Office holiday party quiz questions and answers

How to run it

1. Mix the teams across departments and give each table one phone. People who have never spoken will be arguing over the Die Hard question within five minutes.
2. Pause after question 2, the white elephant. If you are running a gift swap later, this is the moment to explain the rules while everyone is paying attention.
3. Questions 16 to 20 are app only and hold the four hardest. Question 17, the year of the first Times Square ball drop, is your tie-breaker: ask for the closest guess.

Questions and answers

1. 1What is the office gift exchange called where everyone draws a name and buys one present for that person without saying who they are?Easy

   • ASecret Santa
   • BHidden Helper
   • CMystery Elf
   • DBlind Bauble
   Reveal answer

   A. Secret Santa

   In a Secret Santa each person is randomly assigned someone to buy for, and the giver stays anonymous. Some offices reveal the names at the end, others never do.

2. 2A white elephant gift exchange, where players can steal each other's presents, takes its name from a story about the king of which country?Medium

   • AEgypt
   • BIndia
   • CSiam, now Thailand
   • DPersia
   Reveal answer

   C. Siam, now Thailand

   The story goes that the King of Siam gave rare white elephants to courtiers he wanted to ruin, since the animals cost a fortune to keep. Hence a white elephant: a gift that is more burden than prize.

3. 3Kwanzaa is built around the Nguzo Saba. How many principles are there?Medium

   • AFive
   • BSeven
   • CNine
   • DTwelve
   Reveal answer

   B. Seven

   Seven principles for seven days, 26 December to 1 January, starting with Umoja, unity. A candle is lit for each one on the kinara.

4. 4True or false: Hanukkah lasts eight nights.Easy

   • ATrue
   • BFalse
   Reveal answer

   A. True

   Eight nights, with one more candle lit each evening. The story behind it is a single day's supply of oil in the Temple that burned for eight days.

5. 5What is the four-sided spinning top played with at Hanukkah called?Medium

   • AKinara
   • BLatke
   • CShamash
   • DDreidel
   Reveal answer

   D. Dreidel

   Each side of the dreidel carries a Hebrew letter that tells the player to take from or add to the pot. A latke is the fried potato pancake you eat while playing.

6. 6In Times Square, New York, what is lowered down a pole at midnight on New Year's Eve?Easy

   • AA giant apple
   • BA lit ball
   • CA clock
   • DA flag
   Reveal answer

   B. A lit ball

   The ball slides down the flagpole on One Times Square in the last 60 seconds of the year. Seven versions have been used, from an iron and wood sphere with 100 bulbs to today's crystal one.

7. 7Auld Lang Syne, sung at midnight on New Year's Eve, is based on a poem by which Scottish poet?Medium

   • AWalter Scott
   • BRobert Louis Stevenson
   • CRobert Burns
   • DHugh MacDiarmid
   Reveal answer

   C. Robert Burns

   Burns wrote the words down in 1788, saying he had taken them from an old man's singing. The title means something like old long since, or days gone by.

8. 8Hogmanay is the New Year celebration of which country?Medium

   • AScotland
   • BIreland
   • CNorway
   • DWales
   Reveal answer

   A. Scotland

   Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year, and the party runs into 1 and often 2 January, which are both public holidays in Scotland. Edinburgh's street party is the big one.

9. 9In Spain, what do people eat with each of the twelve chimes at midnight on New Year's Eve?Medium

   • ATwelve olives
   • BTwelve almonds
   • CTwelve cherries
   • DTwelve grapes
   Reveal answer

   D. Twelve grapes

   One grape per chime, for twelve lucky months. The custom goes back to the 1890s, was pushed by Alicante grape growers in 1909, and spread to much of Latin America.

10. 10In the film Die Hard, John McClane turns up at his wife's office party in which building?Easy

    • AThe Empire State Building
    • BNakatomi Tower
    • CNakatomi Plaza
    • DWillis Tower
    Reveal answer

    C. Nakatomi Plaza

    Nakatomi Plaza is really Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, the headquarters of the studio that made the film. Whether Die Hard counts as a Christmas film is the argument that follows this question every year.

11. 11Which 2003 film stars Will Ferrell as Buddy, a human raised by Santa's elves?Easy

    • AElf
    • BJingle All the Way
    • CThe Santa Clause
    • DFred Claus
    Reveal answer

    A. Elf

    Buddy crawled into Santa's sack as a baby and grew up at the North Pole. In the film he travels to New York to find his father, played by James Caan.

12. 12Christmas crackers, pulled apart for a paper hat and a bad joke, were invented in the 1840s by a London sweet maker called what?Medium

    • AJohn Cadbury
    • BTom Smith
    • CJoseph Fry
    • DHenry Rowntree
    Reveal answer

    B. Tom Smith

    Smith sold sweets wrapped in twists of paper and added the bang after watching a log crackle on the fire. The Oxford English Dictionary records cracker pulling from 1847.

13. 13St Lucia's Day on 13 December, with candle crowns and saffron buns, is a big tradition in which country?Medium

    • AItaly
    • BPoland
    • CGreece
    • DSweden
    Reveal answer

    D. Sweden

    Swedish schools, offices and churches hold Lucia processions on the morning of 13 December, led by a girl in a white gown and a crown of candles. The saffron buns are called lussekatter.

14. 14Which holiday drink is made from eggs beaten with sugar and milk or cream, often with a splash of rum or brandy?Easy

    • AMulled wine
    • BEggnog
    • CWassail
    • DHot toddy
    Reveal answer

    B. Eggnog

    Eggnog is a December fixture in the US and Canada, sold in cartons from November. Mulled wine and wassail are both spiced, but neither has eggs.

15. 15The poinsettia, the red-leaved plant on every reception desk in December, comes from which country?Easy

    • ABrazil
    • BSouth Africa
    • CAustralia
    • DMexico
    Reveal answer

    D. Mexico

    The plant grows wild in Mexico and Central America. It is named after Joel Poinsett, the first US minister to Mexico, who came across it there in the 1820s.

Questions about this template

Sources

Every answer shown here was checked against two sources, listed below. Links last checked 27 October 2026.

1. Secret Santa - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
2. merriam-webster.commerriam-webster.com
3. White elephant gift exchange - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
4. White elephant - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
5. Kwanzaa - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
6. Official Kwanzaa Websiteofficialkwanzaawebsite.org
7. Hanukkah - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
8. chabad.orgchabad.org
9. Dreidel - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
10. NYE History & Times Square Ball | Times Square NYCtimessquarenyc.org
11. Times Square Ball - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
12. Auld Lang Syne - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
13. Robert Burns - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
14. Hogmanay - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
15. New Year's Eve - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
16. Twelve Grapes - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
17. Die Hard - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
18. 2121 Avenue of the Stars - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
19. Elf (film) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
20. Will Ferrell - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
21. Christmas cracker - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
22. Tom Smith (confectioner) - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
23. Saint Lucy's Day - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
24. Christmas in Sweden - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
25. Eggnog - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
26. merriam-webster.commerriam-webster.com
27. Poinsettia - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org
28. Joel Roberts Poinsett - Wikipediaen.wikipedia.org