The Ultimate Christmas Trivia List

The holiday season is prime time to gather with family and friends and bust out your favorite pieces of trivia. If you’re looking to wow a crowd with fun, obscure facts and tidbits about all things Christmas, we have you covered—and we’ve also sprinkled in a handful of holiday quizzes so you can test your knowledge, too.

1. Christmas Movie Trivia
2. Christmas Music Trivia
3. 30 Fascinating Facts About Christmas

Christmas Movie Trivia

1. Ralphie’s dad in A Christmas Story (1983) is never actually given a name. He’s typically known as just “The Old Man.” 

2. The original script for 1993’s The Santa Clause had Santa dying not because he slipped and fell off Scott Calvin’s roof, but because Calvin shot him. 

3. Jon Favreau—who directed 2003’s Elf—appears in the movie as a doctor. He also voices the stop-animation animals Buddy sees while leaving the North Pole, as well as the raccoon he meets while entering New York City.

4. Joe Pesci, who played one of the wet bandits in Home Alone (1990), actually bit Macaulay Culkin hard enough to break his skin while rehearsing ... 

5. … and the top of Pesci’s head wound up getting seriously burned while the actor was filming scenes involving his hat catching on fire in 1992’s Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

6. It’s a Wonderful Life flopped at the box office when it was released in 1946. Fortunately, the movie’s copyright holder forgot to file a renewal; the film entered the public domain in 1974. TV networks were able to then air It’s a Wonderful Life for free, allowing it to find a whole new audience and become a Christmas classic.

7. Fans of How the Grinch Stole Christmas (1966) thought the lyrics to the “Fahoo Foraze” song included real Latin words, so they asked the network to provide translations. The lyrics, however, were not Latin at all—they were entirely made up by Dr. Seuss (a.k.a. Theodor Geisel) himself.

8. Geisel’s widow, Audrey, was heavily involved in the production of the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). She insisted that all potential actors for the Grinch must be “of comparable stature to Jack Nicholson, Jim Carrey, Robin Williams, and Dustin Hoffman.” Carrey got the role.

9. Only two Christmas movies were released in 1989: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Prancer. Johnny Galecki, who played Rusty in the former, appeared as Billy Quinn in the latter.

10. Bad Santa (2003) is the most expletive-filled Christmas movie ever made: It features 255 swear words.

11. The Muppet Christmas Carol was the first Muppet movie without Jim Henson. The movie came out in December 1992; Henson had passed away in May 1990.

12. The world’s first known Christmas movie hails from the 19th century—and it’s only 90 seconds long. Santa Claus, directed by George Albert Smith, came out in 1898.

13. The 2006 made-for-TV movie The Christmas Card was a huge success for the Hallmark Channel and helped pave the way for the network’s annual “Countdown to Christmas,” which kicked off in 2009.

14. Edmund Gwenn, who portrayed Santa in 1947’s Miracle on 34th Street, actually did appear as Santa in the 1946 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

15. According to one 2018 survey, 62 percent of people believe Die Hard (1988) is not a Christmas movie. Its director appears to suggest otherwise: “We hadn’t intended it to be a Christmas movie, but the joy that came from it is what turned it into a Christmas movie,” John McTiernan told The Hollywood Reporter in 2020.

16. Martin Freeman and Joanna Page’s scenes are often cut from TV broadcasts of Love Actually (2003). Richard Curtis, the film’s director, later said that if he could change one thing about the film, he’d have their characters—who were often nude—wear more clothes.  

17. The puppets from the 1964 Rankin/Bass Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special were lost; Santa and Rudolph remained missing until they popped up on an episode of Antiques Roadshow in 2006.

18. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965) helped turn public opinion away from aluminum tree sales, as the titular character was determined to get a real tree rather than a metal one.

19. The Polar Express (2004) was the first movie ever filmed entirely with motion capture (though not all viewers liked the style—some found the animation a bit too creepy and uncanny).

20. Frosty the Snowman (1969) was the first Rankin/Bass Christmas special made with traditional animation. 

21. Some parents complained after seeing test screenings of Jingle All the Way (1996). They didn’t like that some scenes in the movie included alcohol.

22. Bill Murray ad-libbed a lot of his lines in 1998’s Scrooged.

23. White Christmas was 1954’s highest-grossing movie.

24. The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was directed by Henry Selick, not Tim Burton.

25. Keanu Reeves starred in a 1986 made-for-TV Christmas movie called Babes in Toyland. He even sings in it.

Christmas Music Trivia

1. “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” was originally a bummer of a song—it even included the lyrics “Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last.”

2. A West Virginia broadcasting company banned its radio stations from playing “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” in the 1950s (a lot of people—including Boston’s Catholic archdiocese—didn’t realize the narrator’s mother was kissing his father in a Santa suit, not cheating with Old Saint Nick).

3. Irving Berlin tried to have Elvis Presley’s version of his song “White Christmas” banned from radio stations, due to the rock star’s decidedly not family-friendly persona.

4. Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” came out in 1994, but it didn’t take the no. 1 spot on the Billboard 100 until 2019.

5. George Michael penned “Last Christmas” while in his childhood bedroom … 

6. ... and now people play Whamageddon, a game/challenge where they try to avoid hearing the popular Wham! song. 

7. According to one musicologist, a reason so many people dislike Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime” is because the song is just too simple.

8. The world’s oldest known Christmas carol is from 129 CE.

9. The word troll from the line “troll the ancient Yuletide carol” in “Deck the Halls” refers to singing or chanting merrily and has nothing to do with the fictional monsters.

10. The “five golden rings” in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” likely aren’t jewelry—it’s believed that line refers to the yellow rings on a pheasant’s neck or an old-time name for goldfinches.

