Here are 64 Christmas trivia questions with answers, in four rounds: easy ones for kids, family questions, hard ones for grown-ups, and Christmas movies and songs. Play the quiz below, 10 questions at a time, or scroll down and read them out loud at a party. The elves checked every answer.
Updated by the Hey Santa elves
Pick a round. Ten questions, one at a time. Every right answer lights a bulb on the garland. Light all ten and you are Head Elf.
Quiz night at the North Pole
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Each game draws 10 of the 16 questions in that round. Play again for a new set.
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Your elf rank card is ready. Save it or send it to someone who thinks they know Christmas better than you.
Pick one of four rounds: Easy for kids, Family, Hard for grown-ups, or Movies & songs. The game draws 10 questions at random from that round’s 16 and shuffles the four answers too, so the right one moves around. Tap an answer, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. You find out at once if you got it right, along with a one-line fact, so everyone learns something even on a miss. Each right answer lights one bulb on the garland across the top of the board. After question 10 you get your score, an elf rank from the table below and a card to save or share. Press Play again for a new set of 10, which always includes the questions left out of your last game. Your best score for each round stays on your own device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and there is no sign-up.
| Score out of 10 | Elf rank |
|---|---|
| 10 | Head Elf |
| 8 to 9 | Master Toymaker |
| 6 to 7 | Sleigh Navigator |
| 4 to 5 | Ribbon Curler |
| 2 to 3 | Cocoa Stirrer |
| 0 to 1 | Snowflake Cadet |
The full bank has 64 questions, numbered and grouped into four rounds of 16. Each answer is folded away under “Show the answer,” so one person can read the questions out loud while everyone else guesses, then open the answer and read the fun fact. The Easy round sticks to things kids can see and sing at Christmas, like reindeer, stockings and “Feliz Navidad.” The Family round travels from KFC dinners in Japan to the 13 Yule Lads of Iceland. The Hard round asks about dates and firsts, from the 1659 Christmas ban in Massachusetts to Apollo 8 in 1968, and busts one famous myth about Santa’s red suit. The last round covers Christmas films and TV specials, from “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “Elf,” plus the songs that come back every December. The elves checked every answer against published sources in October 2026. Where an old story could not be pinned down, the question calls it a story or leaves it out.
Questions 1 to 16. Reindeer, snowflakes, stockings and songs. Read the four choices out loud for little ones, and let them shout the letter.
Question 1. In the 1823 poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” how many reindeer pull Santa’s sleigh?
D. Eight. The poem names all eight. Rudolph joined the story later, which makes nine.
Question 2. Which reindeer has a shiny red nose?
C. Rudolph. Robert L. May wrote Rudolph’s story in 1939 for a booklet the Montgomery Ward stores gave away to shoppers.
Question 3. Which reindeer grow antlers?
C. Both boys and girls. In most other kinds of deer, only the males grow antlers.
Question 4. What is a baby reindeer called?
B. A calf. Mother reindeer keep their antlers all winter, until their calves are born in spring.
Question 5. What is the name of the Grinch’s dog?
A. Max. In Dr. Seuss’s 1957 book, Max pulls the Grinch’s sleigh all the way down to Whoville.
Question 6. Which plant do people kiss under at Christmas?
A. Mistletoe. European mistletoe has white berries, not red ones.
Question 7. How many arms does a classic snowflake have?
D. Six. Ice forms six-sided crystals, so a snowflake’s arms grow from the six corners of a tiny hexagon.
Question 8. What do many children in Britain call Santa?
C. Father Christmas. In France he is Père Noël.
Question 9. Which country is usually credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition?
C. Germany. An 1848 drawing of Queen Victoria’s family around a tree made the custom popular in Britain.
Question 10. In Australia, Christmas comes in which season?
B. Summer. December is summer south of the equator, and Christmas Day cricket games pop up in backyards, parks and beaches.
Question 11. What flavor is a classic red-and-white candy cane?
A. Peppermint. Nobody knows who added the first stripes, but an 1844 recipe book already explained how to make striped peppermint candy sticks.
Question 12. What do children hang up for Santa to fill?
A. Stockings. In the 1823 poem, the stockings are hung “by the chimney with care.”
Question 13. In the song, how many days of Christmas are there?
