Christmas History & Origin Trivia

Christmas History & Origin Trivia

1. 1.Which saint is Santa Claus based on?easy

   Answer: Saint Nicholas of Myra

2. 2.Which ancient Roman festival is linked to Christmas?medium

   Answer: Saturnalia

3. 3.Which Pope is credited with setting December 25 as Christmas (c. 350 AD)?hard

   Answer: Pope Julius I

4. 4.Who popularised the Christmas tree in Britain?medium

   Answer: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

5. 5.Who invented electric Christmas tree lights (1882)?hard

   Answer: Edward H. Johnson

6. 6.Which company's ads helped popularise the modern red Santa?medium

   Answer: Coca-Cola (Haddon Sundblom art)

7. 7.What does 'Yule' originally refer to?medium

   Answer: A Germanic midwinter festival

8. 8.Where is St. Nicholas's original hometown (modern country)?medium

   Answer: Turkey

9. 9.Why do we hang stockings?medium

   Answer: Legend of St. Nicholas dropping gold coins into drying stockings

10. 10.When was 'Merry Christmas' first recorded in writing?hard

    Answer: 1534 (in a letter by John Fisher)

11. 11.Which poem in 1823 named Santa's reindeer?medium

    Answer: A Visit from St. Nicholas

12. 12.Who was the first US president to put up a White House Christmas tree (1889)?hard

    Answer: Benjamin Harrison

13. 13.Where was the first Christmas tree market said to be?hard

    Answer: Strasbourg / Alsace

14. 14.What is the date of Epiphany?easy

    Answer: January 6

15. 15.What country did the tradition of Advent calendars come from?medium

    Answer: Germany

16. 16.When was the first printed Advent calendar produced (approx)?hard

    Answer: Early 1900s (1908, Gerhard Lang)

17. 17.Where does the word 'Noel' come from?medium

    Answer: French, from Latin 'natalis' (birth)

18. 18.What did Victorians put on trees before glass baubles were common?medium

    Answer: Fruit, nuts, sweets and candles

19. 19.Which German town is famous for inventing glass baubles?hard

    Answer: Lauscha

20. 20.Who wrote the poem that gave Santa a sleigh and eight reindeer?medium

    Answer: Clement Clarke Moore (attributed)

21. 21.Which cartoonist created the modern image of Santa in Harper's Weekly?medium

    Answer: Thomas Nast

22. 22.Why is holly associated with Christmas?medium

    Answer: Evergreen symbol of eternal life; red berries linked to Christ's blood

23. 23.When did mistletoe become linked with kissing?hard

    Answer: In 18th-century England

24. 24.What ancient people revered mistletoe in rituals?medium

    Answer: The Druids (Celts)

25. 25.What was the Yule log originally?medium

    Answer: A large log burned through the 12 days of Christmas

26. 26.Which American magazine illustration made Santa's home the North Pole?hard

    Answer: Thomas Nast's 1866 drawing

27. 27.What were early Christmas crackers originally?medium

    Answer: Wrapped sweets (bon-bons) with a 'snap' added later

28. 28.Where was the first department-store Santa (1890)?hard

    Answer: Brockton, Massachusetts (James Edgar)

29. 29.When did tinsel originate?hard

    Answer: 1610 in Germany (Nuremberg)

30. 30.Which Puritan colony fined people for celebrating Christmas?medium

    Answer: Massachusetts Bay Colony

31. 31.When did Christmas become a public holiday in Scotland?hard

    Answer: 1958

32. 32.What was Saturnalia celebrating?easy

    Answer: The Roman god Saturn

33. 33.When did Christmas cards become popular in the US?hard

    Answer: 1870s (Louis Prang)

34. 34.What is the 'Twelfth Night'?medium

    Answer: The evening before Epiphany, ending the Christmas season

35. 35.Which Roman festival 'Birthday of the Unconquered Sun' fell on December 25?hard

    Answer: Sol Invictus (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti)

36. 36.Who popularised the Christmas tree in America in the 1800s?medium

    Answer: German immigrants (helped by Victorian influence)

37. 37.What does 'Yuletide' mean?easy

    Answer: The Christmas season (Yule time)

38. 38.When was Christmas first recorded as celebrated on December 25?hard

    Answer: 336 AD in Rome

39. 39.Which Roman emperor was the first Christian emperor?medium

    Answer: Constantine the Great

40. 40.What were the Roman winter gifts called during Saturnalia?hard

    Answer: Sigillaria (small figurines)

41. 41.What did Romans do during Saturnalia that was unusual?medium

    Answer: Masters served their slaves

42. 42.Where did Christmas trees appear in medieval plays?hard

    Answer: Paradise plays (as the Tree of Knowledge)

43. 43.What was hung on paradise trees?hard

    Answer: Apples

44. 44.Which reformer is credited by legend with lighting candles on a tree?medium

    Answer: Martin Luther

45. 45.When did the Illustrated London News publish Victoria's Christmas tree?hard

    Answer: 1848

46. 46.When did Christmas trees become popular in the US?medium

    Answer: Mid-1800s

47. 47.Who started Christmas seals for charity in 1904?hard

    Answer: Einar Holbøll (Denmark)

