Christmas Quiz Ideas for Families

Start here, because it is the only subject everybody at the table is genuinely an expert in.

Who is most likely to fall asleep before the film finishes. Who once got a parking ticket in another country and never mentioned it. Who cried at an advert this year.

Collect these in advance, in secret, from everybody who is coming. Three each is plenty, and it turns the quiz into something the family made rather than something one person imposed.

One family member, one question, on their own, with everyone watching. If they get it wrong, the next person can steal it.

This works at Christmas specifically because the room already has an appetite for watching one relative struggle in public. Keep it short. One question each, moving round the table.

Pick the smallest person in the house and ask them something impossible. Please explain the socio-economic impact of the 2008 financial crisis. What is your considered opinion on the housing market.

Whatever they do in reply, and it will usually be a raspberry or a scream, is accepted by the judges. Everybody gets ten points.

It is ninety seconds long and it is reliably the moment the whole room is laughing at once.

Spin something, or draw a folded piece of paper, and give the person in last place a dare.

Good ones, tested by a great many families:

• Let the group look at the last photo in your camera roll. No deleting.
• Do an impression of another person at the table until somebody guesses who.
• Sing the chorus of a song the room picks, with full commitment.
• Speak in an accent chosen by the group until your next turn.

The dares are what stop the bottom half of the leaderboard from giving up.

Read out a ridiculous news bulletin about whoever is losing, in a serious voice. Local man in last place, blames the questions. Sources close to the sofa confirm he has requested a recount.

It costs nothing, it takes twenty seconds, and it is the round people quote next year.

There is always one. Two things work:

• Put them in a pair with someone enthusiastic. People who will not play alone will usually play as half of a team.
• Make them the judge for one round. Giving somebody authority is the fastest way to get them involved.

• Keep it short. Twenty questions total, with the other rounds in between. Nobody has ever complained that a family quiz ended too early.
• Do it after food, before the film. Attention is at its highest and alcohol at a useful mid point.
• Get it on the television. Reading questions off a phone halves the energy in the room. Any laptop plugged into the TV is enough.
• Pair across the ages. A teenager and a grandparent on the same team is the best pairing in the house.
• Finish with a podium. Announce third, second and first. Somebody will photograph it.

The reason most family quizzes do not happen is the hour of writing beforehand, usually landing on the same person who cooked.

Quizriella removes that by collecting the questions from the family instead. Everyone writes about each other on their own phone, the show comes back with the rounds already ordered, and whoever is hosting gets to be surprised along with everybody else.