Fifty questions, five rounds, answers included — built for the office party, the family gathering or the pub. Every answer is a fact we verified against a named source before publishing it elsewhere on this site, and each one links to the article with the full story, so the losing team can lodge appeals properly.
Quizmaster’s note: tap or click any question to reveal its answer. Printing this page gives you a clean quiz sheet — the answers stay hidden until expanded.
Round 1: How Christmas Was Built
1. In which decade was the first commercial Christmas card printed — and it was because its inventor was too busy to answer his letters?
The 1840s — 1843, commissioned by Henry Cole. Full story.
2. What did Tom Smith add to his poorly-selling French-style sweets in the late 1840s to invent the Christmas cracker?
The bang — a snap mechanism, supposedly inspired by a crackling log fire. Full story.
3. Which royal couple’s 1848 magazine engraving made the Christmas tree a British institution?
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, in the Illustrated London News. Full story.
4. Christmas cracker mottoes originally weren’t jokes. What were they?
Sincere love poems — Tom Smith’s customers were men buying sweets for sweethearts. Full story.
5. Which Roman midwinter festival, starting 17 December, involved feasting, gifts and masters waiting on slaves?
Saturnalia. Full story.
6. In what year were the first electric Christmas tree lights switched on — on a revolving tree in a Manhattan window?
1882, by Edison’s associate Edward H. Johnson. Full story.
7. Which small German town invented the glass bauble, later shipped to the world by Woolworth?
Lauscha, in Thuringia. Full story.
8. Why are robins on Christmas cards?
Victorian postmen wore red and were nicknamed “robins” — illustrators drew the bird delivering the post. Full story.
9. Who wrote the words of the first royal Christmas broadcast, delivered by George V in 1932?
Rudyard Kipling. Full story.
10. “Silent Night” was first performed in 1818 on which instrument, unusual for church music?
A guitar, in the village church of Oberndorf near Salzburg. Full story.
Round 2: Christmas Around the World
11. How many Yule Lads visit Icelandic children in December?
Thirteen — one per night, leaving treats or rotting potatoes in shoes on windowsills. Full story.
12. What does Iceland’s Yule Cat do to people who receive no new clothes before Christmas Eve?
Eats them. Folklore’s strongest argument for a new jumper. Full story.
13. What is Japan’s traditional Christmas dinner, thanks to a 1974 advertising campaign?
KFC — “Kentucky for Christmas.” Full story.
14. Which country’s children beat a smiling log with sticks until it produces presents?
Spain — Catalonia’s Caga Tió. Full story.
15. Who fills Italian children’s stockings on the night of 5 January?
La Befana, a witch on a broomstick who missed her lift to Bethlehem. Full story.
16. On which night does Krampus roam Alpine towns?
5 December — Krampusnacht, the eve of St Nicholas’s Day. Full story.
17. In Sweden, what does the girl leading the St Lucia procession wear on her head?
A crown of lit candles, on 13 December. Full story.
18. Which country starts Christmas in September and celebrates for four months?
The Philippines — the “ber months.” Full story.
19. Mexico’s Las Posadas re-enacts what search, over nine nights?
Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging — sung door to door, refused until the last house. Full story.
20. Ukrainian trees carry ornaments shaped like which creature, linked to the legend behind tinsel?
Spiders — pavuchky, “little spiders.” Full story.
Round 3: The Christmas Table
21. What was Britain’s dominant Christmas roast before turkey took over in the Victorian era?
Goose — which is why the Cratchits are eating one in A Christmas Carol. Full story.
22. What does frost do to Brussels sprouts?
Genuinely sweetens them — cold converts their starches to sugars. Full story.
23. What ingredient did mince pies contain for most of their history?
Actual meat — lamb, then tongue, then beef; the fruit-only version is late Victorian. Full story.
24. “Stir-up Sunday” takes its name from what?
The opening words of the day’s prayer in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer — nothing to do with cooking. Full story.
25. Which coin became the traditional Christmas pudding token from 1937?
The silver sixpence. Full story.
