30 questions, 3 rounds, every answer with the story behind it. Read them out at the table, tap to reveal. Ash asks, Ivy judges, you keep score.
Germany. Decorated fir trees are recorded in German and Alsatian homes from the 1500s. Prince Albert, who was German, made them fashionable in Britain in the 1840s.
Norway. Oslo has sent one every year since 1947, as thanks for Britain's support during the Second World War.
Japan. It goes back to a 1974 advertising campaign, "Kentucky for Christmas". Families now order their bucket weeks in advance.
13. One arrives each night from 12 December, with names like Spoon-Licker and Door-Slammer. Good children get a small gift in their shoe; naughty ones get a potato.
La Befana. She arrives on the night before Epiphany. Good children get sweets, naughty ones get coal (today usually black sugar candy).
By steamboat from Spain. His arrival in mid-November is shown live on Dutch television. Presents come on the evening of 5 December, not on Christmas Day.
Going to the toilet. He squats with his trousers down, usually in a corner of the crib. Modern versions show footballers and politicians.
7 January. Their churches still follow the old Julian calendar, which is now 13 days behind the one most of the world uses.
Christmas boxes were given to servants and tradesmen. Employers gave them a box of money or gifts the day after Christmas. Nothing to do with the sport.
True. The Puritan Parliament abolished it in 1647. It came back with King Charles II in 1660.
Paris. Kevin's mother only realises on the plane. In the sequel the family flies to Florida and Kevin ends up in New York.
Nakatomi Plaza. The building is really Fox Plaza in Los Angeles, the studio's own headquarters.
Maple syrup. Along with sweets, marshmallows and a crumbled Pop-Tart. Elves stick to the four main food groups: candy, candy canes, candy corns and syrup.
Michael Caine. He played it completely straight, as if acting with humans. Gonzo, as Charles Dickens, narrates.
Four. Jacob Marley comes first, then the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. Most people say three.
His wings. "Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." The film flopped at the box office in 1946.
"White Christmas" (Bing Crosby). Guinness World Records puts it at more than 50 million copies.
False. It only reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in December 2019, 25 years after its release.
2021. It topped the chart on 1 January 2021, after 36 years. In 1984 it was kept off the top by Band Aid.
Rudolph. Robert L. May wrote the story for Montgomery Ward, which gave away millions of copies. The song came ten years later.
Five gold rings. The long, slow "five gold rings" comes from Frederic Austin's 1909 arrangement, the tune almost everyone sings today.
364. Each day repeats all the earlier gifts: 1 + 3 + 6 + … + 78 = 364. One for every day of the year but one.
Meat. Medieval mince pies mixed minced meat with fruit and spices. Today's mincemeat is dried fruit and spice, sometimes with beef suet as the last reminder.
The Greek letter chi, the first letter of "Christ". In Greek, Christ is Χριστός. Using X for Christ goes back about a thousand years: it's not a modern shortcut.
False. Santa was already drawn in red long before Coca-Cola's famous 1931 adverts. They made that look world-famous, but didn't invent it.
1914. In places, soldiers left the trenches, swapped food and cigarettes, sang carols and buried their dead together.
True. Engineer Neil Papworth sent it from a computer to a Vodafone director's phone, which couldn't reply.
Charlemagne. Pope Leo III crowned him in St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
True. It grows on trees and draws water and nutrients from them, though it also makes some of its own food. Strictly, a hemiparasite.
Furby. Millions sold that winter, and parents queued for them. It only seemed to learn: its English words were pre-programmed.
Free to use at home, at work or at the pub. Please link to askashandivy.com/christmas if you share it.