Here are the official answers for Round 4 of our True or False Christmas Quiz, each paired with a short explanation so you can settle any debates around the table. Tally up your team's score - ten out of twenty is a respectable showing, fifteen earns a mince pie, and a perfect twenty deserves the tinsel crown. Right-click the answers below to print a copy for your quiz master.
- True: 'Die Hard' starring Bruce Willis takes place during a Christmas Eve office party at Nakatomi Plaza, which is why many fans consider it a Christmas film.
- True: The ghosts are Jacob Marley, the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come.
- False: Many countries with non-Christian majorities do not observe Christmas Day as a public holiday.
- True: Reindeer are one of the few mammals able to see into the ultraviolet range.
- False: Red and green were associated with Christmas long before the Victorian era.
- False: In the original 1957 book by Dr. Seuss, the Grinch's heart grew three sizes that day, not four.
- True: Saint Nicholas was the 4th-century Bishop of Myra, in the region of Lycia, part of present-day Turkey.
- True: Starting on 12th December, one Yule Lad arrives each night, leaving small gifts for well-behaved children and rotten potatoes for the naughty.
- False: The Christmas Truce took place in December 1914, during the first Christmas of the war.
- False: 'Xmas' has been in use for centuries and is not a modern attempt to secularise the holiday.
- True: Oslo has gifted a Norwegian spruce to London every year since 1947 as a thank-you for Britain's support during the Second World War.
- True: La Befana flies on a broomstick on the night of 5th January, filling good children's stockings with sweets and leaving coal for the naughty.
- False: The first electrically lit Christmas tree was decorated in the United States, in 1882.
- False: The carol was originally written in Latin, under the title 'Adeste Fideles'.
- False: Prince Albert popularised the Christmas tree in Britain, but he did not invent it.
- False: 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' first aired on CBS in 1965.
- True: The single was released on 3rd December 1984 to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
- True: Saint Francis is widely credited with creating the first live Nativity scene in the Italian village of Greccio in 1223.
- False: The song was first released in 1994, on Mariah Carey's album 'Merry Christmas'.
- True: The song makes no reference to Christmas at all - it is a general winter song that simply became associated with the festive season.