26. How many symbolic ingredients did a Tudor mince pie contain, and for whom?
Thirteen — for Christ and the twelve apostles. Full story.
27. The chocolate yule log is the edible descendant of what?
An actual log, burned at midwinter for luck; Parisian pâtissiers miniaturised it — first recipe 1890. Full story.
28. Germany’s oldest true Christmas market, Dresden’s Striezelmarkt, began in 1434 selling mainly what?
Meat — it was a one-day market for the Christmas dinner shop. Full story.
29. What was baked into the Twelfth Night cake, crowning its finder monarch for the evening?
A dried bean or pea — records back to the 1300s. Full story.
30. Boxing Day’s name most likely comes from which two kinds of box?
The church alms box, opened on 26 December, and the servants’ and tradesmen’s Christmas boxes. Full story.
Round 4: Screens and Songs
31. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was invented in 1939 by which American retailer, as a promotional giveaway?
Montgomery Ward — written by copywriter Robert L. May; 2.4 million copies in year one. Full story.
32. Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” holds what all-time record?
Best-selling physical single ever — around 50 million copies, recorded in roughly 18 minutes. Full story.
33. How much snow must fall for the Met Office to declare a white Christmas?
One observed snowflake, anywhere in the UK, during 25 December. Full story.
34. Which two glam rock bands fought the first deliberate Christmas number one battle in 1973?
Slade and Wizzard — Slade won. Full story.
35. Which act holds the record for most UK Christmas number ones, with five?
LadBaby — all sausage-roll charity singles, overtaking the Beatles. Full story.
36. Whose mother knitted Mark Darcy’s reindeer jumper in Bridget Jones’s Diary — within the story?
His own mother, per the film — the 2001 scene credited with reviving the whole tradition. Full story.
37. Coca-Cola is often said to have invented Santa’s red suit. Roughly how many years does the red suit actually predate their adverts?
About fifty — Thomas Nast drew a red-suited Santa in 1881; Coca-Cola’s campaigns began in the 1930s. Full story.
38. “Carols by Candlelight,” the open-air Christmas Eve concert tradition, began in 1938 in which city?
Melbourne, Australia. Full story.
39. The carolling tradition descends from “wassailing.” What did wassailers famously refuse to do until fed?
Leave — “we won’t go until we’ve got some,” as the figgy pudding song still admits. Full story.
40. British pantomime descends from which Italian theatrical tradition?
Commedia dell’arte, imported in the early 1700s. Full story.
Round 5: The Jumper Itself
41. The deliberate “ugly Christmas sweater party” was invented in 2002 in which city?
Vancouver, Canada — by Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch. Full story.
42. UK Christmas Jumper Day, launched in 2012, raises money for which charity?
Save the Children — over £42 million so far. Full story.
43. What date is Christmas Jumper Day 2026?
Thursday 10 December 2026. Full story.
44. The word “jumper” comes from the French “jupe.” What did it originally mean?
A short coat or tunic — nothing to do with jumping. Full story.
45. What percentage of Christmas jumpers surveyed in 2019 were wholly or partly plastic?
95% — per Hubbub’s study of 108 jumpers across 11 retailers. Full story.
46. The record gathering of people in Christmas jumpers — 3,473 of them — assembled at what kind of event?
A college basketball game, in Kansas, December 2015. Full story.
47. Psychologists explain why ugly jumpers make us laugh using which theory?
Incongruity theory — the gap between a sensible garment and an absurd decision on top of it. Full story.
48. What’s the record number of jumpers worn at once by a single person?
Fifty. Full story.
49. In the US, the equivalent of Christmas Jumper Day falls on which Friday?
The third Friday of December — National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day, since 2011. Full story.
50. According to this site’s most repeated advice: knitted or printed, which Christmas jumper comes back out of the cupboard next year?
The knitted one. The full argument.
Running the quiz
Five rounds of ten works as five breaks in an office party, or one long round after dinner. Half a point for partial answers, quizmaster’s word is final, and anyone caught reading this site under the table is docked a round. If the quiz is part of a jumper day, the competition guide covers judging the knitwear itself.