Winter Around the World
Winter Literature or Mythology
Winter Animals
Winter Sports
General Arctic
100
This Scandinavian country celebrates Saint Lucia’s Day with candle-crowned processions.
What is Sweden?
100
Hans Christian Andersen’s story “The Snow Queen” inspired this modern Disney film.
What is Frozen?
100
This cold-water mammal uses blubber to stay warm and is famous for sliding on its belly.
What is a seal?
100
This sport involves sliding stones on ice toward a target called a “house.”
What is curling?
100
This land-dwelling carnivore — the largest of its kind in the Arctic — is known for its keen sense of smell and solitary hunting.
What is the polar bear?
200
This Russian winter festival includes ice palaces and icy sculptures on the Neva River.
What is the Saint Petersburg Winter Festival?
200
This C.S. Lewis villain keeps Narnia in “always winter, but never Christmas.”
Who is the White Witch?
200
This Arctic bird turns completely white in winter to camouflage in the snow.
What is the ptarmigan?
200
Athletes ski, then pause to shoot rifles in this precision-based winter sport.
What is the biathlon?
200
This large island, home to the Kalaallit people, is the world’s biggest island and is mostly covered by an ice sheet.
What is Greenland?
300
For a standard car or small truck, experts recommend waiting until ice reaches at least this many inches thick before driving on it.
What is 8–12 inches
300
This frost-covered character leaves icy patterns on windows in old European folklore.
Who is Jack Frost?
300
This weasel-like creature turns white in winter and is also called a “short-tailed weasel.”
What is an ermine?
300
This Olympic event involves racing down an icy track feet first at high speeds on a small, flat sled.
What is luge?
300
This large Arctic archipelago in Canada includes Baffin, Ellesmere, and Victoria Islands.
What is the Canadian Arctic Archipelago?
400
This region of Japan is famous for its “snow monsters,” trees covered in heavy rime ice.
What is Yamagata?
(Or “Zao,” the mountain area)
400
This Robert Frost poem describes stopping in a quiet woodland “on a snowy evening.”
What is ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’?
400
This massive bovine, found in Alaska and Canada, has a shaggy coat and emits a strong odor.
What is a musk ox?
400
This sport involves sail-powered crafts mounted on blades that fly across frozen lakes at high speeds
What is Ice Sailing
400
This term refers to the permanently frozen layer of soil, sediment, and rock in the Arctic that can thaw due to warming — potentially releasing methane.
What is permafrost?
500
What is the nickname for this bright fleeting light phenomenon?
What is a Snow Dog
500
This ancient Norse giantess is associated with winter, snow, and mountains — and marries the god Njord.
Who is Skaði (Skadi)?
500
This tiny rodent, known for “boom-and-bust” population cycles, remains active under the snow in tunnels called the subnivean zone.
What is a lemming?
500
This sport, similar to hockey but played with a ball instead of a puck, is most popular in Scandinavia.
What is bandy?
500
These migratory seabirds famously travel thousands of miles between polar regions, making the longest migration of any bird species.
What are Arctic terns?