The great Christmas trivia quiz

Nothing on the telly? Too much Christmas cheer making your brain sluggish? Here's a little livener to bring family and friends together in a spirit of jovial festive fun/barely disguised, vicious rivalry.

Each round of questions in Section A is linked to a certain Christmas theme. Whichever team is first to correctly guess the link gets the opportunity to answer the corresponding true/false questions in Section B. Score one point for each correct answer in both sections. The anti-Christmas quizlet can be used as a tie-breaker round in case of a draw. Let the games begin...

Cheat alert! For the answers, click here.

SECTION A

Round 1

1. What is a female turkey called?

2. Who starred as Rose Tyler in the BBC series Dr Who?

3. In which sport stadium would you find the Long Room and the NatWest Media centre?

4. Siegfried and Odette are characters in which ballet?

5. Which comedy character began as a sportsdesk reporter on BBC Radio 4's parody On the Hour in 1991?

Round 2

1. Profiteroles and éclairs are both made from which style of pastry?

2. The formula 1/3 x the area of the base x height gives the volume of a pyramid, and what other shape?

3. Who represented the UK in the 1992 Eurovision Song Contest with "One Step Out of Time"?

4. At the beginning of The Da Vinci Code, the dead body of Jacques Saunière is found posed in the same position as which Leonardo work?

5. Which chocolate bar was advertised with the slogan: "Tastes like chocolate never tasted before"?

Round 3

1. The American chemist John Pemberton invented which drink in 1886?

2. Which British band consists of Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Matt Helders and Nick O'Malley?

3. The US categorises hailstones by comparing their size with everyday items. The largest is the softball. What foodstuff gives its name to the smallest (with a diameter of a quarter of an inch)?

4. What was the name of Leicester City Football Club's ground between 1891 and 2002?

5. After Russia, Canada, China and the USA, which is the world's fifth largest country?

Round 4

1. In sport, what measures 8 feet by 8 yards?

2. Which is the only planet in the Solar System whose name doesn't derive from Greek or Roman mythology?

3. What is the name of the sitcom starring John Challis and Sue Holderness (left) which is a spin-off from Only Fools and Horses?

4. Which artist died at the age of 101 in Hoosick Falls, New York, in 1961?

5. What is the closest point to Ireland on the Scottish mainland?

Round 5

1. Which was the first British football club to reach a European final?

2. The theme tune to which television show is "Approaching Menace"?

3. Georges Braque was one of the leading figures of which style of painting?

4. Which German war criminal was known as the Butcher of Lyon?

5. Duploland is a young childrens' area in which larger theme park?

Round 6

1. Which song, performed by Irene Cara, won an Oscar for Best Song in 1984?

2. What is the Morse code for the letter "T"?

3. What was the name of the world's first commercial jet airliner?

4. Who was the Roman god of love?

5. Which Nazi figure was held in Abergavenny's mental asylum between 1942 and 1945?

Round 7

1. What is the name of the world's tallest waterfall?

2. Which current manager of a football league team did Alex Ferguson once say could "start a fight in an empty house"?

3. Who starred as "Maddie" Hayes alongside Bruce Willis in the US show Moonlighting?

4. Which monarch had Catherine of Aragon as a mother and Cardinal Wolsey as a godfather?

5. Whose novel, originally titled Catch-18, had its name changed due its similarity to another book, Leon Uris's Mila 18?

