Christmas Traditions & History
Hanukkah Traditions & History
Holiday Movies & Specials
Holiday Music & Carols
More Winter Traditions
Miscellaneous
100
The day after Christmas is know in many countries (Canada, UK, etc.) as this.
What is Boxing Day?
100
This special candle holder is used during Hanukkah.
What is a menorah?
100
This film about a holiday office party gone wrong stars Bruce Willis.
What is Die Hard?
100
This song about winter weather was written in Hollywood during a heat wave.
What is "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!"
(The classic winter song was written by lyricist Sammy Cahn and composer Jule Styne in July 1945 during a scorching heatwave in Hollywood)
100
This saint’s December feast day helped inspire the legend of Santa Claus.
Who is Saint Nicholas of Myra?
100
This gas is used to fill balloons to make them float.
What is helium?
200
This plant with bright red bracts became a Christmas symbol in the U.S. in the 1800s.
What is the poinsettia?
200
Hanukkah lasts for this many nights.
What is eight (8)?
200
This 1954 film stars Bing Crosby as a singer in Vermont.
What is White Christmas?
200
This song introduced the idea of Santa checking a list of children’s behavior.
What is "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town"?
200
This ancient festival marking the shortest day of the year influenced many winter holidays.
What is the winter solstice?
200
This branch of the US government is responsible for interpreting the law.
What is the judicial branch?
(The US Supreme Court)
300
This Christian season of preparation begins four Sundays before Christmas.
What is Advent?
300
This food is made from grated potatoes and fried in oil; typically served during Hanukkah.
What are latkes?
300
This 1989 comedy stars Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold.
What is National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?
300
This term originally meant a song sung while dancing in a circle.
What is "carol"?
300
George Washington crossed this river on Christmas night to secure a victory at the Battle of Trenton.
What is the Delaware River?
300
This ocean lies between Africa and Australia.
What is the Indian Ocean?
400
This country is credited with creating the first advent calendars in the 19th century.
What is Germany?
(German Lutherans 😉 )
400
Hanukkah is Hebrew for this word.
What is "Dedication"?
400
This 1947 classic centers on a department store Santa named Kris Kringle.
What is Miracle on 34th Street?
400
This Christmas hymn written by Isaac Watts is sung to a melody adapted from Handel.
What is "Joy to the World"?
400
This German prince popularized the custom of indoor Christmas trees in Britain with a widely-published 1848 illustration of the family around their decorated tree sparking mass adoption throughout the country.
Who is Prince Albert?
400
This author wrote Charlotte's Web.
Who is E.B. White?
500
This feast on January 6 celebrates the visit of the Wise Men.
What is epiphany?
500
The term for the chocolate coins typically given to Jewish children, often as part of the dreidel game.
What is gelt?
500
This boy is accidentally left alone at home in New York City in this 1990 holiday comedy.
Who is Kevin McCallister?
500
Written by James Lord Pierpont, this song is traditionally associated with sleigh rides, rather than Christmas itself.
What is "Jingle Bells"?
(the original lyrics of "Jingle Bells" do not mention Christmas; the song, written by James Lord Pierpont, actually has no holiday reference and was likely performed for Thanksgiving or as a secular winter/drinking song about sleigh racing and picking up girls, only becoming a Christmas staple decades later due to its festive tune and winter themes.)
500
This ancient Roman winter festival helped influence later Christmas timing.
What is Saturnalia?
(a mid-December celebration for the god Saturn, known for feasting, gift-giving, candles, greenery, and temporary social role reversals, which heavily influenced modern Christmas traditions and the timing of the holiday itself..)
500
This element’s chemical symbol is Fe.
What is iron?
600
Christmas was outlawed in this American city from 1659 to 1681.
What is Boston?
600
This family of priests led the revolt celebrated at Hanukkah.
Who are the Maccabees?
600
This TV network premiered A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965.
What is CBS?
600
This Christmas song was first introduced in the film Holiday Inn.
What is "White Christmas"?
