Christmas pub quiz questions and answers for 2026: 50 free questions, ready to read out

Here are 50 Christmas pub quiz questions and answers for 2026, in five rounds of ten plus a tie-breaker, written to be read out loud in a pub and checked before they went up. They're free to use, no sign-up, no catch. Underneath them is how to run the night so it actually makes money: about £13 to put on if you host it yourself, six extra pints to cover it, and the one rule on jackpots that catches pubs out.

Search for one and you get the same 25 or 27 questions copied across a stack of local newspaper websites, half of them about a film nobody under fifty has seen. These are written for a pub crowd: one round of telly, one of Christmas songs, one of food and drink, one pub round, one of traditions. Easy enough that every team scores, hard enough that the tie-breaker matters. Read them straight off your phone or print the page.

The 50 questions

Round 1: Christmas films and telly

#	Question	Answer
1	In Home Alone, which city does Kevin's family fly to without him?	Paris
2	What is the name of Will Ferrell's character in Elf?	Buddy
3	Which 1946 James Stewart film has an angel called Clarence?	It's a Wonderful Life
4	In The Muppet Christmas Carol, which Muppet plays Bob Cratchit?	Kermit the Frog
5	In Die Hard, what is the name of the tower block?	Nakatomi Plaza
6	Which actor plays the Prime Minister in Love Actually?	Hugh Grant
7	In which small American town is Gremlins set?	Kingston Falls
8	What is Scrooge's first name in A Christmas Carol?	Ebenezer
9	Whose ghost is the first to visit Scrooge?	Jacob Marley
10	In the 1982 animated film The Snowman, who do the boy and the snowman meet at the party?	Father Christmas

Round 2: Christmas number ones and the songs everyone knows

#	Question	Answer
11	Which charity group had the Christmas number one in 1984 with Do They Know It's Christmas?	Band Aid
12	Which band released Merry Xmas Everybody in 1973?	Slade
13	Which singer duets with Shane MacGowan on Fairytale of New York?	Kirsty MacColl
14	Which duo released Last Christmas in 1984?	Wham!
15	In which year did Mariah Carey release All I Want for Christmas Is You?	1994
16	Which band released I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday in 1973?	Wizzard
17	Who had the 1988 Christmas number one with Mistletoe and Wine?	Cliff Richard
18	Who wrote and sang Driving Home for Christmas?	Chris Rea
19	Which Bing Crosby record is listed as the best-selling single of all time?	White Christmas
20	In The Twelve Days of Christmas, how many lords are a-leaping?	Ten

Round 3: Christmas food and drink

#	Question	Answer
21	Stollen, the fruit loaf with marzipan in the middle, comes from which country?	Germany
22	Panettone is traditionally from which Italian city?	Milan
23	Advocaat and lemonade make which retro Christmas drink?	A Snowball
24	What do Germans call the mulled wine sold at Christmas markets?	Glühwein
25	Brussels sprouts are named after the capital of which country?	Belgium
26	Pigs in blankets are sausages wrapped in what?	Bacon
27	Which nut is marzipan made from?	Almonds
28	What is traditionally poured over a Christmas pudding and set alight?	Brandy
29	A satsuma is a type of which fruit?	Mandarin
30	In A Christmas Carol, which bird are the Cratchits eating before Scrooge sends them a turkey?	A goose

Round 4: The pub round

#	Question	Answer
31	How many pints are in a firkin of cask ale?	72
32	How many pints are in a standard 11-gallon keg?	88
33	What are the two legal single measures for gin, rum, vodka and whisky in a UK pub?	25ml and 35ml
34	Which Yorkshire brewery makes Old Peculier?	Theakston
35	At which Dublin brewery gate is Guinness brewed?	St James's Gate
36	What does CAMRA stand for?	Campaign for Real Ale
37	Apart from water, what are the three main ingredients of beer?	Malt, hops and yeast
38	Who was J D Wetherspoon, the name behind the pub chain?	One of founder Tim Martin's teachers
39	What is the highest checkout possible with three darts?	170
40	How many points is the bullseye worth in darts?	50

Round 5: Christmas traditions

#	Question	Answer
41	Which country sends London the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree every year?	Norway
42	In which year did a monarch first give a Christmas Day broadcast, George V on the radio?	1932
43	Which saint is Father Christmas based on?	Saint Nicholas
44	What time is the King's Christmas message broadcast on Christmas Day?	3pm
45	Which of Santa's reindeer has a name beginning with B?	Blitzen
46	What colour are mistletoe berries?	White
47	Prince Albert made the Christmas tree popular in Britain. Which country was he from?	Germany
48	What do the French call Father Christmas?	Père Noël
49	Which London sweet maker is credited with inventing the Christmas cracker?	Tom Smith
50	What date is Boxing Day?	26 December

Tie-breaker

In what year was the first commercial Christmas card sent, commissioned by Sir Henry Cole? Answer: 1843. Nearest wins.

