O Christmas True or Christmas False Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. On Band Aid's song "Do They Know It's Christmas" the opening words "It's Christmas time..." were sung by David Bowie.

Answer: False

Bowie does sing on that record but Paul Young had the honour of going first.

2. Reindeer lose their antlers every year.

Answer: True

Annoyingly for people showing off their reindeer to tourists at Christmas, male reindeer usually lose their antlers shortly before the Christmas period. Females tend to lose theirs in the New Year. Reindeer or Caribou are the only animals where both males and females grow antlers.

3. The modern English words to the advent carol "O Come Emmanuel" were written by a man with the surname Death.

Answer: False

That version was in fact written by a Mr Henry Sloane Coffin, based on a much earlier medieval one.

4. An old Russian equivalent of Father Christmas is called Ded Moroz.

Answer: True

And yes, he is pronounced "Dead Morose". The character's name means Grandfather Frost and he is, in fact a rather jolly bearded character, but without the red fur-trimmed outfit.

5. Oliver Cromwell deployed his army to conduct house to house searches for illicit Christmas dinners.

Answer: True

Oliver Cromwell was the 17th century puritanical Lord Protector of England after the English Civil War. When Oliver banned the pagan aspects of Christmas he meant it!

6. The man who wrote "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is the same man who wrote "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree".

Answer: True

Johnny Marks wrote the former in 1949 and the latter in 1958.

7. In 2000 the USA ate more turkey per head than any other country in the world.

Answer: False

The Israelis chomped through enough turkey that year to give an average of 22 pounds for every man, woman and child. The Americans came a poor second with 17.2 pounds per head followed by the French, Germans, Italians and British.

8. If the song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas" is taken literally, there are enough presents given for every day of the year (except for leap years).

Answer: False

Not quite. If you add up the 12 x 1 partridges, 11 x 2 turtle doves, 10 x 3 French hens and so on you end up with a total of 364 gifts. Just one short.
"The Twelve Days of Christmas" is based on a French song about the 12 months of the year. Nobody is quite sure why the old French word for partridge, that is "pertris", is rendered in the English version as the similar sounding "pear tree".

9. Ukka is the Finnish name for its traditional Christmas sauna.

Answer: False

Ukka is actually the goat that Santa rides on in the tradition of a few countries including Finland and the Netherlands.

10. The "Odessa File", featuring the song "Christmas Dream", was scored by Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

Answer: True

This was following his successes with the "Joseph" and "Jesus" musicals.

11. There is a man whose job includes checking the roof of the Met Office in London on every hour of Christmas Day for signs of snowflakes.

Answer: False

The Met Office is the main weather-forecasting organisation in the UK. With the big bets put on the occurrence or otherwise of a "white Christmas" in London, this monitoring is done, but a number of Met Office workers take shifts.
Christmas Day actually falls in the middle of a warm spell in London and there were only 10 White Christmases there between 1900 and 2000.

12. Holly usually has its male and female branches on the same tree.

Answer: False

That would be true of most plants but holly (scientific name Ilex) is usually dioecious (pr. di-ee-shus) meaning that individual trees are either male or female.
Note that on a holly tree the leaves are generally less prickly the higher up the tree you go.

13. Margaret Thatcher was once enraged to hear the tune of the socialist anthem "The Red Flag" playing from her family Christmas tree.

Answer: True

Of course, "The Red Flag" has the same tune as "O Christmas Tree".

14. Silver fulminate, the explosive found in Christmas crackers, is highly dangerous in larger quantities.

Answer: True

Unfortunately, a number of people have ended up with faces full of shrapnel trying to make this substance that is also found in explosive toy caps. If you see any recipe for making this stuff DON'T try it.

15. Shakespeare never mentions the word "Christmas" in his plays.

Answer: False

He mentions it surprisingly little but he does mention it more than once, the most famous example being in "Love's Labour's Lost" where he says "At Christmas I no more desire a rose, than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows". Marcellus in Hamlet does refer to the day of "our Saviour's birth".

16. George Washington captured Trenton in the War of Independence by attacking on Christmas Day when many of the enemy had been boozing heavily.

Answer: False

He didn't actually finish crossing the Delaware river until the morning of Boxing Day, but had obtained the surrender by 9am.

17. The Tate Gallery, London once suspended a 22ft Christmas Tree upside down as a work of art.

Answer: True

Those who know the Tate Gallery will not be surprised by this 1993 work. The Tate Gallery often hires artists for its Christmas Tree exhibit such as the recent one which had videos of rats nibbling mince pies at the base.

18. In the Roman Catholic Church, New Year's Day is the Feast of the Circumcision.

Answer: True

It mentions in Luke ii 21 that Christ was circumcised "on the eighth day".

19. Poet Dylan Thomas was once hospitalised when a Christmas pudding exploded.

Answer: False

Sorry, I made this up. Although if it was up to the notorious tippler to add the alcohol to the pudding, I suppose it could have happened.

20. In 1997, Manchester Airport's security machines were found to be unable to tell Christmas puddings from Semtex.

Answer: True

Thanks for entering the spirit and having a go (I'm hoping that having a go didn't make you need to enter the spirit!). If it is the season, then Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You can go away now and make easier decisions like what to buy people...

Source: Author Gmackematix

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor minch before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

If you are trying this in the season of goodwill, bring the family round and for each statement below decide if it is true or false. Try not to argue too much!

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