In which year were electric lights first used to decorate Christmas trees?
Round 3: Christmas Traditions
- What innovation of 1843 became a standard feature of Christmas?
- Which plant used in Christmas decorations was sacred to Druids?
- Which modern Christmas tradition was borrowed from the Moravian Church?
- Who introduced the idea of the decorated Christmas tree to Great Britain?
- Which Christmas pantomime features Widow Twankey?
- What is the name of the little boy left behind at Christmas in
Home Alone
?
- Which plant widely used as a Christmas decoration has the Latin name
ilex aquifolium
?
- Which British monarch made the first royal Christmas broadcast?
- What Christmas essential was introduced by Tom Smith in 1847?
- By what name is the large place of wood traditionally burnt in the hearth at Christmas known?
Round 4: Pot Luck
- In the poem by A. A. Milne, what was it that King John wanted for Christmas?
- Which of the following is not the name of one of Father Christmas’s reindeer – Blitzen, Lancer or Comet?
- What is the name of the town that is the setting for
It’s a Wonderful Life
?
- Which plant with red and green foliage makes a popular Christmas gift?
1
- If you were given frumenty at Christmas, would you drink it, eat it or spray it on yourself?
- Who wrote
The Father Christmas Letters
?
- Where does Father Christmas live?
- What did Harry Potter receive for his first Christmas at Hogwarts?
- Which New York department store features prominently in the film
Miracle on 34th Street
?
- In
A Christmas Carol
, who is Tiny Tim’s father?
Jackpot
For which popular Christmas poem is Clement Clarke Moore remembered?
1.
According to Mexican legend, a penniless child who had nothing else to bring to church on Christmas Eve uprooted a handful of weeds and took them instead: once inside the church the humble weeds miraculously bloomed into magnificent red and green
flowers
.
Answers
Quiz 1 answers
Round 1
- The Nile.
- The maple leaf.
- A murder.
- Splatt (which is in Devon in the UK).
- Not in my back yard.
- Chesterfield.
- Better on lips than on paper.
- Sunderland.
- A massive tree, otherwise known as the giant redwood.
- A cappuccino.
Round 2
- Charlotte, Emily and Anne.
- Raymond Chandler.
- Pelham Grenville.
- The Three Musketeers.
- Chingachgook.
- King Solomon’s Mines
(1885) by H. Rider Haggard.
- Frances Eliza Hodgson Burnett.
- Sir Percy Blakeney.
- Captain Ahab.
- Ian Fleming.
Half-time teaser
72.
Round 3
- Eddie.
- False (but he did have one called Elvis).
- Sir Isaac Newton.
- 1930.
- An ostrich (Theodore Roosevelt had a hyena, while John Quincy Adams had an alligator).
- Long John Silver.
- China (possibly as early as the fourth century
AD
).
- A jill.
- His pet rat.
- True.
Round 4
- Greenland.
- Bats.
- An ice-pick.
- Charles Barry.
- The Blarney Stone.
- Half a crown (two shillings and sixpence).
- The rowan.
- Rhythm.
- Special Weapons and Tactics.
- Brian.
Jackpot
A prison.
Quiz 2 answers
Round 1
- The blue whale.
- The Renaissance.
- The Slovak Republic (or Slovakia).
- With its stare.
- Children’s Laureate.
- Pitcairn Island.
- Manchester.
- A carnivorous marsupial.
- Antonín Dvořák.
- Destiny’s Child.
Round 2
- Cochineal.
- The butterfly effect.
- Honey bees.
- The Goliath beetle.
- The daddy-longlegs (or cranefly).
- Potatoes.
- A spider.
- Five.
- Giacomo Puccini.
- Alexander Pope.
Half-time teaser
23.
Round 3
- The London Eye.
- Tower Bridge.
- Mayfair.
- Admiralty Arch.
- Billingsgate Market.
- Charing Cross.
- Fulham.
- Marylebone Road.
- The Palace of Westminster (the Houses of Parliament).
- Highgate Hill.
Round 4
- The Enigma code.
- Kingsley Amis.
- Paris.
- Dawson’s Creek
.
- The bicycle shot.
- To cool your porridge.
- Lord Louis Mountbatten.
- Todd Woodbridge.
- Brotherhood of Man.
- Eminem.
Jackpot
Richard Krajicek.
Quiz 3 answers
Round 1
- Bart Simpson.
- Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
- The English Civil War.
- The Winter’s Tale
.
- St Jude.
- EastEnders
.
- A shark.
- A dozen.
- The Caspian Sea.
- The Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Round 2
- Albert.
- Leo Sayer.
- Fidelio
.
- Radio Caroline.
- Cliff Richard.
- In a plane crash in 1967.
- All Saints.
- Empty orchestra.
- Arthur Sullivan.
- Peter Maxwell Davies.
Half-time teaser
4,500 miles.
Round 3
- Barbara Cartland.
- Everton.
- Detroit.
- Bill Clinton.
- ‘Chemical Ali’.
- Margaret Thatcher (abbreviation of ‘there is no alternative’).
- ‘The Thunderer’.
- Robert Maxwell.
- Jane Fonda.
- Doctor Harold Shipman.
Round 4
- 950.
- Lyon.
- Symphony No. 6.
- The Cider House Rules
.
- Berkeley Castle.
- From the oven.
- Narcissus.
- Virginia.
- Copper.
- William Randolph Hearst.
Jackpot
A parabola.
Quiz 4 answers
Round 1
- They were cousins.
- 12 August.
- 14.
- The Windmill Theatre.
- Under the Arc de Triomphe.
- Alan Garner.
- Loki.
