Christmas Song Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A recording opens with chestnuts roasting on an open fire. What is the song’s formal title?
A Holly Jolly Christmas
Home for the Holidays
The Christmas Song
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
2. Which group originally released “Last Christmas” in 1984?
Duran Duran
Culture Club
Spandau Ballet
Wham!
3. Which two languages are used in José Feliciano’s “Feliz Navidad”?
Spanish and Portuguese
English and French
English and Italian
Spanish and English
4. Guests demand a particular dessert and refuse to leave until they get some. Which song is being referenced?
Deck the Hall
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
I Saw Three Ships
Here We Come A-Wassailing
5. Which statement correctly compares the origins of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the famous song about him?
The song appeared first, and the character was created for a later film.
The character debuted in a 1939 promotional booklet before the song was released.
The character and song both debuted in the same 1949 radio broadcast.
The character first appeared in a nineteenth-century Christmas poem.
6. You hear a song mention riding in a “one-horse open sleigh.” Which title should you identify?
Sleigh Ride
Winter Wonderland
Jingle Bells
Over the River and Through the Wood
7. Which place completes the title “O Little Town of ___”?
Nazareth
Jerusalem
Bethlehem
Galilee
8. If every gift in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” is repeated on each remaining day, how many gifts are given altogether?
78
144
312
364
9. A musician plays the traditional melody known as “Greensleeves.” Which Christmas carol can be sung to that tune?
What Child Is This?
Away in a Manger
The First Noel
Angels We Have Heard on High
10. The melody used for “Carol of the Bells” comes from which Ukrainian song?
Shchedryk
Kalinka
Carol of the Drum
O Tannenbaum
11. In “The Little Drummer Boy,” what instrument is represented by the repeated “pa rum pum pum pum” refrain?
Drum
Trumpet
Bell
Tambourine
12. Which selection is a secular winter song rather than a carol centered on the Nativity?
O Come, All Ye Faithful
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
Silent Night
Winter Wonderland
13. A carol includes the phrase “tidings of comfort and joy.” Which carol is it?
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
O Come, All Ye Faithful
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
Good King Wenceslas
14. In which language was “Silent Night” originally written?
Latin
German
English
French
15. Which two performers are heard on the best-known recording of “Fairytale of New York”?
The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
Bono and Sinéad O’Connor
Elton John and Kiki Dee
Chris Rea and Kate Bush
16. Who wrote “White Christmas”?
Johnny Marks
Irving Berlin
Mel Tormé
Leroy Anderson