D. Twelve. They run from December 25 to January 5. The words were printed in a London children’s book around 1780.
Question 14. What does “Feliz Navidad” mean?
C. Merry Christmas. It is Spanish. José Feliciano wrote and recorded the song in 1970.
Question 15. In the stories, where does Santa live?
C. The North Pole. In 1866, cartoonist Thomas Nast labeled a drawing of Santa’s home “Santa Claussville, N.P.” It is often called the first known link.
Question 16. What do many American kids leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve?
B. Milk and cookies. In Britain, children often leave Father Christmas a mince pie instead.
Questions 17 to 32. How Christmas is kept from Japan to Iceland, plus carols, books and a little history. Good for a mixed table of kids and grown-ups.
Question 17. In which country is a bucket of KFC a popular Christmas dinner?
A. Japan. It grew from KFC Japan’s “Kentucky for Christmas” campaign, which began in 1974.
Question 18. Which country sends London a giant tree for Trafalgar Square every Christmas?
A. Norway. Oslo has sent one every year since 1947 as thanks for Britain’s help in World War II.
Question 19. In Italy, who flies on a broomstick to bring presents on the night of January 5?
D. La Befana. She comes the night before Epiphany and fills children’s stockings with sweets and toys. Her lumps of “coal” are often dark candy called carbone.
Question 20. How does Sinterklaas arrive in the Netherlands each November?
C. By steamboat. Dutch tradition says he sails in from Spain. The big present night is December 5.
Question 21. The bright red “petals” of a poinsettia are really what?
C. Leaves. Poinsettias come from Mexico. Joel Poinsett is credited with bringing them to the United States in the 1820s.
Question 22. Who wrote “A Christmas Carol”?
B. Charles Dickens. It came out in December 1843, and the first 6,000 copies sold out by Christmas Eve.
Question 23. In which country was “Silent Night” first sung?
A. Austria. Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber first sang it in Oberndorf, near Salzburg, on Christmas Eve 1818.
Question 24. Which song did two astronauts play on a tiny harmonica and bells in space in December 1965?
A. “Jingle Bells”. Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford played it aboard Gemini 6A on December 16, 1965. The Smithsonian says the harmonica and bells were the first musical instruments played in space.
Question 25. Which North American air defense command follows Santa’s flight every Christmas Eve?
D. NORAD. The story goes that it began in 1955, when a child’s phone call reached Colonel Harry Shoup at the air defense center.
Question 26. What is Santa’s postal code in Canada?
C. H0H 0H0. Canada Post answers letters sent to Santa at that code, and they need no stamp.
Question 27. The Christmas Truce of 1914 happened during which war?
C. World War I. British and German soldiers on the Western Front sang carols and met in no man’s land.
Question 28. The real Saint Nicholas was a bishop in a town that is now in which country?
B. Turkey. The town was Myra, now called Demre. His feast day is December 6.
Question 29. In what year was the book “The Elf on the Shelf” published?
A. 2005. Carol Aebersold wrote it with her daughter Chanda Bell, from a family tradition.
Question 30. Who wrote the music for “The Nutcracker” ballet?
A. Tchaikovsky. It opened in St. Petersburg, Russia, in December 1892.
Question 31. Las Posadas, nine nights of processions from December 16 to 24, comes from which country?
D. Mexico. Each night, people act out Mary and Joseph’s search for a place to stay.
Question 32. How many Yule Lads visit children in Iceland before Christmas?
C. 13. One arrives each night from December 12, and good children find a small gift in a shoe on the windowsill.
Questions 33 to 48. Dates, firsts and one famous myth. If your table gets more than half of these, you are a quiz team to fear.
Question 33. In the first printing of the 1823 poem, what were Donner and Blitzen called?
C. Dunder and Blixem. Those come from an old Dutch oath meaning thunder and lightning. An 1844 book of Clement Clarke Moore’s poems changed them to Donder and Blitzen.
Question 34. What was “Jingle Bells” called when it was first published in 1857?
B. “The One Horse Open Sleigh”. James Lord Pierpont wrote it. It was renamed “Jingle Bells” in 1859.
Question 35. Who put the first electric lights on a Christmas tree, in 1882?