- The abominable snowman.
- The Black Eyed Peas.
- Green.
Round 2
- Mont Blanc.
- Mexico.
- Dartmoor.
- The Grampians.
- The Matterhorn.
- The Golan Heights.
- Kinder Scout.
- Switzerland and Italy.
- The Carpathians.
- Nepal.
Half-time teaser
12 seconds.
Round 3
- Doctor Foster.
- He ran away.
- Under a haystack, fast asleep.
- Lucy Locket.
- Lean.
- Little Tommy Stout.
- Wednesday.
- The sparrow.
- ‘Ring a ring o’ roses’.
- School.
Round 4
- The D-Day landings.
- Frank Sinatra (in the single ‘My Way’).
- Sweden.
- An ant.
- Dr Aziz.
- Nostradamus.
- Terry Pratchett.
- The British film industry.
- The Penguin.
- The US Civil War.
Jackpot
In the prison.
Quiz 5 answers
Round 1
- George Mallory.
- Germany’s.
- They kept the lights on throughout the show.
- A ghost.
- The Rosetta Stone.
- Kate Bush.
- King John.
- Jack Straw (then British foreign secretary).
- M15.
- The Scream
.
Round 2
- Reading.
- He ran barefoot.
- Bobby Riggs (1939).
- Rowing (or skulling).
- Mike Tyson.
- Drag-racing (referring to the parachute deployed to reduce speed).
- 88.
- Lewis Hamilton.
- Zara Phillips.
- Gold.
Half-time Teaser
Eight minutes and 20 seconds.
Round 3
- Charles I.
- George I.
- Mary, Queen of Scots.
- The Black Prince.
- The name Mary.
- Twice.
- Richard III.
- Alexandrina.
- Louis XIV of France.
- They were all born with teeth.
Round 4
- Art.
- Times Square.
- A biscuit.
- Edward VIII.
- Friends
.
- The halfpenny.
- Scott Tracy.
- Eric Idle.
- Gin.
- False.
Jackpot
Nikita Khruschev.
Quiz 6 answers
Round 1
- London.
- Solidarity.
- Nirvana.
- The railways.
- Johnny Haynes.
- Jihad.
- Robert the Bruce.
- Ayr.
- Elizabeth I.
- Alanis Morissette.
Round 2
- Spiders.
- Seven.
- Alice Cooper.
- Betty Grable’s.
- True.
- Howard Hughes.
- Venezuela.
- George Washington.
- 1983.
- Vietnam.
Half-time teaser
35 m.p.h.
Round 3
- 15.
- Card games.
- 44.
- Bobby Fischer.
- A spanner.
- 28.
- Mah-jong.
- Monopoly.
- Spear Games.
- A deck of tarot cards.
Round 4
- The Merchant of Venice
.
- False (they are white).
- Vitamin C.
- Soupçon.
- Kieren Fallon.
- Depression.
- Joe Cocker.
- Clwyd.
- Take That.
- Noël Coward.
Jackpot
The Grapes of Wrath
.
Quiz 7 answers
Round 1
- Louis XVIII.
- Casper.
- 100.
- Olivia Newton-John.
- Caesar salad.
- Omaha and Utah.
- The Himalayas.
- Charlene Mitchell.
- Miniatures.
- Loving and giving.
Round 2
- Earth.
- Bronze.
- Eagle
.
- Joseph Priestley.
- Green.
- Betamax.
- Heavy water.
- The machine-gun.
- False.
- The invention of the telephone.
Half-time teaser
13,386.
Round 3
- The Jolly Roger.
- Henry Morgan.
- Davy Jones.
- Captain Flint’s.
- The
Black Pig
.
- Blackbeard.
- Fifteen.
- Sir Francis Drake.
- A cutlass.
- It was eaten by a crocodile.
Round 4
- Dr Black.
- The Threepenny Opera
.
- The Mogul Empire.
- Lyndon B. Johnson.
- Atomic Kitten.
- The Drones.
- Barbie.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower.
- Little Miss Muffet.
- Salome.
Jackpot
Aphrodite.
Quiz 8 answers
Round 1
- Barrels.
- A drey.
- Augusta, Georgia.
- Cholera.
- 1960.
- They all became MPs.
- Toyota.
- Duran Duran.
- Polo.
- Sir Gordon Richards.
Round 2
- The Dead Sea.
- Tunisia.
- Venezuela (the Angel Falls).
- Monaco.
- South America (the Atacama desert in Chile).
- Egypt.
- The mantle.
- Winds.
- The Pacific.
- The Red Sea.
Half-time teaser
26.
Round 3
- Oysters.
- Firm to the teeth.
- Squid or cuttlefish.
- Hungary.
- Herring.
- Cabbage.
- False (there is no difference).
- Cheese.
- In Scotland.
- Angels on horseback.
Round 4
- The Roman god of doorways, Janus.
- Chick peas.
- Plato.
- Edward Heath.
- Pink Floyd.
- February.
- Hercules.
- Goldie
.
- World War II.
- Baywatch
.
Jackpot
Ray Milland.
Quiz 9 answers
Round 1
- Diane Keaton.
- Austria.
- Marc Bolan.
- Alec Issigonis.
- The foxtrot.
- A dress.
- The Royle Family
.
- Georges Bizet.
- Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe.
- The Boston Strangler.
Round 2
- Oliver Mellors.
- Shadowfax.
- George Orwell’s
Nineteen Eighty-four
(1949).
- Patrick Harper.
- The African Queen
.
- Evelyn Waugh.
- Beau Geste
.
- Death.
- Brendan Behan.
- Cephalonia.