Christmas books range from Victorian ghosts to a green grump stealing roast beast, which is a healthy amount of literary chaos for one holiday. These 120 questions cover classic novellas, poems, children’s favorites, authors, characters, adaptations, and stories worth rereading by tree light.
A Christmas Carol, Scrooge & Dickens
Q: Who wrote A Christmas Carol?
A: Charles Dickens.
Q: In what year was A Christmas Carol first published?
A: 1843.
Q: What subtitle did Dickens give A Christmas Carol?
A: In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas.
Q: What is Ebenezer Scrooge’s business?
A: He is a London moneylender and businessman.
Q: Who was Scrooge’s deceased business partner?
A: Jacob Marley.
Q: How long has Marley been dead when the story begins?
A: Seven years.
Q: What object first takes on Marley’s face?
A: Scrooge’s door knocker.
Q: What does Marley’s ghost drag?
A: A heavy chain made from cash boxes, keys, padlocks, ledgers, and money purses.
Q: Why does Marley wear a chain?
A: He forged it through selfish choices during his life.
Q: How many Christmas spirits visit Scrooge after Marley?
A: Three.
Q: Which spirit visits Scrooge first?
A: The Ghost of Christmas Past.
Q: What light shines from the Ghost of Christmas Past?
A: A bright flame or ray from the top of its head.
Q: Where did young Scrooge spend a lonely Christmas?
A: At school while other students went home.
Q: Who comes to take young Scrooge home?
A: His sister Fan.
Q: What relationship does Fan have to Fred?
A: Fan is Fred’s mother and Scrooge’s younger sister.
Q: Who is Scrooge’s cheerful former employer?
A: Mr. Fezziwig.
Q: What does Fezziwig host on Christmas Eve?
A: A lively party for employees, family, and friends.
Q: Who ends her engagement to Scrooge?
A: Belle.
Q: Why does Belle leave Scrooge?
A: His devotion to money has replaced the love they once shared.
Q: Which spirit visits Scrooge second?
A: The Ghost of Christmas Present.
Q: What does the Ghost of Christmas Present hold?
A: A glowing torch shaped like a cornucopia.
Q: Where does Bob Cratchit work?
A: In Scrooge’s counting house.
Q: What is Bob Cratchit’s youngest child called?
A: Tiny Tim.
Q: What physical aid does Tiny Tim use?
A: A crutch and iron supports for his legs.
Q: What blessing is Tiny Tim famous for saying?
A: “God bless us, every one!”
Q: What two children hide beneath the Ghost of Christmas Present’s robe?
A: Ignorance and Want.
Q: Which spirit visits Scrooge last?
A: The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
Q: How does the final spirit communicate?
A: Silently, mainly by pointing.
Q: Whose death are businessmen casually discussing in the final visions?
A: Scrooge’s, though he does not understand immediately.
Q: What happens to Tiny Tim in the future shown to Scrooge?
A: He dies, leaving the Cratchit family in mourning.
Classic Christmas Poems, Tales & Victorian Stories
Q: What grave does the final spirit show Scrooge?
A: Ebenezer Scrooge’s neglected grave.
Q: What does Scrooge send to the Cratchit family on Christmas morning?
A: A prize turkey.
Q: Who receives a pay raise from the reformed Scrooge?
A: Bob Cratchit.
Q: What kind of uncle does Scrooge become to Tiny Tim?
A: A generous father figure who helps ensure the boy survives.
Q: Why did Dickens write A Christmas Carol quickly?
A: He wanted an affordable seasonal book that addressed poverty, childhood hardship, and social responsibility.
Q: What poem begins “’Twas the night before Christmas”?
A: A Visit from St. Nicholas.
Q: In what year was A Visit from St. Nicholas first published anonymously?
A: 1823.
Q: Who is traditionally credited with A Visit from St. Nicholas?
A: Clement Clarke Moore, although Henry Livingston Jr. has supporters in an authorship debate.
