Christmas Trivia: Kids, Song and Movie Questions and Answers

Here are 66 Christmas trivia questions with the answer right under each one, sorted so you can pick a set that fits whoever’s playing. The first 16 are easy enough for young kids. After them come carols and holiday hits, classic movies and TV specials, the history of Santa, cards and trees, customs from other countries, and five myths to finish on. We checked each answer in Wikipedia’s article on the song, film or custom it’s about.

A few answers start arguments every December. Santa has eight reindeer in the 1823 poem but nine once Rudolph joins, the girl in The Nutcracker is Clara in some productions and Marie in others, and “Silent Night” was written in German but in Austria. Those questions say so where they come up, so you can decide before the first round which answers you’ll accept.

How to pick Christmas trivia questions for your group

A Christmas trivia game needs one reader, this list and at least two other players. Use the table to match the sections to the people at the table. The round sizes and times are only our suggestions, so change them to fit the evening.

Read each question twice and give the teams about 30 seconds. Hand each team a pencil and a stack of paper slips, and have every team write its answer down before anyone says one out loud, or the fastest talker answers for the whole room. Every right answer earns a point. Add up the scores after the last round, and the highest total wins. Our guide on how to host a trivia night covers the house rules, answer sheets and tie-breakers in more detail.

When kids and adults play on separate teams, give the hard questions more points. Our Family Trivia Challenge cards score their Quick Start cards at 1 point, Brain Boost at 2 and Expert Mode at 3. That deck asks about animals, geography, science and pop culture rather than Christmas, but the weighting carries over. Count the easy section as 1 point a question, songs and movies as 2, and history and world customs as 3.

Keep the answers away from the players. Each answer sits right below its question here, so on a phone or a printout, cover the next answer with a finger or a folded card while you read. When the quiz is only part of the party, Christmas party games has 25 others to fill the evening, from seated games to a kids’ table.

Easy Christmas trivia for kids

These 16 have short answers that kids can shout across the table, and most come from stories they may know already: Rudolph, Frosty, the Grinch, The Nutcracker and The Polar Express.

1. In the poem “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas,” how many reindeer are pulling Santa’s sleigh? Answer: eight, in the poem that first came out in 1823 as “A Visit from St. Nicholas.” Give a bonus point for all eight names: Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donner and Blitzen.
2. Which reindeer has a glowing red nose? Answer: Rudolph, who’s usually shown as the ninth and youngest reindeer, leading the team on Christmas Eve.
3. What did the children put on Frosty the Snowman’s head to bring him to life? Answer: a magic silk hat.
4. What’s the name of the Grinch’s dog? Answer: Max, who pulls the Grinch’s sleigh into Whoville.
5. How much does the Grinch’s heart grow at the end of the story? Answer: three sizes.
6. Who wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas!? Answer: Dr. Seuss, whose book came out from Random House in 1957.
7. What flavor is a classic red-and-white candy cane? Answer: peppermint.
8. In “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” what does the singer get on the first day? Answer: a partridge in a pear tree.
9. And what arrives on the fifth day? Answer: five gold rings.
10. In “Jingle Bells,” how many horses pull the sleigh? Answer: one, which is why the song’s first title was “The One Horse Open Sleigh.”
11. Where does Santa Claus live? Answer: the North Pole, where a boy writing to a children’s magazine in 1874 already placed him.
12. In The Nutcracker ballet, what present does the girl get from Drosselmeyer on Christmas Eve? Answer: a wooden nutcracker.
13. Poinsettias look like they have big red petals. What are the red parts really? Answer: leaves, called bracts, which people often mistake for petals.
14. In The Polar Express, what does the boy get as the first gift of Christmas? Answer: a bell that came loose from the reindeer’s reins.
15. In A Charlie Brown Christmas, what kind of tree does Lucy want Charlie Brown to get? Answer: a big, pink aluminum one, though he comes back with a puny little tree instead.
16. In the 1964 Rudolph TV special, where do the unwanted toys live? Answer: on the Island of Misfit Toys.

Question 1 is the one that splits a room. Kids who know the song count Rudolph and say nine. In a kids’ round, give the point for either answer, since the poem has eight and Rudolph usually flies as the ninth.

Question 12 has its own trap. The girl is Clara in many productions, but she’s Marie in the 1816 story the ballet comes from, and some productions keep that name. That’s why the question asks about the present rather than her name.

Christmas song trivia: carols and holiday hits

Song questions work across ages, since adults know the old carols and kids know the radio hits. These twelve run roughly from the 1800s to now.

