Test Your Holiday Song Knowledge!
As you gather with family and friends this holiday season, have fun with our annual holiday quiz. This year’s edition focuses on popular holiday songs. Get one point for each correct answer, except as noted. Good luck and good cheers!
Want some more fun? Have the songs ready to play and start them as you ask the question.
Name the movie that introduced the song White Christmas.
Bonus – Who sang it? (2 points)Double Bonus – In what year? (2 points)Link to song
- Holiday Inn. If you guessed the classic holiday movie White Christmas…good guess. The song was so popular it became the name of a second hit movie! The song White Christmas was actually introduced in the movie Holiday Inn, and sung by an up-and-coming singer named Bing Crosby, and written by Irving Berlin. The movie was released in 1942.
Who sings the popular version of Blue Christmas?
[Hint: Play Doye O’Dell’s version of the song, while asking this question.] Link to song
- Elvis Presley. Most will remember this popular song as Elvis Presley’s most famous Christmas recording, but it was initially recorded almost 10 years earlier by country music singer Doye O’Dell in 1948.
How old was the singer of the original hit Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree?
Give yourself a point if you can get within 2 years. Link to song
- The singer is Brenda Lee who was 13 years old. An interesting fact: The song was written by Johnny Marks, who was Jewish and did not celebrate Christmas.
Name three songs that have reindeer in them.
(One point for each answer up to 3 points)[Suggestion: Play Gene Autry’s Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer during this question.] Link to song
- Here are seven, but there are definitely more!
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
The Night Before Christmas
Little Saint Nick
Up on the Housetop
Run Rudolph Run
The Christmas Song
The song Jingle Bells began its life under a different name with different lyrics. Name the original tune.
Bonus – Name the artists who sing the most popular recording of this tune. Link to song
- One Horse Open Sleigh. The song, written by James Lord Peirpoint in 1850, was originally purported to be written around Thanksgiving for his father’s Sunday School class. It was so popular, it received new lyrics and was used again during Christmas. It turns out some of the original lyrics were considered too suggestive to sing…but that’s another story.
Bonus – The artists on the most popular recording of this tune are Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters. - Not all the classics come from bygone years. Mariah Carey added her own holiday music classic in 1994. What is the name of the song?
Link to song - All I Want for Christmas is You. In 2017, The Economist reported that Carey has earned over $60 million in royalties from that song in the United States alone!
- Who recorded the best-selling Christmas album of all time? Which is second place?
- According to Billboard, the most popular Christmas album of all time belongs to Elvis Presley: Elvis’s Christmas Album. (Link to album)
Second place goes to Kenny G’s Miracles: The Holiday Album, which has sold over 7.3 million albums. (Link to album)
Total possible points: 17 points
14 or more points: You are a holiday genius! You must be in a musical group.
9 to 13 points: It’s in you, just bring it out!
4 to 8 points: Take heart. Even the Grinch needed to start someplace.
0 to 3 points: Pay attention and stop eating the cookies!
Disclaimer: All songs mentioned here are to be used solely as part of this quiz for personal use. All songs mentioned here are the rights of their respective copyright holders. No ownership rights or other rights are intended or implied. If you love the songs, please support the respective artists and their respective owners.