(Performed by Bing Crosby in 1942)
600
This medieval winter festival celebrated on ice gave its name to a Dickens scene.
What is a frost fair?
(A vibrant, multi-day festivals held directly on the frozen River Thames in London during exceptionally cold winters, most notably during the Little Ice Age (1309-1814).
600
This explorer led the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe.
Who is Ferdinand Magellan? (1522)
700
To make the mystery of Christ's birth more real to people, this Italian saint created the first Nativity scene in 1223.
Who is St. Francis of Assisi?
700
On the first night of Hanukkah, this candle is lit.
What is the candle on the far-right?
700
This 1984 film blends Christmas with creatures called Mogwai.
What is Gremlins?
700
This song became a standard after appearing in the 1944 film Meet Me in St. Louis.
What is "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas"? (Judy Garland)
700
This Pennsylvania town hosts the most famous Groundhog Day celebration each February.
What is Punxsutawney? 
700
This ancient Greek philosopher wrote The Republic.
Who is Plato?
800
This 4th-century pope is traditionally credited with choosing December 25th as Christmas Day.
Who is Pope Julius I?
800
This "helper candle" is used to light the other candles in the Menorah each night.
What is the shamash?
800
This 1964 special introduced the song “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas.”
What is "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"?
800
This song is based on a character created for a Montgomery Ward booklet
What is "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"?
(The character of Rudolph was created in 1939 by Robert L. May, a copywriter for the Montgomery Ward department store, as part of a free Christmas storybook giveaway to shoppers. May's brother-in-law, Johnny Marks, later adapted the story into the famous song, which was recorded by Gene Autry in 1949 and became a massive hit. )
800
This Spanish tradition brings gifts on January 6 instead of December 25.
What is We Three Kings Day?
800
This composer wrote The Four Seasons.
Who is Antonio Vivaldi?
900
This Roman emperor legalized Christianity, paving the way for official Christian feast days.
Who was Constantine the Great?
900
This Hebrew letter means “great” and appears on many dreidels.
What is "gimel"?
900
This 1949 sequel reunited Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire after Holiday Inn.
What is Blue Skies?
900
This Christmas hymn is adapted from a tune by Felix Mendelssohn.
What is "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"?
"Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," whose joyful tune was adapted by William H. Cummings in 1855 from a celebratory piece, Festgesang, composed by Felix Mendelssohn for Gutenberg's printing press anniversary, despite Mendelssohn thinking the tune unsuitable for sacred words.
900
This Scottish New Year’s Eve celebration features torchlight processions, singing "Auld Lang Syne" and the tradition of “first-footing,” welcoming good luck for the year ahead.
What is Hogmanay?
(historically eclipsed Christmas because Christmas was banned in Scotland for nearly 400 years, making Hogmanay the premier festival for revelry, feasting, music, and fireworks, focusing on welcoming the new year )
900
This war was fought between Athens and Sparta.(431-404 BCE)
What was the Peloponnesian War?
1000
This famed 19th-century political cartoonist, most credited with creating our modern image of Santa Claus.
Who is Thomas Nash?
1000
The first-century Jewish-Romano historian that recorded the Hanukkah story.
Who was Flavius Josephus?
1000
This studio created many classic stop-motion Christmas specials in the 1960s and ’70s, including: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, The Year Without a Santa Claus.
What is Rankin/Bass?
(Full name: Rankin/Bass Animated Entertainment)
1000
This hymn was written in French before being translated into English in 1855.
What is "O Holy Night"?
(The original poem was written in 1843 by Placide Cappeau, a French wine merchant and poet. The English translation was later created in 1855 by Unitarian minister John Sullivan Dwight, and gained significant popularity in the Northern states during the US Civil War.)
1000
While not the first to bring one to the White House, this US president lit the first National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse, beginning a public holiday tradition.
Who is Calvin Coolidge? (1923)
1000
The name for the famous mathematical sequence beginning: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21...
What is the Fibonacci Sequence?
