46 questions with answers · tap one to see its answer

Holiday Trivia Questions

These 46 holiday trivia questions are sorted by holiday: Christmas trivia, Halloween trivia, Thanksgiving trivia for the United States and Canada, and holidays around the world, from Diwali and Lunar New Year to Hanukkah, Eid, Holi and Día de los Muertos. They ask about traditions, foods, symbols and where the customs began, and make a festive round for a family gathering or an office party.

Every answer was checked against two independent sources on November 9, 2026.

Christmas trivia

Which plant is traditionally hung at Christmas so that people standing beneath it may kiss?
Answer: Mistletoe
It is a partly parasitic plant that grows on host trees such as apple and poplar.
Checked against Wikipedia and woodlandtrust.org.uk
Which red-nosed reindeer was created in 1939 for a booklet given away by the Montgomery Ward stores?
Answer: Rudolph
Copywriter Robert L. May wrote the original story in verse; the famous song followed in 1949.
Checked against Wikipedia and encyclopedia.com
Which German-born husband of Queen Victoria helped make Christmas trees fashionable in Britain?
Answer: Prince Albert
An 1848 newspaper picture of the royal family around a decorated tree helped start the craze.
Checked against Wikipedia and rmg.co.uk
Which country sends a giant Christmas tree to London's Trafalgar Square each year as thanks for wartime help?
Answer: Norway
The gift has been sent every year since 1947.
Checked against Wikipedia and oslo.kommune.no
In Italian folklore, which kindly old woman, often pictured as a witch on a broomstick, brings gifts to children on the night before Epiphany?
Answer: La Befana
Children who misbehave may get a lump of coal, often made from black sugar candy.
Checked against Wikipedia and sbs.com.au
What is the name of the star-shaped lantern hung in Filipino homes and streets at Christmas?
Answer: The parol
The lantern recalls the star that guided the Magi in the Nativity story.
Checked against Wikipedia and gmanetwork.com
In Mexico, what are the nine nights of processions before Christmas, recalling Mary and Joseph's search for shelter, called?
Answer: Las Posadas
Held from December 16 to 24, each night often ends with a party and a piñata.
Checked against Wikipedia and mexiconewsdaily.com
In which country do millions of families traditionally eat KFC fried chicken at Christmas?
Answer: Japan
The custom took off after a KFC advertising campaign launched there in 1974.
Checked against global.kfc.com and hawaiipublicradio.org
Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, named on Christmas Day in 1643, is a territory of which country?
Answer: Australia
The island is famous for the mass migration of millions of red crabs to the sea to breed.
Checked against Wikipedia, historyhit.com and christmasislandnationalpark.gov.au
What is the French name for the Christmas cake made of a rolled sponge iced to look like a log?
Answer: Bûche de Noël
It recalls the old custom of burning a large Yule log on the hearth.
Checked against Wikipedia and huffingtonpost.co.uk
On December 13 in Sweden, a girl in white wearing a crown of candles leads processions honoring which saint?
Answer: Saint Lucy (Lucia)
Saffron buns called lussekatter are a traditional treat on Lucia Day.
Checked against Wikipedia and nordiskamuseet.se
Which Christmas carol was first performed on Christmas Eve 1818 in Oberndorf, Austria?
Answer: Silent Night
Joseph Mohr wrote the words and Franz Xaver Gruber the music, first played on a guitar.
Checked against Wikipedia and dpma.de
In Icelandic folklore, how many Yule Lads visit children on the nights before Christmas?
Answer: 13
Children leave a shoe on the windowsill, hoping for a treat rather than a potato.
Checked against Wikipedia and arcticportal.org
Which London confectioner is traditionally credited with inventing the Christmas cracker in the 1840s?
Answer: Tom Smith
He was inspired by French bonbons sold wrapped in twists of paper.
Checked against Wikipedia and whodoyouthinkyouaremagazine.com

Halloween trivia

In which Halloween party game do players try to grab floating apples using only their teeth?
Answer: Apple bobbing (bobbing for apples)
In Scotland the game is often called dooking for apples.
Checked against Wikipedia and historic-uk.com
The name Halloween is a shortened form of which older phrase?
Answer: All Hallows' Eve
It is the evening before All Saints' Day, also called All Hallows' Day, on November 1.
Checked against Wikipedia and Dictionary.com
Botanically speaking, is the Halloween pumpkin a fruit or a vegetable?
Answer: A fruit
It belongs to the gourd family, along with cucumbers, melons and squashes.
Checked against hgic.clemson.edu, yardandgarden.extension.iastate.edu and Wikipedia
Halloween grew partly out of which Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest and the start of winter?
Answer: Samhain
It was celebrated from the evening of October 31 into November 1.
Checked against Wikipedia, horniman.ac.uk and historyhit.com
Before pumpkins took over, which root vegetable did people in Ireland and Scotland carve into Halloween lanterns?
Answer: Turnips (also swedes and other root vegetables)
Irish and Scottish emigrants took the custom to North America, where pumpkins were easier to carve.
Checked against Wikipedia and National Geographic
In Washington Irving's 1820 tale The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which ghostly rider chases Ichabod Crane?
Answer: The Headless Horseman
The story is set in a Dutch settlement in the Hudson Valley of New York.
Checked against Wikipedia and encyclopedia.com
Which country's Halloween fruit bread, barmbrack, traditionally hides a ring said to foretell a wedding?
Answer: Ireland
Other tokens baked inside could include a coin, said to promise good fortune.
Checked against Wikipedia and farmersjournal.ie
In Scotland, what is the traditional name for going door to door in costume at Halloween?
Answer: Guising
Guisers traditionally perform a party piece, such as a song or a poem, to earn their treat.
Checked against Wikipedia and historic-uk.com
In old English custom, what small spiced treats were given to people who went door to door praying for the dead around November 2?
Answer: Soul cakes
The custom, called souling, is often seen as one forerunner of trick-or-treating.
Checked against Wikipedia and history.co.uk
Hop-tu-Naa, a celebration held on October 31, belongs to which island in the Irish Sea?
Answer: The Isle of Man
Children carry carved turnip lanterns from door to door, singing traditional songs.
Checked against Wikipedia and culturevannin.im

