Christmas Movie Trivia: 50 Questions and Answers in Five Rounds

How to Run a Christmas Movie Quiz

Christmas movies are the rare genre that almost everyone has watched on purpose, usually more than once. That makes them ideal for a mixed room: the grandparent who grew up with Frank Capra and the teenager who knows every line of Elf can both score. The trick is to ask about things that are actually on screen or on the record, not about box office totals or behind-the-scenes rumors that change with every retelling.

That is the rule behind this list. Plot questions come from the official studio synopsis or from the American Film Institute catalog summary. Cast and crew questions come from the studio page or from the Library of Congress description written when a film entered the National Film Registry. Awards questions come from the Academy's ceremony pages. If a detail could not be confirmed on one of those pages, it did not make the cut.

A few practical rules keep the game friendly:

• Play in teams of two to four, and mix generations at each table so the 1940s round is not a walkover.
• Read each question twice and allow about thirty seconds. Lock answers before moving on and do not allow revisions from later clues. Save explanatory notes until the quiz is complete.
• Accept surnames alone for actors and directors, and accept a local release title if a player knows the film by another name.
• Save Round 5 for last. Its numeric questions work as closest-answer tiebreakers.

Round 1: The 1940s Classics

The AFI catalog summaries support this round on two 1940s classics. Keep the answer sheet with the host until teams have responded.

1. Who directed It's a Wonderful Life (1946)? Answer: Frank Capra, who also produced it and shares the writing credit.
2. Which actor plays George Bailey? Answer: James Stewart, who earned a Best Actor nomination for the role.
3. What is the name of George Bailey's hometown? Answer: Bedford Falls, New York.
4. What does young George lose after pulling his brother Harry out of an icy pond? Answer: The hearing in one ear, after he catches a bad cold.
5. What is the name of the angel sent to help George on Christmas Eve? Answer: Clarence, spelled Clarence Oddbody in the AFI catalog summary.
6. What has Clarence not yet earned when he is sent to earth? Answer: His wings.
7. How much money does Uncle Billy misplace on the day before Christmas? Answer: $8,000, a bank deposit he loses track of after a run-in with Mr. Potter.
8. When George wishes he had never been born, what is Bedford Falls called instead? Answer: Pottersville.
9. At the end of the film, who says that every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings? Answer: Zuzu.
10. In Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which event is Doris Walker organizing when she meets Kris Kringle? Answer: The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
11. Why does Doris hire Kris to play Santa at the parade? Answer: The man booked to play Santa is drunk, and Kris points it out.
12. What convinces young Susan that Kris might be the real Santa? Answer: She sees him speak Dutch to a Dutch orphan.

If the table wants a round on films outside the holiday, our movie trivia questions in six rounds cover classics, animation, directors and famous quotes.

Round 2: Family Favorites From the 80s to the 2000s

This round belongs to the generation that grew up on VHS and cable reruns. Every plot answer below is drawn from the synopsis on the studio's own title page, and the Home Alone credits come from the Library of Congress registry announcement.

1. In Gremlins (1984), what is the name of the snowy small town the creatures take over? Answer: Kingston Falls.
2. Where does the father find the Mogwai he brings home as a gift for his son? Answer: In Chinatown.
3. Name the three rules for caring for a Mogwai. Answer: Keep it away from water, keep it away from bright light, and never feed it after midnight. Give half a point for two.
4. In A Christmas Story (1983), what does Ralphie want more than anything else? Answer: A Red Ryder air rifle, described by the studio as a Red Ryder Carbine Action Air Rifle.
5. How old is Ralphie? Answer: Nine.
6. What is the family surname in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989)? Answer: Griswold, led by the accident-prone Clark.
7. How many earlier Vacation films had Clark already dragged his family through? Answer: Two. This time he decides to stay home.
8. Who wrote the script for Home Alone (1990)? Answer: John Hughes.
9. Who directed Home Alone? Answer: Chris Columbus.
10. Which young actor became a star playing the boy left behind? Answer: Macaulay Culkin.
11. In The Santa Clause (1994), starring Tim Allen, what is the name of the divorced father who turns into Santa? Answer: Scott Calvin. His son is Charlie.
12. In Elf (2003), how does a baby end up at the North Pole? Answer: He crawls into Santa's bag of toys on Christmas Eve.
13. Grown-up Buddy is how many times larger than the biggest elf? Answer: Three times.
14. Which actor plays Buddy's workaholic father, who is on Santa's naughty list? Answer: James Caan. Will Ferrell plays Buddy and Mary Steenburgen plays his new mother.