Rounds 2 and 4 are spoken questions about songs and beer, so you're not playing any music. If you add a proper music round with clips, that's a different matter for licensing, covered below.

How to run it on the night

Five rounds of ten, read twice each, with a minute between questions, takes about 15 minutes a round including marking. So call it an hour and a half with a break after round three. That break is where your money is, so make it a proper one: ten minutes, last orders called for the round, not a pause while you find your glasses.

Swap answer sheets between teams to mark. Read the answers out, and keep this page open so nobody can argue with you. If someone does, the answer is "the quizmaster's decision is final", said with a smile.

Teams of up to six. Any bigger and one table wins every week and the rest stop coming, which is the quickest way to kill a quiz in January.

What it costs, and what it needs to make

I worked this through properly in does a pub quiz make money. The short version: these questions are free, so a self-hosted Christmas quiz is basically the prize. A £25 bar tab costs you about £9.40 in drink once you take the VAT and your margin off. At about £2.23 of gross profit on a standard lager, that's four or five extra pints to cover it. Add a printed answer sheet and a few quid of mince pies and it's still under the £13, six pints, the guide works to.

Two things to get right. An entry fee is standard-rated for VAT, so £1 at the door is about 83p to you. And ring the bar tab prize through the till when it's used, or it'll show up in your next stocktake as missing stock.

The jackpot rule

A quiz is legal to charge for because it's a competition decided by knowledge. A rollover jackpot won by drawing a card or picking an envelope isn't knowledge, it's chance, and that turns it into gambling with its own rules. If you want a Christmas jackpot, roll over the tie-breaker instead: a nearest-the-number question is skill, and you can let it build. The limits for raffles, bingo and the rest are in the games night rules guide, and if you're thinking about a festive raffle on the same night, read it before you sell a ticket.

If you add a music round

Playing clips is playing music in public. PPL PRS says you'll usually need TheMusicLicence for music segments in a quiz, and PRS prices a music quiz as its own session. The background radio licence most pubs already hold may not cover it. My music licence guide has the figures. The safe option is the one above: questions about songs, no songs played.

One idea for this Christmas

Sell the quiz to local workplaces as their Christmas do. Plenty of small firms, the garage, the dentist, the estate agents, want something for the team that isn't a £40-a-head sit-down meal. A quiz on a Tuesday in early December, a table booked in the firm's name, a bit of food, and a prize for the winning office. Take the organiser's name and email when they book. That list is your Christmas party bookings for next year, from people who've already had a good night in your pub. It costs nothing to ask, and early December is when your midweek nights need it.

If you've got TVs, put the questions on them. Reading 50 questions over the noise of a full pub is hard work, and a question on the screen means nobody shouts "what was that?" every two minutes. I built StockTap TV for exactly that: you run quiz night from your phone, every question goes up on every TV, picture rounds go full screen and the scores get a proper reveal at the end. It's £34 a month for the whole pub, and there's a 14-day free trial if you want to try it for the Christmas quiz.

Common questions

Where can I get free Christmas pub quiz questions?

This page has 50 free Christmas pub quiz questions and answers in five rounds of ten, plus a tie-breaker, written to be read out in a pub. No sign-up needed.

How many questions should a Christmas pub quiz have?

Forty to fifty is about right for a pub night. Five rounds of ten, read twice with a minute between questions and time to mark, runs about an hour and a half with a break.

Can a pub charge an entry fee for a Christmas quiz?

Yes. A quiz decided by knowledge is a prize competition, not gambling, so you can charge. The entry fee is standard-rated for VAT, so £1 is about 83p to the pub.

Can a pub quiz have a rollover jackpot?

Only if it's won by skill, such as a nearest-the-number tie-breaker. A jackpot won by drawing a card or picking an envelope is chance, which brings in gambling rules.

Do I need a music licence for a Christmas music round?

If you play music clips, PPL PRS says you'll usually need TheMusicLicence for that segment. Spoken questions about songs, with nothing played, don't involve playing music.