Thanksgiving trivia

Which department store has held a Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City since 1924?
Answer: Macy's
Giant character balloons, including Felix the Cat, joined the parade in 1927.
Checked against Wikipedia and Smithsonian Magazine
What name is given to the busy shopping day right after Thanksgiving in the United States?
Answer: Black Friday
Its online counterpart, the Monday that follows, is known as Cyber Monday.
Checked against Wikipedia and Cambridge Dictionary
Since 1957, Canadian Thanksgiving has been held on which day each year?
Answer: The second Monday in October
Thanksgiving in the United States comes later, on the fourth Thursday in November.
Checked against Wikipedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia and National Archives
Which Native American people joined the Plymouth colonists for the 1621 harvest feast remembered as Thanksgiving?
Answer: The Wampanoag
Their leader Massasoit arrived with about 90 men, according to a colonist's letter.
Checked against Wikipedia and plimoth.org
Which US president moved Thanksgiving a week earlier in 1939, leading critics to call it Franksgiving?
Answer: Franklin D. Roosevelt
In 1941, Congress fixed the holiday on the fourth Thursday of November.
Checked against Wikipedia and National Archives
Which NFL team has hosted a Thanksgiving Day game almost every year since 1934?
Answer: The Detroit Lions
The tradition was started by the team's first owner, George A. Richards, who also owned the radio station WJR.
Checked against Wikipedia and detroithistorical.org
Which magazine editor campaigned for years for a national Thanksgiving Day until Abraham Lincoln proclaimed one in 1863?
Answer: Sarah Josepha Hale
She edited Godey's Lady's Book, one of the most popular American magazines of its time.
Checked against Wikipedia and npr.org
Which English explorer held a thanksgiving service in the Canadian Arctic in 1578, a story often linked to Canadian Thanksgiving?
Answer: Martin Frobisher
His three Arctic voyages began as a search for the Northwest Passage, a sea route to Asia, then turned to hunting gold ore.
Checked against The Canadian Encyclopedia, The Canadian Encyclopedia and Wikipedia

Holidays around the world

During the Hindu spring festival of Holi, what do people playfully throw at each other?
Answer: Colored powder (and colored water)
On the night before, bonfires are lit in a ritual called Holika Dahan.
Checked against Wikipedia and BBC
What is the four-sided spinning top used in a traditional Hanukkah game called?
Answer: A dreidel
Its sides carry the Hebrew letters nun, gimel, hei and shin; in Israel, pe replaces shin.
Checked against Wikipedia and myjewishlearning.com
The festival of Eid al-Fitr marks the end of which month of daytime fasting?
Answer: Ramadan
Eid al-Fitr falls on the first day of Shawwal, the month after Ramadan in the Islamic calendar.
Checked against Wikipedia and BBC
Hogmanay is the name for the New Year's Eve celebration in which part of the United Kingdom?
Answer: Scotland
In the custom of first-footing, the first visitor after midnight brings small gifts for luck.
Checked against Wikipedia and historic-uk.com
Songkran, the April New Year festival famous for joyful water fights, is celebrated in which country?
Answer: Thailand
UNESCO lists Songkran in Thailand as intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
Checked against Wikipedia and UNESCO
Which Italian city's Carnival is famous for elaborate masks and costumes worn in the weeks before Lent?
Answer: Venice
One classic mask, the bauta, covers the whole face yet lets the wearer eat and drink without removing it.
Checked against Wikipedia and edition.cnn.com
During Diwali, the festival of lights, what are the small clay oil lamps that families light called?
Answer: Diyas
Diwali usually falls in October or November, and celebrations often last five days.
Checked against Wikipedia, Wikipedia and BBC
Which animal comes first in the 12-year cycle of the Chinese zodiac?
Answer: The rat
In order, the 12 animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
Checked against Wikipedia, National Geographic and History.com
During Mexico's Day of the Dead, what are the decorated home altars for departed loved ones called?
Answer: Ofrendas
They are often decorated with bright orange marigolds, called cempasúchil.
Checked against Wikipedia and History.com
Nowruz, the Persian New Year, begins at the moment of which astronomical event?
Answer: The March (spring) equinox
Many families set a haft-sin table of seven items whose names begin with the Persian letter sin.
Checked against Wikipedia and un.org
At Swedish Midsummer celebrations, people dance around what tall pole decorated with leaves and flowers?
Answer: A maypole (midsummer pole)
Many Swedes mark the day with pickled herring, new potatoes and strawberries.
Checked against sweden.se, nordiskamuseet.se and Wikipedia
In which country is Inti Raymi, the Inca Festival of the Sun, staged each June at Cusco?
Answer: Peru
The modern festival takes place on June 24, near the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice.
Checked against Wikipedia, peru.info and peru.travel
New Zealand's national day, Waitangi Day, is held in which month?
Answer: February
It is a public holiday, with ceremonies at the Waitangi Treaty Grounds in the Bay of Islands.
Checked against Wikipedia, waitangi.org.nz, waitangi.org.nz and employment.govt.nz
Enkutatash, a New Year festival held each September, is celebrated in which African country?
Answer: Ethiopia
It comes at the end of the long rainy season, when yellow Meskel daisies bloom.
Checked against Wikipedia and ethiopianembassy.org