Quiz: How well do you know Christmas carols?

1. What major error has been identified in the lyrics of fifteenth century carol "I Saw Three Ships"?
a) Ships never sail in threes  
b) Ships never sail on Christmas day
c) Bethlehem's port doesn't open in the morning   
d) Bethlehem has no port

2. What animal is mentioned in the refrain of "The Holly and the Ivy"?
a) Boar 
b) Deer 
c) Bear 
d) Lark

3. What beverage is being drunk in "Wassail! Wassail All Over the Town"?
a) Meade 
b) Wine 
c) Brown ale 
d) Whisky

4. Although all the wassail songs have the same general theme, none agree on what the cup or bowl is made of. In the best-known of these carols, "Here We Come a-Wassailing", the second verse describes the wassail cup as made of what?
a) Cedar branches 
b) Chestnut root 
c) Mulberry boughs 
d) The rosemary tree

5. Who are the two girls named in the carol "Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella"?
a) Princesses     
b) Shepherdesses  
c) Milkmaids 
d) Friends of Mary

6. What is the French version of "Jingle Bells" called?
a) "Clac-clac-clac"  
b) "Vive le Vent" 
c) "Nuit d'hiver"
d) "Boule de Neige" 

7. Which French carol dating back perhaps as far as the sixteenth century is believed by some scholars to have been the inspiration for "The Little Drummer Boy"?
a) "Noël Nouvelet!"
b) "Dans Cette Etable"
c) "Pat-a-Pan"
d) "Quittez Pasteurs"

8. What carol of unknown origin was preserved only because a singer who was also a collector of folk songs paid a little girl 25 cents to sing it for him at the height of the Depression?
a) "I Wonder as I Wander"
b) "Mary, Did You Know?"
c) "Mary Had a Baby"
d) "Sing We the Virgin Mary"

9. In what year did two astronauts use a harmonica and sleigh bells to deliver a space rendition of "Jingle Bells"?
a) 1993 
b) 1986 
c) 1971 
d) 1965

10. In which European city was Handel's Messiah first performed?
a) London  
b) Berlin  
c) Vienna  
d) Dublin


Page 1 of 2 -- Finish the quiz and find the answers on page 2!

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Excerpted from Quizmas Carols by Gordon Pape and Deborah Kerbel. Copyright 2007 Gordon Pape Enterprises Ltd. Excerpted with permission of Penguin Group (Canada).