Test yourself! Take this Christmas Quiz | Seasonal

Answer: The Settlement

Christmas Island was named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company when he discovered it on Christmas Day 1643. Christmas Island is located in the Indian Ocean, and although it is an Australian Territory, its closest neighbour is Java, 360km away. Murray Hill and Smith Point are both landmarks on the island, Paro is on Easter Island.

Answer: True

Saint Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in Lycia (now modern day Turkey); he is sometimes incorrectly called the bishop of Bari, as this is where his relics are stored.

Answer: Irving Berlin

"White Christmas" was sung by Bing Crosby. The film starred Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye and Rosemary Clooney

Answer: 1647

The Puritan English Parliament ignored the celebration of Christmas from 1643 and in 1647 officially abolished Christmas; it was not until the Restoration in 1660 that Christmas became celebrated again.

Answer: Montgomery-Ward

Robert May, a copywriter for the Chicago-based Montgomery Ward company (operators of a chain of department stores) created the story of Rudolph in 1939 as a booklet to be given away as a promotional item to its shoppers.

Answer: Cornish

Welsh is "Nadolic Llawen. Blwyddn Newdd Dda", Manx Gaelic is "Nollick ghennal as blein vie noa", and Scottish Gaelic is "Nollaig Chridheil agus Bliadhna Mhath Ur"

Answer: I Want To Hold Your Hand

"I Want To Hold Your Hand" - 1963, "I Feel Fine" - 1964, "Day Tripper" - 1965, "Hello Goodbye" - 1967.

Answer: Greek

The X in Xmas originates from the symbol X in the Greek alphabet, called Chi, which is pronounced with a hard ch (like the K in the Latin alphabet used by many Western languages). The Greek Chi or X is the first letter in the Greek word Christos (Christ).

Answer: London

Every year since 1947 the people of Oslo, Norway, have provided the Christmas tree that is situated in Trafalgar Square in London as a token of gratitude for Britain's support of Norway during World War II. The tree is a Norwegian Spruce and is normally about 23 metres high.

Answer: Pope Julius I

There are many potential origins for the choice of December 25, however, one of the most plausible is that Pope Julius I decided on December 25th in the 4th century A.D. with the intention of replacing the pagan rituals of winter solstice with a Christian celebration.

Answer: True

This tradition comes from the Ukraine and is supposedly based on a poor woman who did not have any decorations to put on the Christmas tree for her children. She went to bed on Christmas Eve and when she went to start the fire in the morning she found the Christmas tree sparkling with silver. Spiders had spun webs on the tree during the night and when the sun shone on them they sparkled silver.

Answer: Birch Bark

Santa Claus receives many hundreds of thousands of letters every year at the main Santa Claus Post Office, located on the Arctic Circle in Lapland, near the city of Rovaniemi. Some of the most unusual, such as the one written on birch bark, are displayed in the post office.

Answer: 1843

The first commercial Christmas and New Year's card is believed to have been designed and printed in London, England in 1843 by John Callcott Horsley who designed it at the request of his friend Sir Henry Cole. 1,000 cards were printed and sold in London for 1 shilling each.

Answer: Mistletoe

Mistletoe is a parasitic evergreen plant that generally grows on deciduous trees. It has tough green leaves and has sticky white berries that appear in the autumn / winter.

Answer: 3

The largest Christmas pudding weighed 3.28 tons and was made in the Lancashire village of Aughton in the UK as part of the Aughton Pudding Festival in July 1992.

Answer: 250 Million

As part of a three year joint project between Moet & Chandon and Heineken, a camera-based computer-linked "artificial vision" system was used to record the release of bubbles and count them. The project established that there are on average 250 million bubbles in a standard bottle of champagne.

Answer: Tom Smith

The Christmas cracker was invented in 1847 by London confectioner Tom Smith. James Gosling invented the Java programming language, Martin Cooper invented the mobile phone, and Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel internal combustion engine.

Answer: 8

The poem, "A Visit from Saint Nicholas" (later renamed "'Twas the Night Before Christmas"), was written my Moore in 1822 for his six children and featured eight reindeer called Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Dancer, Dasher, Donner, Prancer, and Vixen.

Answer: Bohemia

Wenceslas was a ruler but wasn't actually a king, but instead was the duke of Bohemia in the tenth century.

Answer: Jacob Marley

Charles Dickens took just two months to write "A Christmas Carol", and was first published in December 1843. The story centres around the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge who was visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and then haunted by the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future, in an attempt to persuade Scrooge to change his miserly ways.