New Zealand Christmas Trivia: Holiday Cheer Down Under!

Get ready to deck the halls with facts and fun this holiday season! Our New Zealand Christmas Trivia is the perfect way to test your knowledge of Kiwi festive traditions and historic celebrations. Are you ready to ring in the holidays with a challenge?

• How did Captain Cook and his crew celebrate Christmas on board the Endeavour while battling heavy seas off the northern tip of the North Island in 1769?

  With a special serving of pickled herring

  With a meal of ‘Goose pye’ (made with gannet)

  With a feast of salted pork and hardtack

  They did not celebrate Christmas at all
• Who is credited with conducting the first Christmas Day service in New Zealand?

  Richard Johnson

  John King

  William Colenso

  Samuel Marsden
• A ‘light the cigarette race’ (as seen at Tolaga Bay School’s Christmas party in 1953) was run on ships crossing the Atlantic in the early 20th century as a way to:

  Entertain passengers during long voyages

  Get passengers fit while at sea

  Settle bets among the crew

  Encourage socializing among passengers
• Santa Claus made his commercial New Zealand debut in which year?

  1984

  1922

  1894

  1020
• Which organisation supplied free cigars, coffee and cake to New Zealand soldiers at Christmas during the First World War?

  The Salvation Army

  The Red Cross

  YMCA

  New Zealand Expeditionary Force
• Under the terms of the Holidays Act 2003, most people who work on Christmas Day are entitled to:

  Double time pay only

  Standard pay with no additional benefits

  Time-and-a-half pay and an alternative day off

  Time-and-a-half pay only
• What did 72% of Kiwis surveyed by Reader’s Digest in 2006 claim they would prefer to eat for Christmas dinner?

  A barbeque on the beach

  A roast dinner and Christmas pudding

  A seafood feast

  A vegetarian meal
• What tree did some early settlers refer to as ‘Antipodean holly’?

  Pōhutukawa

  Kauri

  Rimu

  Manuka
• According to a popular New Zealand Christmas song of the 1960s, who will ‘pull the Christmas sleigh in the southern hemisphere’?

  Sticky Beak the Kiwi

  Kiwi the Kangaroo

  Puku the Possum

  Moa the Mysterious
• In which department store did Santa Claus first appear in New Zealand?

  Kirkcaldie & Stains, Wellington

  Ballantynes, Christchurch

  DIC, Wellington

  Smith & Caughey's, Auckland