17. “Silent Night” was first written in which language? Answer: German, as “Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht.” Joseph Mohr wrote the words, and Franz Xaver Gruber composed the tune in 1818 in Oberndorf, near Salzburg in Austria.
18. Who wrote “Jingle Bells”? Answer: James Lord Pierpont, who copyrighted it on September 16, 1857.
19. “Jingle Bells” was one of the first songs ever broadcast from where? Answer: space. On December 16, 1965, Gemini 6 astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford played it on a smuggled harmonica and sleigh bells.
20. Who wrote “White Christmas”? Answer: Irving Berlin.
21. Whose recording of “White Christmas” is the world’s best-selling single? Answer: Bing Crosby’s, with estimated sales of more than 50 million physical copies worldwide.
22. In what year did Mariah Carey release “All I Want for Christmas Is You”? Answer: 1994, although the song didn’t reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until the chart dated December 21, 2019, a full 25 years after it first came out.
23. Which singing cowboy took “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to No. 1 in 1949, then made the first recording of “Frosty the Snowman” the next year? Answer: Gene Autry.
24. Johnny Marks wrote “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Which Brenda Lee hit did he also write? Answer: “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,” and he wrote “A Holly Jolly Christmas,” too.
25. The tune of “Deck the Halls” comes from which country? Answer: Wales, where the tune began as a 16th-century winter carol called “Nos Galan,” while the English words date to 1862.
26. Who wrote and first recorded “Feliz Navidad” in 1970? Answer: José Feliciano, a Puerto Rican singer-songwriter.
27. Who first released “Jingle Bell Rock,” in 1957? Answer: Bobby Helms.
28. In “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” the singer gets every earlier gift again each day. How many gifts arrive in all? Answer: 364, because day one brings 1 gift, day two brings 3, day three brings 6, and the pile keeps growing until the twelfth day alone brings 78.

Question 17 catches anyone who assumes a German carol came from Germany. Take “German” as the answer, and offer a bonus point to whoever can name Austria. Question 28 is easier with a pencil in hand, so let teams scribble the sums on scrap paper instead of guessing.

Christmas movie trivia and TV specials

The movie questions suit teens and adults best, though kids who’ve seen the films will get a few. Years are the release dates or first broadcasts. Our movie trivia questions list has a separate holiday round, with the Home Alone burglars, Clark Griswold and the Muppet Scrooge, so the twelve here ask about different things.

29. In Home Alone (1990), where is Kevin’s family flying for Christmas when they leave him behind? Answer: Paris, while the McCallisters’ own house is in a suburb of Chicago.
30. Which actor played Kevin McCallister? Answer: Macaulay Culkin.
31. In Elf (2003), Buddy leaves the North Pole for which city to meet his father? Answer: New York City.
32. Which town is George Bailey’s home in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)? Answer: Bedford Falls, New York.
33. Which actor plays George Bailey? Answer: James Stewart.
34. In A Christmas Story (1983), what warning do Ralphie’s mother, his teacher and a department-store Santa all give him? Answer: “You’ll shoot your eye out,” because he’s asking for a Red Ryder air rifle.
35. In Miracle on 34th Street (1947), what name does the new store Santa go by? Answer: Kris Kringle, who gets the job after the man booked to play Santa in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade turns up drunk.
36. In the 1966 cartoon How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, who narrates and voices the Grinch? Answer: Boris Karloff.
37. The Polar Express (2004) is based on a 1985 picture book by which author? Answer: Chris Van Allsburg.
38. In Home Alone, which next-door neighbor frightens Kevin because of a rumor his brother Buzz spreads? Answer: Old Man Marley.
39. Which U.S. network first aired A Charlie Brown Christmas, in December 1965? Answer: CBS, on December 9, 1965.
40. What kind of animation was used for the 1964 Rudolph TV special? Answer: stop motion, and it first aired on NBC on December 6, 1964.

Two answers in this round invite a challenge. For question 36, someone will say Karloff also sings “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch.” He doesn’t: Thurl Ravenscroft sang it and went uncredited. For question 39, a Canadian guest may point out that the special aired in Canada four days before CBS showed it, so ask “which U.S. network” exactly as written.

Christmas history trivia: Santa, cards and trees

Most answers in this round are a name or a year, which makes it the hardest section. If you’re giving the hard questions more points, this is where to use them. Our history trivia questions page adds a short Christmas and New Year’s round, including the 1914 Christmas truce and the year Christmas became a national holiday.

41. “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the poem that begins “‘Twas the night before Christmas,” first appeared in 1823. In which New York newspaper? Answer: the Troy Sentinel, on December 23, 1823, with no author’s name on it.
42. Who claimed in 1837 that he’d written the poem? Answer: Clement Clarke Moore, though it has also been suggested that Henry Livingston Jr. wrote it, so accept either name.
43. In that first printing, Santa’s last two reindeer weren’t Donner and Blitzen. What were they called? Answer: Dunder and Blixem, from a Dutch oath meaning “thunder” and “lightning.”
44. Rudolph first appeared in 1939 in a booklet given away by which store chain? Answer: Montgomery Ward, where Robert L. May wrote the story as an assignment for the company, and the stores handed the book to children at Christmas.
45. Who commissioned the first commercially produced Christmas card, in London in 1843? Answer: Sir Henry Cole, with a design by John Callcott Horsley.
46. In 1863, during the Civil War, which cartoonist drew the picture generally recognized as the first modern Santa Claus? Answer: Thomas Nast.
47. Which artist created the Santa in Coca-Cola’s Christmas ads in the 1930s? Answer: Haddon Sundblom.
48. Santa Claus grew out of Saint Nicholas, a 4th-century bishop of Myra. Which country is Myra in today? Answer: Turkey, where the town is now called Demre.
49. A magazine in 1882 described which striped sweets hanging on a Christmas tree? Answer: candy canes, which the magazine Babyland described as “tall, twisted candy canes” on the tree.
50. Who put up the first Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center, in 1931? Answer: the construction workers building the center, who decorated a 20-foot balsam fir two years before the first official tree went up in 1933.
51. In 1848, a newspaper cover showing which royal family around a Christmas tree helped the custom spread in Britain? Answer: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert’s, on the cover of The Illustrated London News.
52. NORAD Tracks Santa began in 1955 with a misprinted phone number in which store’s newspaper ad? Answer: Sears, whose printed number was one digit away from the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center in Colorado Springs, and Colonel Harry Shoup took the call.
53. The “X” in “Xmas” is a letter from which alphabet? Answer: Greek, since it’s chi, the first letter of Christós, the Greek word that became Christ in English.