A. Edward H. Johnson. Edison’s business associate hand-wired 80 red, white and blue bulbs on a tree in his New York home.
Question 36. Which American colony fined people for celebrating Christmas from 1659 to 1681?
A. Massachusetts Bay. The fine was five shillings.
Question 37. In what year did Christmas become a US federal holiday?
D. 1870. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the law on June 28, 1870.
Question 38. Who commissioned the first Christmas cards sold to the public, in 1843?
C. Sir Henry Cole. Artist John Callcott Horsley drew the card, and the first batch was about 1,000 copies, at a shilling each.
Question 39. “Carol of the Bells” is based on a folk song from which country?
C. Ukraine. Mykola Leontovych’s “Shchedryk” is about a swallow. Peter Wilhousky wrote the English words, about bells, in 1936.
Question 40. Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean was named on Christmas Day in which year?
B. 1643. Captain William Mynors of the ship Royal Mary named it as he sailed past.
Question 41. Add up every gift in all twelve verses of “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” How many?
A. 364. That is one gift for every day of the year but one.
Question 42. The X in “Xmas” comes from which alphabet?
A. Greek. X is the Greek letter chi, the first letter of Christos.
Question 43. Which US president lit the first National Christmas Tree, in 1923?
D. Calvin Coolidge. It was a 48-foot fir from Vermont, Coolidge’s home state, lit with more than 2,500 bulbs.
Question 44. Haddon Sundblom’s famous Santa ads for Coca-Cola began in 1931. Did they give Santa his red suit?
C. No, he wore red in pictures long before. It is a myth. Coca-Cola’s own history page says Santa wore a red coat before Sundblom painted him.
Question 45. Reindeer eyes change color with the seasons. What color are they in winter?
C. Deep blue. They are gold in summer. A 2013 study found the blue helps them see in the long Arctic dark.
Question 46. London sweet maker Tom Smith is usually credited with inventing which Christmas tradition in the 1840s?
B. The Christmas cracker. He began by wrapping sweets with little love notes in twisted paper. The bang came later.
Question 47. Who put up the first Christmas tree at New York’s Rockefeller Center, in 1931?
A. The construction workers building it. They trimmed a 20-foot fir with paper garlands and tin cans. The first official lighting was in 1933.
Question 48. On Christmas Eve 1968, which crew read from the Book of Genesis while circling the Moon?
A. Apollo 8. They read it on a live TV broadcast that showed pictures of the Earth and the Moon.
Questions 49 to 64. From “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “Elf,” plus the songs that come back every December. Family-friendly films only.
Question 49. In “Home Alone” (1990), where is Kevin’s family flying when they leave him behind?
D. Paris. The family oversleeps after a power cut, and Kevin is left behind in the rush.
Question 50. In “Home Alone,” the burglars Harry and Marv are known as what?
C. The Wet Bandits. In “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992) they become the Sticky Bandits.
Question 51. In “Elf” (2003), which city does Buddy travel to so he can find his dad?
C. New York City. Buddy likes maple syrup on his spaghetti, even at breakfast.
Question 52. In “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946), what is the name of George Bailey’s guardian angel?
B. Clarence. Clarence is an Angel Second Class who is trying to earn his wings.
Question 53. In “Miracle on 34th Street” (1947), which store hires Kris Kringle as its Santa?
A. Macy’s. Edmund Gwenn won an Academy Award for playing Kris.
Question 54. Who is the Pumpkin King in “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (1993)?
A. Jack Skellington. Zero, Jack’s ghost dog, has a tiny jack-o’-lantern for a nose.
Question 55. In what year did “A Charlie Brown Christmas” first air on TV?
D. 1965. It premiered on CBS on December 9, 1965, with jazz by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.
Question 56. In the 1964 TV special “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” what does Hermey the elf want to be?
C. A dentist. It has aired every year since 1964, the longest continuous run of any Christmas TV special in the United States.
Question 57. Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” was written for which 1942 movie?
C. “Holiday Inn”. Guinness World Records lists Bing Crosby’s recording as the best-selling physical single, at an estimated 50 million copies.
Question 58. In what year did Mariah Carey release “All I Want for Christmas Is You”?