48. 48.What is the origin of the word 'carol'?hard

    Answer: From Old French 'carole', a circle dance

49. 49.What was wassailing originally?medium

    Answer: Toasting good health / blessing orchards

50. 50.What did 'wassail' mean in Old English?hard

    Answer: Be in good health

51. 51.When were Christmas crackers invented?medium

    Answer: 1847

52. 52.Who invented Christmas crackers?medium

    Answer: Tom Smith

53. 53.What inspired Tom Smith's crackers?hard

    Answer: French bonbons wrapped in paper

54. 54.When did the first artificial Christmas trees appear in Germany?hard

    Answer: 19th century (1880s)

55. 55.Which company made the first brush artificial trees?hard

    Answer: Addis Brush Company

56. 56.When did aluminium Christmas trees become popular?medium

    Answer: Late 1950s–1960s

57. 57.Which TV special helped end the aluminium tree fad?hard

    Answer: A Charlie Brown Christmas

58. 58.When did Coca-Cola's polar bears first appear in ads?hard

    Answer: 1922 (popularised in 1993)

59. 59.Who wrote the 1897 'Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus' editorial?hard

    Answer: Francis Pharcellus Church

60. 60.Which newspaper published 'Yes, Virginia'?hard

    Answer: The New York Sun

61. 61.What was Virginia's surname?hard

    Answer: O'Hanlon

62. 62.When was Rudolph created?medium

    Answer: 1939

63. 63.Who created Rudolph?medium

    Answer: Robert L. May

64. 64.What was the original purpose of Rudolph?medium

    Answer: A promotional colouring booklet for Montgomery Ward

65. 65.When did the British monarch's Christmas speech begin?medium

    Answer: 1932

66. 66.Who wrote King George V's first Christmas speech?hard

    Answer: Rudyard Kipling

67. 67.When were Christmas lights first sold commercially by GE?hard

    Answer: 1903

68. 68.When was the first National Christmas Tree lit in the US?medium

    Answer: 1923

69. 69.Which US president first had electric lights on a White House tree?hard

    Answer: Grover Cleveland (1895)

70. 70.When did the first department-store Christmas window displays appear?hard

    Answer: 1870s–1880s (Macy's)

71. 71.When did the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (ending with Santa) begin?hard

    Answer: 1924

72. 72.When did Santa first appear wearing red widely before Coke?hard

    Answer: Late 1800s (e.g. Puck magazine 1902)

73. 73.What did Sinterklaas become in America?easy

    Answer: Santa Claus

74. 74.Which New York author popularised St. Nicholas in 1809?hard

    Answer: Washington Irving

75. 75.In which book did Washington Irving mention St. Nicholas?hard

    Answer: A History of New York (Knickerbocker's History)

76. 76.When did the 'Christmas Truce' happen?medium

    Answer: December 1914

77. 77.Which sport was played in no man's land during the Christmas Truce?medium

    Answer: Football (soccer)

78. 78.When was Christmas made a federal holiday in the US?medium

    Answer: 1870

79. 79.Who signed Christmas into US federal law?hard

    Answer: President Ulysses S. Grant

80. 80.When was the poinsettia introduced to the US?hard

    Answer: 1825

81. 81.What is the Aztec name for poinsettia?hard

    Answer: Cuetlaxochitl

82. 82.Where does the tradition of Christmas stockings likely come from?medium

    Answer: St. Nicholas legend and Dutch shoes

83. 83.Where did advent wreaths originate?medium

    Answer: 19th-century Germany

84. 84.What did the first Advent wreath by Wichern have?hard

    Answer: 24 candles on a cart wheel

85. 85.When was the first Christmas postage stamp issued?hard

    Answer: 1898 (Canada)

86. 86.When did the first Christmas TV advert air?hard

    Answer: 1950s (USA)

87. 87.When was the 'Christmas Eve Broadcast' from Apollo 8?medium

    Answer: 1968

88. 88.What did Apollo 8 astronauts read on Christmas Eve 1968?hard

    Answer: The first verses of Genesis

89. 89.When was 'Silent Night' declared UNESCO intangible heritage (Austria)?hard

    Answer: 2011

90. 90.In which church was 'Silent Night' first performed?hard

    Answer: St. Nicholas Church, Oberndorf, Austria

91. 91.Why was 'Silent Night' first played on guitar?medium

    Answer: Legend says the church organ was broken

92. 92.When were gingerbread houses popularised in Germany?medium

    Answer: After Hansel and Gretel (1812)

93. 93.Who popularised gingerbread men by gifting likenesses to guests?hard

    Answer: Queen Elizabeth I

94. 94.What did medieval people eat as the main Christmas meat?medium

    Answer: Boar or goose

95. 95.When did turkey arrive in England?hard

    Answer: 1520s–1540s

96. 96.Which king supposedly first ate turkey at Christmas?medium

    Answer: Henry VIII

97. 97.When did Christmas trees appear in Lithuania widely?hard

    Answer: Late 19th–early 20th century

98. 98.What did Lithuanians traditionally decorate before trees?hard

    Answer: A straw 'sodas' (garden) ornament

99. 99.What does 'Kalėdos' (Lithuanian Christmas) possibly derive from?hard

    Answer: Latin 'calendae' (first day of month)

100. 100.When did the Soviet Union replace Christmas with New Year celebrations?hard

     Answer: 1920s–1930s (tree returned in 1935 as New Year tree)