Q: Where were the stockings hung in the poem?
A: By the chimney with care.
Q: What were the children dreaming about?
A: Sugar plums.
Q: What wakes the narrator in A Visit from St. Nicholas?
A: A clatter on the lawn.
Q: What does St. Nicholas smoke in the poem?
A: A pipe.
Q: What circles his head like a wreath?
A: The smoke from his pipe.
Q: What are the original eight reindeer called in the poem?
A: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, and Blixem in early printings.
Q: How did Dunder and Blixem change in later popular versions?
A: They became Donner and Blitzen.
Q: Who wrote The Gift of the Magi?
A: O. Henry.
Q: What are the married protagonists in The Gift of the Magi named?
A: Della and Jim Young.
Q: What possession does Della sell?
A: Her long hair.
Q: What possession does Jim sell?
A: His gold watch.
Q: What gift does Della buy for Jim?
A: A platinum watch chain.
Q: What gift does Jim buy for Della?
A: Decorative combs for her hair.
Q: Why does the narrator compare Jim and Della with the Magi?
A: Their loving sacrifices make them wise gift-givers despite the gifts becoming temporarily unusable.
Q: Who wrote The Little Match Girl?
A: Hans Christian Andersen.
Q: What does the girl see in visions as she lights matches?
A: Warmth, food, a Christmas tree, and her beloved grandmother.
Q: What happens to the little match girl?
A: She dies from cold and is imagined joining her grandmother in heaven.
Q: Who wrote The Nutcracker and the Mouse King?
A: E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Q: In what year was The Nutcracker and the Mouse King published?
A: 1816.
Q: Who adapted Hoffmann’s story into a gentler French version?
A: Alexandre Dumas.
Q: Which adaptation helped shape the famous ballet’s plot?
A: Dumas’s The Story of a Nutcracker.
Q: Who wrote the Christmas chapter that opens Little Women?
A: Louisa May Alcott.
The Grinch, Polar Express & Children’s Christmas Books
Q: What breakfast do the March sisters give away on Christmas morning?
A: Their special breakfast, which they carry to the hungry Hummel family.
Q: What line opens Little Women?
A: “Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbles Jo.
Q: Who wrote Christmas at Thompson Hall?
A: Anthony Trollope.
Q: What comic problem drives Christmas at Thompson Hall?
A: A woman accidentally applies a mustard poultice to the wrong hotel guest.
Q: Which Victorian author regularly gave public readings of A Christmas Carol?
A: Charles Dickens, whose performances helped turn the story into a holiday institution.
Q: Who wrote How the Grinch Stole Christmas!?
A: Dr. Seuss, the pen name of Theodor Seuss Geisel.
Q: In what year was How the Grinch Stole Christmas! published?
A: 1957.
Q: Where does the Grinch live?
A: In a cave on Mount Crumpit above Whoville.
Q: What is the Grinch’s dog named?
A: Max.
Q: How many sizes does the Grinch’s heart grow?
A: Three.
Q: What does the Grinch carve at the Whos’ feast?
A: The roast beast.
Q: What lesson changes the Grinch?
A: Christmas continues without purchased gifts, decorations, or food.
Q: Who wrote The Polar Express?
A: Chris Van Allsburg.
Q: In what year was The Polar Express published?
A: 1985.
Q: What major award did The Polar Express win?
A: The 1986 Caldecott Medal.
Q: Where does the Polar Express take its young passengers?
A: The North Pole.
Q: What is selected as the first gift of Christmas?
A: A silver bell from Santa’s sleigh.
Q: Why does the boy lose the bell on Christmas Eve?
A: A hole in his robe pocket lets it fall out.
Q: Where does the bell reappear?
A: In a small box beneath the Christmas tree.
Q: Who can hear the bell at the end?
A: People who truly believe, including the narrator even as an adult.
Q: Who wrote The Snowman?
A: Raymond Briggs.
Q: What is unusual about the original Snowman picture book’s text?
