We hear them from one Yuletide after another, the sounds of the season we’ve known and loved for decades. Just how much do you know about classic Christmas songs? Test your knowledge with this short, fun quiz.
1. Now a favorite of children, “Jingle Bells” was originally considered to be what?
A: A fraternity song
B: A church hymn
C: A tribute to horses
D: A drinking song
Answer: D. When “Jingle Bells” was first published in September 1857, it was originally considered a drinking song. Yuletide revelers would clink their drinking glasses to mimic sleighbells. Its lyrics about a young, unmarried couple sleighing together without a chaperone were also considered racy for the mid-19th century.
2. Singing cowboy Gene Autry reluctantly recorded a kids’ Christmas song on June 27, 1949. What was it?
A: “Frosty the Snowman”
B: “Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas”
C: “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”
D: “Jingle Bell Rock”
Answer: C. Popular singers like Bing Crosby, Perry Como and Dinah Shore had passed on the song about the plucky little reindeer with the crimson snout. Autry only recorded it so his wife, Ina, would stop hounding him about it. Even then, it was on the “B” side of the record. Yet, it became the No. 1 song in the United States for Christmas week 1949.
3. Not only is this Christmas song the biggest-selling holiday track of all time, but it is estimated by Guinness World Records to be the biggest-selling song ever.
A: “White Christmas”
B: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
C: “All I Want for Christmas Is You”
D: “Jingle Bells”
Answer: A. Mariah Carey’s megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” may have just broken the record for the most weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts (20), but it can’t touch the 1942 Bing Crosby classic. It has sold 100 million copies worldwide.
4. The iconic “Silent Night” was first publicly performed on Christmas Eve 1818, with which instrument?
A: Violin
B: Piano
C: Organ
D: Guitar
Answer: D. The first performance was at the tiny Nikolauskirche church in Obendorf, Austria. However, the church’s organ was broken, so a guitar accompanied the choir.
5. What was the first Christmas song ever broadcast?
A: “O Little Town of Bethlehem”
B: “O Come All Ye Faithful”
C: “O Holy Night”
D: “O Christmas Tree”
Answer: C. Inventor Reginald Fessenden played the song on his violin on a Christmas Eve radio broadcast from Brant Rock, Mass., in 1906. A passage from the Book of Luke was also read. Ship operators along the Atlantic Coast heard it, making it the first time a human voice and music were transmitted by radio.
6. For two centuries, the classic “O Tannenbaum” (which led to today’s “O Christmas Tree”) has been a staple at Christmastime. However, in the early 19th century, its melody was used for what non-holiday purpose?
A: Political protests
B: Spirituals
C: Bawdy ballads
D: Sea shanties
Answer: A. Because it was widely popular and easy to sing, its words were written for versions that stressed nationalist protest themes in Germany, especially during the liberal Revolutions of 1848 that swept across much of central Europe.
7. The bittersweet “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” became a wartime hit in 1944. However, its singer refused to include what original lyric?
A: “What have you got to lose?”
B: “It’s better than crying.”
C: “Go ahead, why not?”
D: “It could be your last.”
Answer: D. Featured in the MGM classic movie “Meet Me In St. Louis,” Judy Garland sang it to her little co-star Margaret O’Brien. However, she absolutely refused to sing the words “it could be your last.” With World War II raging at the time, Garland believed the line was just too morbid for moviegoers who were struggling to keep morale high.
