singer's trio made the first recording of "The Christmas Song" ("Chestnuts roasting on an open fire") in 1946?
Answer: Nat King Cole
Open this question36.In the carol "Deck the Halls", the halls are decked with boughs of which plant?
Answer: Holly
Open this question37.In "The Twelve Days of Christmas", what is given on the fifth day?
Answer: Five gold rings
Open this question38.In the Christian calendar, which feast on January 6 commemorates the visit of the Magi?
Answer: Epiphany
Open this question