Christmas Trivia Quizzes: Why a Christmas Quiz is so Popular

Many pubs and clubs organize a Christmas quiz at this time of year, and Christmas trivia quizzes appear to be very popular with church groups and many other types of clubs and associations. Why is this, and how do you take advantage of this and run your own quiz at Christmas.

Here are some tips on setting a great Christmas quiz that everybody will enjoy. A fabulous quiz might not help a great deal this year, but it will next year when the word gets out about your great and entertaining Christmas trivia quizzes. I shall split this up into organization, the questions themselves and advertising, because all three of these factors are involved in a good quiz.

Organization of Your Christmas Quiz

A Christmas trivia quiz is no different to any other when discussing organization. Most of these quizzes are held in pubs and bars between Christmas and New Year, and this is an ideal time to set a Christmas quiz and New Year quiz combined into one. Heer are a few tips on how to organize any kind of quiz:

a) Make sure that there enough seats available for your expected participants. Tables should preferably be separated to prevent cheating, but if you expect a lot of people you will have to make best use of the space you have and trust to honesty.

b) Provide paper for the answers – you can draw up an answer sheet specifically for your quiz using software such as Excel, and photocopy sufficient copies for your expected number of teams. You could provide pens if possible, but if not then at least have some pens available for those that didn’t realize they need pens to write their answers with!

c) Set the rules regarding numbers per team. The quizzes I have run have had a maximum of 4 to 6 team members, and in a few cases no maximum at all. It would be sensible for you to insist that large teams of 7 or more should split into two teams, but its easiest if you advertise maximum team size on your posters.

d) State the rules before the start: No visiting the toilet during rounds with a cell phone, no peeking at other teams’ answers (deduct 5 points), you are ALWAYS right with your answers (even if you are not): Deduct points from any team arguing.

e) Time limits for questions are difficult to enforce, so give half a minute or so depending on the question. Once everybody seems to have answered it carry on to the next. If some teams are taking longer than you would like on a question tell them they can fill in the answer if they remember it later and carry on with the quiz.

f) When marking a Christmas quiz it is easiest if each team passes their paper round to the team next to them in a clockwise direction – or to the team nearest them. It would take too long for you to mark all the answers personally.

g) I should have made this one of the first tips: Make sure that each competitor knows what the prizes are. Maybe the bar can put up a bottle of wine, but it’s generally better if the winning team gets a free drink or two each, or something that can be shared. Also provide a booby prize such as some biscuits or chocolates.

I set quizzes regularly in one pub that provides four prizes – a bottle of spirits, a bottle of good wine, a free drink for each member of the team, and a box of wrapped chocolates that they can share between them. Winners, 2nd and 3rd get their choice in that order, and the team coming last gets the prize left. By doing that the poorer teams also have a positive interest in the quiz, and they will be more likely to come back for your next quiz (maybe on St. Valentines day).

Christmas Trivia Quiz Questions

Your Christmas quiz questions or answers should all have a connection with Christmas, and each round should be different. The Christmas quizzes I compile are structured like that and an example would be:

One round on Christmas trivia, where either the question or the answer has a Christmas connection, for example which actress received an Oscar for her performance as best actress in ‘The Piano’. The answer is Holly Hunter, with holly being the connection.

Christmas music is a good round: questions on Christmas No 1 hits, or with a seasonal connection in the title. Another could be Christmas movies or TV shows – You can likely think of a lot more types of questions you can ask with a Christmas theme. Nor do they all to have a Christmas connection: you could use questions that have a seasonal connection such as New Year or just winter: winter, or Christmas and New Year. Another idea is what I refer to as a 50/50 round: yes or no, true or false, or choose between two answers.

You should always come with extra questions that can be used for a tie break or just to add into the quiz. I usually include 10 extra questions that can be used in place of regular questions in the quiz or as tie breaks.

Advertising Your Christmas Quiz

There’s no point in running a Christmas quiz that nobody knows about. There are many ways in which you can advertise:

a) Inside the premises – pub, club or wherever it is to be held.

b) Design posters and put them in places where people congregate – fitness centers, sports clubs,church halls and anywhere else that would appropriate for your area.

c) Advertise in the local press or even local radio: if your quiz is for charity they may offer you a slot free.

d) Word of mouth – tell the public about your amazing Christmas quiz and what’s in it for them apart from the fun of answering the questions.

e) Ask for donations for prizes in return for the business or individual getting their name printed on the poster. You might just get a surprise at what they donate. You can make changes to the posters to include the prizes and make it even more tempting to the public.

You will likely have ideas of your own, but I do it that way and it usually works very well.