11. According to one rumor, the Gambino crime family financed Lou Monte’s “Dominick the Donkey.” 

12. The Cuban Missile Crisis inspired “Do You Hear What I Hear.” Songwriters Noël Regney and Gloria Shayne Baker penned it while dealing with anxiety over the Cold War.

13. The line “bells on bobtail ring” from “Jingle Bells” refers to a horse’s short (or tied-up) tail, not a horse named Bob or Bobtail. 

14. A group of second-graders in Smithtown, New York, helped inspire “All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth.” 

15. The von Trapp singers—the very same family whose story inspired The Sound of Music—helped make “The Little Drummer Boy” popular; they were the first to record the tune.

16. People began linking “My Favorite Things” to Christmas after Julie Andrews sang it on a 1961 TV holiday special, four years beforeThe Sound of Music hit theaters.

17. “Joy to the World” was initially about Easter, not Christmas.

18. Brenda Lee recorded “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree” when she was 13 years old. 

19. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz thought jazz was “awful”—he told a reporter so after A Charlie Brown Christmas hit the airwaves, complete with a very jazzy score by Vince Guaraldi.

20. “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” won an Oscar for Best Original Song in 1950. It featured in the 1949 movie Neptune’s Daughter.

21. Bob Geldof was able to get such a star-studded ensemble for Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” by reaching out to the singers directly, rather than going through their managers or record labels.

22. The melody for “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” was written to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the printing press.

23. The BBC refused to broadcast Bing Crosby’s “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” during World War II so it wouldn’t lower soldiers’ morale.

24. “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” is sung by a veterinarian. 

25. Gene Autry almost passed on singing “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” until his wife encouraged him to record the tune.

30 Fascinating Facts About Christmas

1. Christmas ham has pagan origins. 

2. Yule logs were also part of pagan celebrations. Gaels and Celts burned decorated logs to celebrate the winter solstice; now, people create and eat log-shaped desserts.

3. Ugly Christmas sweater parties began in 2001 in Vancouver, Canada.

4. According to some scholars, the tradition of leaving out milk and cookies for Santa is rooted in ancient Norse mythology. Legend says that children would leave out gifts for Sleipnir, Odin’s eight-legged horse.

5. Ukrainians hang spider webs on their Christmas trees. The tradition is inspired by a folktale called “The Legend of the Christmas Spider.”

6. Lazy children in Iceland are sacrificed to Jólakötturinn, the Icelandic Yule Cat. Kids who keep up with their chores get new clothes for Christmas. The Yule Cat knows to avoid eating any children with a fresh wardrobe. Those who don’t do their chores—and therefore don’t receive any new clothes—are fair game for a meal.

7. People in Sweden watch “From All of Us to All of You” at 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve. The Walt Disney TV special, which first came out in 1958, has aired on Sweden’s primary public television channel every year since 1959.

8. Many people in Japan eat a bucket of KFC “Christmas Chicken” on Christmas Eve.

9. George Washington’s recipe for his boozy Christmas eggnog contained four different liquors (brandy, sherry, rum, and whiskey). 

10. Henry Cole sent the first commercial Christmas card in 1843. Now, Americans send more than 1 billion Christmas cards every year.

11. The first references to Christmas carols appeared in Tudor England.

12. Wealthy people in the Middle Ages liked to eat peacock at their Christmas feasts.

13. People initially said “ ’tis the season” to refer to spring.

14. The word elf comes from the álfar—also known as hidden folk—of ancient Norse mythology, though the álfar were much different than the Christmassy elves we think of today.

15. Alternative names for Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer included Rollo, Reginald, Romeo, and Rodney.

16. New York City’s big Christmas tree was displayed in Madison Square Park until 1933, when the festivities moved over to Rockefeller Center.

17. Prince Albert—Queen Victoria’s husband—is credited with making Christmas trees popular outside of Germany, though it was actually Queen Charlotte who introduced them to England.

18. Benjamin Harrison was the first U.S. president to display a Christmas tree in the White House.

19. Thomas Nast—the political cartoonist who popularized the donkey and elephant as political symbols—also illustrated Santa Claus. His illustrations helped shape Santa’s modern image, and Nast is the one who made Father Christmas live at the North Pole.

20. The actual St. Nicholas lived in the Middle East, in an area that’s now Turkey, and died in 343 CE.

21. The iconic Hershey’s Kisses’s “Christmas Bells” commercial first aired in 1989.

22. Kids didn’t always send their Christmas wish lists off to the North Pole. Instead, Santa was the one who initially sent letters to children. 

23. Christmas didn’t become a public holiday in Scotland until 1958.

24. Frankincense and myrrh are resins, a.k.a. dried tree sap. The former comes from trees in the Boswellia genus, while the latter is from some members of the Commiphora genus.

25. In Iceland, it’s tradition for people to exchange books for the Jólabókaflóðið, or Yule Book Flood.

26. Figgy pudding isn’t what Americans would consider to be pudding. It’s typically a steamed, dome-shaped cake that includes dried fruit. 

27. Queen Elizabeth II delivered the first televised Christmas broadcast in 1957; her grandfather, King George V, delivered Britain’s first Christmas radio broadcast in 1932.

28. Mistletoe is actually parasitic. It uses something called a haustorium to leech water and minerals from its host plant.

29. Though Ebenezer Scrooge famously utters bah humbug throughout A Christmas Carol, the latter word isn’t a Charles Dickens invention. It first appeared in 1750, described as “a word very much in vogue with the people of taste and fashion … though it has not even the penumbra of a meaning.”

30. People in Victorian England would tell ghost stories as part of their Christmas celebrations.

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