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Take Our Holiday Music Quiz

See how many fa-la-la-la facts you know! 


santa listening to music on headphones
Getty Images

It’s time to trim the tree, deck the halls and wrap the gifts while rockin’ to a classic holiday playlist. Test your knowledge of the season’s staple songs with our merry little quiz, and see if you can jingle your way to a high score.

Question 1 of 10

What’s the best-selling Christmas song of all time?

According to Guinness World Records, Bing Crosby’s 1942 recording of “White Christmas” has sold an estimated 50 million copies and is not only the best-selling Christmas song of all time but the best-selling single of all time. Crosby reportedly also holds the second-best-selling Christmas spot for his 1935 version of “Silent Night,” which sold more than 30 million copies.

Question 2 of 10

Which classic movie featured the debut of “White Christmas”?

Bing Crosby first performed the song in 1941 on the radio show “The Kraft Music Hall,” then sang the tune, which won an Academy Award for best song, in Irving Berlin's 1942 classic movie “Holiday Inn.”

Question 3 of 10

Which artist or group has released the most Christmas albums?

1

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elvis playing a guitar
Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
2

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Sandi Patty
Bruce Glikas/Getty Images
3

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Mannheim Steamroller
Margaret C. Norton/Getty Images
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Johnny Mathis
Paul Archuleta/Getty Images

Mannheim Steamroller has released at least 17 original Christmas albums. According to the band’s website, they are also the only group to perform more than once at the National Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Washington, D.C., playing at the event for three different White House administrations.

Question 4 of 10

Thurl Ravenscroft sang “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” in the 1966 animated TV classic “How the Grinch Stole Christmas!” What non-holiday fictional character did Ravenscroft famously voice?

Ravenscroft voiced the Frosted Flakes mascot, declaring, “They’re grrrrreeeat!” for five decades, and he also voiced the pig in “Mary Poppins,” Monstro the whale in “Pinocchio” and Captain the horse in “101 Dalmatians.” He sang in “Looney Tunes” cartoons and for various Disney theme park attractions, and his likeness and voice are immortalized as one of the singing busts in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Question 5 of 10

Which holiday standard, once deemed one of the 100 best songs of all time by “Time” magazine, was criticized after the rise of the #MeToo movement?

“Time” reported in 2019, “In the #MeToo era, a song about a man pressuring a woman to stay with him isn’t seen as so cheery by some.”

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Question 6 of 10

Which singer recorded a Christmas album with the Muppets?

a muppet dressed like santa
Andrea McCallin

Denver joined Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and the rest of the Muppets gang in “John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas Together,” which aired in 1979 as a TV special, and the songs were packaged as a holiday album.

Question 7 of 10

Which of these holiday songs reached No. 1 on the “Billboard” Hot 100 singles chart 25 years after its initial release?

Carey’s song debuted in 1994 and didn't make it higher than 12th place on the “Billboard” Hot 100 list. Thanks in part to wider play on music streaming services, it hit the Hot 100’s top 10 for the first time in December 2017. The song was back in the No. 1  spot again in December 2019, 2020 and 2021.

Question 8 of 10

What comic actor sang the now gold-certified “The Chanukah Song”?

Sandler debuted the song on “Saturday Night Live” in 1994. Last year, the band Haim posted their version of the song on social media with updated lyrics mentioning celebrities such as Maya Rudolph, Rashida Jones, Doja Cat, and Eugene and Dan Levy. Sandler gave his blessing to the remix and retweeted the group’s video.

Question 9 of 10

Bing Crosby’s medley of “Little Drummer Boy” and “Peace on Earth” was sung with which rock icon on his 1977 special, “Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas”?

bing crosby
Rob Ebdon/Getty Images

The show’s writers, Larry Grossman and Buz Kohan, recounted in an episode of PBS’ “American Masters” that Bowie originally refused to sing “Little Drummer Boy” because he said he hated the song, so they wrote the “Peace on Earth” part specifically for Bowie as a compromise.

Question 10 of 10

Which holiday classic was based on a story written for a department store?

The song "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer," is based on the 1939 story written by Robert L. May at the request of Montgomery Ward. The department store chain distributed millions of copies of the story to customers, and May’s brother-in-law,  songwriter Johnny Marks, later created the lyrics and melody. The song was first recorded by Gene Autry in 1949 and hit No. 1 on the “Billboard” singles chart the first week of 1950.

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