Round 3: Animated and Stop-Motion Christmas

Animation gives younger players a real shot, and several of these films sit between two holidays. Answers come from the Disney, Warner Bros. and Illumination title pages, the Library of Congress and the Academy.

1. In The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Jack Skellington is king of which town? Answer: Halloween Town. Disney's synopsis also calls him the Pumpkin King.
2. Who directed The Nightmare Before Christmas? Answer: Henry Selick. Tim Burton conceived and produced it.
3. Who wrote the film's songs? Answer: Danny Elfman.
4. What animation technique does the film use? Answer: Stop-motion.
5. In The Polar Express (2004), what is the only gift the boy asks Santa for? Answer: A bell from the harness of Santa's reindeer.
6. On Christmas morning, who can hear the bell ring? Answer: Only a true believer. His mother thinks it is broken.
7. The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) retells whose classic tale? Answer: Charles Dickens.
8. Who directed The Muppet Christmas Carol? Answer: Brian Henson.
9. Which actor provides the original English voice of the title character in Illumination's Dr. Seuss' The Grinch (2018)? Answer: Benedict Cumberbatch.
10. Which Oscar category was Klaus (2019) nominated in? Answer: Animated Feature Film. It lost to Toy Story 4 at the 2020 ceremony.

Round 4: The Oscars Round

The Academy's ceremony pages are dated by the year of the ceremony, not the year of release, so a 1946 film appears at the 1947 ceremony. Read the ceremony year aloud with each question so nobody is penalized for that quirk.

1. Edmund Gwenn won an Oscar for playing Kris Kringle. In which category? Answer: Actor in a Supporting Role, at the 1948 ceremony.
2. How many Oscars did Miracle on 34th Street win? Answer: Three: Supporting Actor for Edmund Gwenn, Motion Picture Story for Valentine Davies and Screenplay for George Seaton. It was also nominated for Best Picture.
3. It's a Wonderful Life received five Oscar nominations at the 1947 ceremony. How many did it win? Answer: None.
4. Which film won Best Picture that year instead? Answer: The Best Years of Our Lives.
5. Home Alone earned two music nominations. Name the original song. Answer: "Somewhere in My Memory".
6. Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) won one Oscar. In which category? Answer: Makeup, for Rick Baker and Gail Ryan.
7. Which song from The Polar Express was nominated for Best Original Song? Answer: "Believe," by Glen Ballard and Alan Silvestri.
8. How many Oscar nominations did The Polar Express receive in total? Answer: Three: Original Song, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.

Round 5: Crossovers and Tiebreakers

The first three questions are regular scoring questions. Reserve the final three for tied teams: two ask for numbers and the last asks for a date. Keep their answers hidden until every tied team has submitted a guess.

1. Which actress appears in the cast of Home Alone and in the voice cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas? Answer: Catherine O'Hara.
2. Which composer earned both of Home Alone's Oscar nominations? Answer: John Williams, for the original score and, with Leslie Bricusse, the song.
3. Which Christmas film is number one on AFI's 100 Years...100 Cheers list of inspiring American movies? Answer: It's a Wonderful Life.
4. Tiebreaker: at what number does Miracle on 34th Street appear on that same AFI list? Answer: 9.
5. Tiebreaker: Home Alone and The Nightmare Before Christmas were both added to the National Film Registry in the 2023 selection. How many films did the registry hold after that announcement? Answer: 875.
6. Tiebreaker: what release date does Disney list for The Nightmare Before Christmas? Answer: October 13, 1993. Compare the absolute difference in calendar days.

Scoring, Viewing Order and Fair Play

Use 45–60 minutes as a planning estimate, adjusting for the group and discussion. If a film is part of the evening, decide whether it comes before or after the quiz: watching scenes between rounds can reveal answers. Keep the final three questions reserved for ties.

Score the first 47 questions at one point each, allowing half a point for two of the three Mogwai rules. Reserve the final three questions for tied teams, outside the 47-point total. For a numeric tiebreaker, the smallest absolute difference wins; for the date, compare calendar days. If teams remain equally close, use the next reserved question or accept a shared result. A player who names a film by its local release title should get full credit, since many of these movies were released under different names around the world. If a team disputes an answer, check the reference list at the end of this page rather than a random search result, because fan wikis and quote sites often disagree on spellings and dates.

Movie trivia pairs well with a second activity that does not need a screen. Our guide to Christmas gift exchange games covers swap formats with fair rules for groups of different sizes, so the quiz can lead straight into the presents.

Finally, keep phones face down during questions. The fun of a Christmas movie quiz is the half-remembered scene and the argument over who played whom. The sources exist for the host, not for the teams.