Round 8

1. Hirudotherapy is the scientific name for the use of which animals in medicine?

2. Sometimes abbreviated on the internet as TBL, who was the inventor of the world wide web?

3. What paranormal nickname is given to the seventh month in Taiwan?

4. Whose backing group was called The Wailers?

5. Which song by The Shamen (below left), hit number one in 1992, ironically during a drug awareness week on BBC radio?

Round 9

1. Which artist, known for his large abstract bronze sculptures was born in Castleford in 1898?

2. Hugh Laurie is currently most well known in the US for his role in which medical drama?

3. For what would a Scotsman use a spurtle?

4. What is the most commonly used vertebrate in medical research?

5. What is the first line of Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky"?

Round 10

1. A version of which delicacy, popular in Lancashire, is produced in Suriname under the name bloedworst?

2. Which drink's name comes from the Dutch for "burnt wine"?

3. The Manneken Pis can be found in which capital city?

4. Which 1990s pop group was fronted by Dolores O'Riordan?

5. Which country came third in the 2002 football World Cup?

SECTION B

Round 1

True or False

1. The word "partridge" comes from the Greek for breaking wind.

2. The Old English word for a pear was peru.

3. The swan is the UK's heaviest flying bird.

Round 2

True or False

1. Lithuania's prime minister is nicknamed "the snowman".

2. Rudyard Kipling invented "snow-golf".

3. Einstein felt that his second greatest contribution to mankind was to find two identical snowflakes.

Round 3

True or False

1 Walnut means "foreign nut" in Old English.

2 Some Nigerian tribes force-fed suspected witches with peanuts to ascertain their guilt.

3 Eating a mixture of eels and almonds was a popular medieval hangover cure.

Round 4

True or False

1 The largest nudist colony in the UK is on the Mull of Kintyre.

2 In the largest novelty bet in British history, the Spice Girls won a punter £100,000.

3 Cliff Richard (above) has been involved in more UK Christmas

number ones than anyone else.

Round 5

True or False

1 The word Lego comes from the Latin for "I build"

2 The inventor of the Rubik's cube (left) was the Communist bloc's first self-made millionaire.

3 Fruit flies have "Ken and Barbie" genes.

Round 6

True or False

1. North European shamans regularly drank reindeer urine.

2. Reindeers antlers (left) are the slowest-growing tissue of any mammal.

3. Reindeer occasionally eat fish.

Round 7

True or False

1. There may have been four wise men.

2. According to the Bible, there were over a dozen animals present at the nativity.

3. The British Royal Family used to use "the Virgin Mary's girdle" during childbirth.

Round 8

True or False

1. Good King Wenceslas was not a king.

2. Tiny Tim was almost called Scrawny Steve.

3. A Christmas Carol was written to clear a debt.

Round 9

True or False

1. According to legend, St Nicholas resurrected children who had been cut into pieces.

2. Santa's reindeer were called Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, and Donner and Blitzen.

3. Santa Claus's modern image was invented by Coca-Cola.

Round 10

True or False

1. Turkey contains a natural sedative which makes one sleepy on Christmas day.

2. Some factory farms employ turkey masturbators.

3. Benjamin Franklin campaigned for the turkey to be the national bird of the USA.

ANTI-CHRISTMAS QUIZLET

1. In 'A Christmas Carol' what penalty did Scrooge (above) advise for anyone celebrating Christmas?

a A five-shilling fine.

b To be boiled alive and stabbed through the heart.

c A mild telling-off.

d To be cut a thousand times and dipped in salt.

2. In 1659

Massachusetts, what penalty did pilgrim leader William Bradford recommend for anyone caught celebrating Christmas?

a A five-shilling fine.

b To be boiled alive and stabbed through the heart.

c A mild telling-off.

d To be cut a thousand times and dipped in salt.

3. What Christmas present did English mint-men receive from Henry I in 1125?

a He confiscated all their land and goods.

b He took all their coinage and replaced it with the same weight in cow-dung.

c He chopped off their right hands and testicles.

d He stripped them and banished them to Wales.

4. One Christmas character may owe his distinctive style to which of the following?

a A parasitic infection.

b Haemorrhoids.

c Pubic lice.

d Leprosy.

5. Approximately how many people are injured by Christmas trees every year?

a 10.

b 100.

c 1,000.

d 100,000.

6. What effect does Christmas have on the death-rate in the UK?

a More people die - often due to heart attacks.

b Less people die - the ill are able to stave off death until after festivities.

c Almost no people die from families that celebrate Christmas together.

d There is no effect.