B. 1994. It first reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019, 25 years later.
Question 59. How old was Brenda Lee when she recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” in 1958?
A. 13. The song finally hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2023.
Question 60. Who plays Bob Cratchit in “The Muppet Christmas Carol” (1992)?
A. Kermit the Frog. Gonzo plays Charles Dickens and tells the story. Michael Caine plays Scrooge.
Question 61. In “The Santa Clause” (1994), what is the name of the dad who becomes Santa?
D. Scott Calvin. Tim Allen plays him.
Question 62. In “The Polar Express,” what does the boy choose as the first gift of Christmas?
C. A silver bell from Santa’s sleigh. Chris Van Allsburg’s 1985 book won the Caldecott Medal.
Question 63. Mel Tormé and Bob Wells wrote “The Christmas Song” (“Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire”) on what kind of day?
C. A hot July day. Tormé said they were trying to stay cool by thinking cool. The Nat King Cole Trio recorded it in 1946.
Question 64. Which singing cowboy took “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” to No. 1 in 1949?
B. Gene Autry. Songwriter Johnny Marks was the brother-in-law of Robert L. May, who created Rudolph.
You need a host, a few teams, paper, pens and a list of questions. Split the room into teams of two to five, and mix kids with grown-ups so every team has someone for the Easy round and someone for the Hard one. Play four rounds of 10. The host reads each question twice, teams whisper and write, and nobody shouts out. After each round, teams swap sheets and mark each other’s while the host reads the answers and the fun facts. One point per right answer keeps the scoring simple. Keep the scoreboard where everyone can see it, and save a tie-breaker for the end. With 64 questions on this page you have four full rounds plus spares, and the quiz game above makes a good warm-up while people arrive. Print the list first, so the host has every answer on paper and nobody needs a phone at the table.
Yes. On a live video call, Santa listens and answers out loud, so you can read him a question from the Hard round and hear what he says. Ask him which reindeer is the fastest, or test him on old Christmas songs. You can also ask Santa for a Christmas question of his own, and tell him what you are hoping for this year. Santa is an AI video character. He follows child-safety rules, and calls are not recorded. Kids call with a grown-up, and grown-ups call for themselves. It works in the browser on a phone, tablet or computer, with no app to install. You need a microphone, but not a camera. Calls cost $1 a minute, in packs of 5, 10 or 20 minutes, with no subscription. After the call, the wishes come back as a list with real store prices.
Talk to Santa on a live video call, or read how a call with Santa works first. Brushing up before the call? Learn the names of all of Santa’s reindeer, the real history of the candy cane, or warm up with some Christmas jokes for kids.
Questions about things kids can see and hear at Christmas: reindeer, snowflakes, stockings and songs. The Easy round has 16, such as how many reindeer pull the sleigh in the 1823 poem (eight) and how many arms a classic snowflake has (six). For younger kids, read the four choices out loud.
Four rounds of 10 is easy to run: 40 questions, with breaks for marking and snacks in between. This page has 64, so you can play four full rounds and still have spares if a question gets spoiled.
Try this one: in the first printing of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” in 1823, what were Donner and Blitzen called? The answer is Dunder and Blixem, old Dutch words for thunder and lightning. The Hard round has 15 more like it.
Ask where Kevin’s family flies in “Home Alone” (Paris), the name of George Bailey’s guardian angel in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (Clarence), and what Hermey the elf wants to be in the 1964 “Rudolph” special (a dentist). The Movies & songs round has 16 questions like these, plus a few about the songs.
No. Coca-Cola’s Santa ads by the artist Haddon Sundblom began in 1931 and shaped how many people picture him. But Santa already wore red in earlier drawings, and Coca-Cola’s own history page says so.
Yes. The quiz game and all 64 questions and answers are free, with no sign-up. Only a live video call with Santa costs money, at $1 a minute.
Yes. Use the Print button in the hosting section above, or your browser’s own Print command. The page prints every question with its answer showing and leaves out the quiz board, so the host gets a clean answer sheet.
Live videoRead Santa a question from the Hard round and hear his answer, live on video. Then tell him what you want for Christmas. $1 a minute.
Call Santa