A: It tells the story entirely through pictures without written narration or dialogue.
Q: What happens to the snowman at the book’s end?
A: He melts by morning.
Q: Who wrote The Best Christmas Pageant Ever?
A: Barbara Robinson.
Q: What family disrupts the church pageant?
A: The Herdman children.
Q: Who plays Mary in the chaotic pageant?
A: Imogene Herdman.
Q: What unexpectedly moves the congregation during the performance?
A: The Herdmans treat the Nativity as urgent and real rather than polished routine.
Q: Who wrote The Christmasaurus?
A: Tom Fletcher.
Q: What unusual creature does William Trundle meet?
A: A dinosaur living at the North Pole.
Q: Who wrote Olive, the Other Reindeer?
A: J. Otto Seibold and Vivian Walsh.
Modern Favorites, International Stories & Hard Book Trivia
Q: What animal is Olive?
A: A dog who mishears “all of the other reindeer” as “Olive, the other reindeer.”
Q: Who wrote The Jolly Christmas Postman?
A: Janet and Allan Ahlberg.
Q: What interactive feature appears throughout The Jolly Christmas Postman?
A: Envelopes hold removable letters, cards, and small paper surprises.
Q: Who wrote Bear Stays Up for Christmas?
A: Karma Wilson, illustrated by Jane Chapman.
Q: Why do Bear’s friends keep him awake?
A: They want him to experience Christmas instead of hibernating through it.
Q: Who wrote Letters from Father Christmas?
A: J. R. R. Tolkien.
Q: For whom did Tolkien originally write the Father Christmas letters?
A: His children.
Q: What mischievous character appears in Tolkien’s letters?
A: The North Polar Bear.
Q: What were Tolkien’s Father Christmas letters designed to look like?
A: Illustrated correspondence from the North Pole with distinctive handwriting and stamps.
Q: Who wrote A Child’s Christmas in Wales?
A: Dylan Thomas.
Q: What form does A Child’s Christmas in Wales take?
A: A lyrical prose recollection blending childhood memories into one snowy Christmas.
Q: Who wrote A Christmas Memory?
A: Truman Capote.
Q: What do Buddy and his elderly cousin make in A Christmas Memory?
A: Fruitcakes.
Q: What do the two friends fly on Christmas Day?
A: Kites.
Q: Who wrote The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus?
A: L. Frank Baum.
Q: What other fantasy series made L. Frank Baum famous?
A: The Oz books.
Q: Who raises Claus in Baum’s Santa origin story?
A: Wood nymphs in the magical Forest of Burzee.
Q: Who wrote The Tailor of Gloucester?
A: Beatrix Potter.
Q: What animals secretly finish the tailor’s work?
A: Mice.
Q: What message do the mice leave on an unfinished buttonhole?
A: “No more twist,” because they have run out of the necessary thread.
Q: Who wrote The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle?
A: Arthur Conan Doyle.
Q: Which detective investigates the Christmas goose mystery?
A: Sherlock Holmes.
Q: Where is the stolen blue gem hidden?
A: Inside a goose.
Q: Who wrote Hercule Poirot’s Christmas?
A: Agatha Christie.
Q: What genre is Hercule Poirot’s Christmas?
A: A country-house murder mystery set during a tense family gathering.
Q: Who wrote Skipping Christmas?
A: John Grisham.
Q: What movie was adapted from Skipping Christmas?
A: Christmas with the Kranks.
Q: Who wrote The Christmas Box?
A: Richard Paul Evans.
Q: What question sits at the emotional center of The Christmas Box?
A: What was the first gift of Christmas, answered through the idea of a parent’s love and the Nativity.
Q: Who wrote The Stupidest Angel?
A: Christopher Moore.
How Did You Score?
If you knew Fezziwig, the original Grinch ending, the first Polar Express gift, and Tolkien’s Father Christmas letters, your bookshelf deserves tinsel. I am rereading the ghost stories with every light in the house switched on.
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