12 Christmas trivia questions, one for every day of Christmas
I'm Heron. I once worked out the gift count in that song by naming each present once, announced 78 to a room, and got corrected by a seven-year-old with a juice box.
So let's run twelve questions nobody loses by not knowing. The numbers you need are printed inside each one.
We're calling that The Christmas Stack. Each day carries the whole history of the days behind it, and the total grows much faster than the thing you are counting.
Six questions, real numbers in every one. Nothing here is harder than a grocery receipt, and we hand you the shortcut along with every answer.
The song was question 1, so we pick up at 2. Read twice, answer once, and keep a tally: the scoreboard at the end asks you for a number.
Hosting a party?
Riddle 2 of 12
Eight of you buy a gift for everyone else. Secret Santa gives each one name. How many gifts does that save?
Hint: Count the old way first: how many gifts does one person carry in?
48 gifts
18 × 7 = 56everyone buys for everyone
28 × 1 = 8one name each, one gift each
356 − 8 = 48 giftswhat the hat saves
Buying for everyone grows with the size of the table squared, and drawing names keeps it flat.
Riddle 3 of 12
You have $200 for six gifts. Four of them cost $25 each. What is left for each of the last two?
Hint: Spend the four first, then look at what the envelope still holds.
$50 each
14 × $25 = $100the four already bought
2$200 − $100 = $100what the envelope holds
3$100 ÷ 2 = $50for each of the last two
Dividing $200 by six answers a question nobody asked, because the money was never meant to land evenly.
Riddle 4 of 12
The sign says 25% off. The $80 sweater rings up at $64. Is the sign telling the truth?
Hint: Work out the price the sign promises before you look at the till.
No, that is 20% off
125% of $80 = $20a quarter of the ticket
2$80 − $20 = $60what the sign promises
3$64 is $16 off = 20%so the sign is generous with itself
A discount takes one move to check, and a register counts on nobody making it.
Riddle 5 of 12
A gift box is 12 by 8 by 4 inches. Ribbon goes round both ways, plus 10 inches for the bow. How much?
Hint: Each loop crosses the top, the bottom, and two ends.
66 inches
12 × (12 + 4) = 32 inthe long way round
22 × (8 + 4) = 24 inthe short way round
332 + 24 + 10 = 66 inboth loops and the bow
Each loop pays for the depth of the box twice, and the depth is the measurement the eye skips.
Riddle 6 of 12
Two gifts under the tree average $30. You add a third that cost $60. What is the new average?
Hint: Put the two gifts back to their own prices before you divide anything.
$40
✕($30 + $60) ÷ 2 = $45averaging the averages
1$30 + $30 + $60 = $120three real prices
2$120 ÷ 3 = $40three gifts, one average
Averages carry a head count with them, and the new gift changes the total and the count at once.
Riddle 7 of 12
A big box holds 4 boxes, and each of those holds 4 tiny boxes. How many boxes are there in all?
Hint: Count the layers, starting with the one in your hands.
21 boxes
✕4 + 16 = 20only the ones you unwrap
11 + 4 + 16the big one counts too
2= 21 boxesevery layer, counted once
The layer you are already holding is the one that never makes it into the count.
Question 7 is the stack again in cardboard. One big box, four inside it, sixteen inside those, and the box in your hands is the one that goes uncounted.
Before the wording turns mean, one more day of the song, and this time you do it.
1+2+3+4+5+6 =
Same rules as above. You've got this.
Round two is barely arithmetic. Each question hands you a number you were already holding and hopes you reach for it without reading the rest of the sentence.
These are the ones to read out loud, because the trap lives in the wording and wording travels well down a long table.
Christmas trivia questions where the reading is the hard part
Put the calculator down for these five. Each one bets you will answer the question you expected instead of the one on the card.
One habit clears most of them: say the question back before you answer it. Out loud, in your own words, naming the exact thing it asks for.
The candle question gives itself away the moment you say it back, and so does the one about the sun. Let's slow the reading down and let the arithmetic look after itself.
Riddle 8 of 12
If 3 elves wrap 12 gifts in 6 minutes, how long do 100 elves need to wrap 400 gifts?
Hint: Work out what a single elf gets through in those six minutes.
Extra hands buy more gifts at the same time, and the clock only moves when the work has to queue.
Riddle 9 of 12
The twelve days start on December 25, and that counts as day one. What date is the twelfth day?
Hint: Day one is already on the calendar before you add anything to it.
January 5
✕Dec 25 + 12 = Jan 6counting the first day twice
1Dec 25 → Dec 31 = day 7one week inside December
25 more days = Jan 5the twelfth day
Counting a gap and counting days are different jobs, and starting the count on the 26th is what puts the table on January 6.
Riddle 10 of 12
Christmas Day falls on a Friday. What day of the week is New Year's Day?
Hint: Count the days from December 25 to January 1 before you name any weekday.
Friday
1Dec 25 + 7 = Jan 1December is 31 days long
27 days = 1 weekthe week lands where it started
3= Fridaysame weekday, new year
Two dates a week apart always share a weekday, and these two are exactly a week apart.
Riddle 11 of 12
Snow starts falling at midnight on Christmas Eve. Can the sun be out 72 hours later?
Hint: Ask what time it is 72 hours later before you ask about the weather.
No
172 ÷ 24 = 3 daysthree whole days, no remainder
2midnight + 3 dayslands on midnight again
3= no sunthe sun keeps its own hours
Seventy-two is a clean multiple of 24, so the clock comes back to the hour it started on.
Riddle 12 of 12
Ten candles are lit on the mantel. A draft blows three of them out. How many are left in the morning?
Hint: Ask which candles are still there once the wax runs out.
3
✕10 − 3 = 7the subtraction the sentence wants
17 keep burning all nightand burn down to nothing
2= 3 candlesthe ones the draft saved
The question asks what is still there in the morning, and only the candles the draft put out stop burning.
Question 8 has a pedigree. It is the machines-and-widgets item from the cognitive reflection test, first described by Shane Frederick in 2005, wearing a green hat.
We named that reflex The Candy Trap in our Halloween riddles, and it works the same over eggnog. If your table wants a second round, the Thanksgiving questions run on the same nerve with different food.
What to remember
Watch for the stack. Whenever today carries everything from yesterday, the total outruns the thing you are counting, in songs and in gift boxes alike.
Count the layer you are standing in. The outer box, the first day, the host at the table: whatever is already in your hands is what the count forgets.
Check the claim in one move. A quarter off $80 is $20, and knowing that takes less time than reading the sign twice.
Honest tally: how many did you solve without peeking?
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All 12
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FAQ
364, if your true love follows the song and repeats every earlier gift each day. Day one brings 1 gift, day two brings 3, day three brings 6, and by day twelve a single day is worth 78. Add the twelve days together and you get 364, one gift for every day of the year except Christmas itself.
The ones nobody loses by not knowing. Every question on this page is solvable at the table from the numbers inside it: the gift count in the song, a Secret Santa that saves 48 gifts, a ribbon that goes round the box twice, and three elves who turn out to be as fast as a hundred.
Questions 2 through 7 need nothing harder than a grocery receipt, so they run well with kids at the table. Questions 8 through 12 are the mean ones: the trap sits in the wording, and reading them out loud twice is part of the game.
January 5, when December 25 counts as day one. Seven days take you to December 31, and five more land on January 5. Start counting on the 26th instead and you arrive at January 6, which is where most of the arguments at the table come from.
Copy all 12 questions with the button above the first card, read them one at a time, and make everyone commit to an answer before anything is revealed. Keep a tally per person, and hold the answers until every plate has voted: the reveal is the part people stay for.