Question 43 shows up on a lot of quiz lists and is easy to mark wrong. The poem’s author changed the names more than once, and Donder and Blitzen are from his 1844 version. Since “Donner” is the spelling most people know, accept it for question 1 and save the Dutch names for here.

Christmas trivia from around the world

Questions about other countries work well in a classroom and for teams that mix ages, because nobody at the table has grown up with all of them. For more than a quiz, the crafts and games in our holidays around the world for kids guide build a whole lesson around the same idea.

54. In Japan, which fast-food chain’s fried chicken became a Christmas custom after an ad campaign in the 1970s? Answer: KFC.
55. In the Netherlands, how does Sinterklaas traditionally arrive? Answer: by steamboat from Spain. He rides a white horse, and Dutch children get their presents on St. Nicholas’ Eve, December 5.
56. In Italy, which witch-like old woman brings children gifts on the night of January 5? Answer: the Befana, usually shown riding a broomstick.
57. How many Yule Lads come to town in Iceland? Answer: 13, arriving one by one during the last 13 nights before Yule.
58. Las Posadas in Mexico lasts how many nights? Answer: nine, from December 16 to December 24.
59. Which city sends London a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square every year? Answer: Oslo, Norway, which has sent one each year since 1947 as thanks for Britain’s support during World War II.
60. In Scandinavia, Lucia is shown in a white dress with a crown of candles. On what date is St. Lucy’s Day? Answer: December 13.
61. Simbang Gabi in the Philippines is a series of how many Masses before Christmas? Answer: nine, held every day from December 16 to 24, with some starting as early as 2:30 a.m.

Question 55 is the one to read slowly. Sinterklaas comes on a different day from Santa, so kids who know only the American story may answer “on Christmas Eve, by sleigh.”

Christmas trivia myths: true or false

Read these five as true-or-false statements for the last round. Each is false, so it’s best not to say that until the round is over.

62. True or false: Coca-Cola invented the red-suited Santa. False. Haddon Sundblom’s Coca-Cola Santa ads ran in the 1930s, but White Rock Beverages had already used color pictures of Santa in its ads from 1923 to 1925. Wikipedia’s Santa Claus article calls the Coca-Cola story an urban legend.
63. True or false: “Xmas” is a modern way of taking Christ out of Christmas. False. “X” has stood for Christ in English writing since 1100, “X’temmas” appears in 1551, and “Xmas” in 1721.
64. True or false: The Twelve Days of Christmas are the twelve days leading up to Christmas. False. They begin on Christmas Day and end on Twelfth Night, the evening of January 5. Some people count them from December 26 to January 6 instead.
65. True or false: Rudolph is one of the reindeer in “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas.” False. The poem came out in 1823, and Rudolph was created 116 years later, in 1939.
66. True or false: “White Christmas” was written for a movie called White Christmas. False. Irving Berlin wrote it for the 1942 film Holiday Inn, and it won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.

Question 64 is likely to start a debate, because both ways of counting the twelve days are still in use. Whichever count a team defends, the days come after Christmas, which is what the statement gets wrong.

Breaks between Christmas trivia rounds

A three-round quiz is a long stretch for young kids, and a child who misses several answers in a row may lose interest. Between rounds, give everyone a few minutes of something they can’t get wrong.

Would You Rather is the easiest break, because there are no wrong answers. Our Christmas Would You Rather cards hold 100 questions with two options each, such as peppermint or cinnamon cocoa, plus 20 bonus challenge cards. One player flips a card and reads both options aloud, everyone picks A or B and says why, and the break ends when you pick the trivia list back up.

Draw five to eight cards and stop, so the break doesn’t swallow the next round.

Kids who can read but can’t keep up with trivia questions can score points in a word search race instead. Jingle Bell Sprint, one of five bonus games in our Christmas Word Search book, is on page 83 of the full US Letter PDF. Everyone gets the same puzzle and a 3-minute timer, and each correct word scores 1 point.

Its rules end a tie as a shared win, so it won’t settle a tie between trivia teams. Play it as a round of its own, or keep a hard trivia question for the tie-breaker. Our Christmas games for kids guide covers the word search races and Would You Rather in more detail, along with games that get kids moving.