Our annual Christmas Quiz is certain to have everyone stumped on at least a couple of questions. Answers here.
1. Which is older: the Oxford University Press or the Cambridge University Press?
2. How many lords are leaping?
3. Who won the men’s singles at Wimbledon this year?
4 . Why was Boxing Day so named?
5 . What is a young bat called? (clue: it’s the same as the young of a mouse)
6. Who invented the Christmas cracker?
7. When was The Queen’s Christmas speech first televised?
8. Which is the least reactive of the alkali metals?
9. Name Father Christmas’s nine reindeer
10. Who is currently the highest-paid public speaker in the world?
11. With which film would you associate Hugo Drax?
12. Who took over as Chief of the General Staff in August 2009?
13. Where do swifts sleep?
14. Where was Barack Obama born?
15. Where does the abbreviation ‘Xmas’ come from?
16. Which group has had the most Christmas number ones?
17. In which county is the Quorn Hunt?
18. Friday’s child is loving and giving, Saturday’s child…?
19. What is the main ingredient of Gentleman’s Relish?
20. Who is Rupert Campbell-Black?
21. In which country was the city of Natal (‘Christmas’) founded on December 25, 1599?
22. What did Queen Victoria have for Christmas lunch before her first turkey in 1851?
23. Which tree has the Latin name Quercus robur?
24. Which is Britain’s oldest surviving school?
25. What happened to the Christmas carol from 1649 to 1660 and why?
26. What is the common name for the bird Buteo buteo?
27. How many official white Christmases did Britain have in the last century?
28. Who was the first monarch to give a Christmas message to the nation?
29. Who is the current Bishop of York?
30. True or false: only male reindeer have antlers
31. Which law do most British citizens break on Christmas Day?
32. Which religious leader said: ‘Mankind is a great, an immense family… This is proved by what we feel in our hearts at Christmas’?
33. Which President banned a Christmas trees from the White House?
34. Which wood is traditionally used for making white chess pieces?
35. In which year was the first Christmas card designed?
36. When was James Purdey & Sons gunmakers established?
37. Which British architect designed the Cenotaph in Whitehall?
38. What shape is the Moon when it’s waning?
39. Which literary character said: ‘I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year’?
40. Who lives at Stratfield Saye?
41. Who pioneered the use of the pie chart?
42. Which was the first American state to declare Christmas a legal holiday?
43. In which year did Coca Cola begin featuring Santa in its advertising at Christmas?
44. What was stolen from Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day in 1950?
45. In birding slang, what’s a ‘BOP’, and what’s ‘sum plum’?
46. What’s the actual meaning of the word Christmas?
47. What was traditionally eaten at Christmas before the goose and turkey?
48. What act must be carried out after a deer is shot to preserve the meat?
49. What is the minimum legal length of a shotgun barrel in Britain?
50. Which country traditionally provides Britain with a Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square in London?