Round 0 – Team Name
Decide on a team name. The best named team, as judged by myself, will receive 2 bonus points. The second best 1 bonus point
Round 1 – In the News
- The Funeral for which member of the Stone Roses was held this week?
- Karen Carney won Strictly last week, but what was her profession before taking part?
- Which metal has seen the largest annual increase in value of its recorded history this year, rising 138%?
- Which Author again topped the list this year for the greatest number of books borrowed from UK libraries?
- What was the most watched programme of Christmas day this year?
- Whilst air travel saw the highest UK Christmas Eve footfall since records began, it wasn’t the busiest air travel day for this year’s festive period. What was the December date which saw the highest air travel footfall?
- Which UK animal is being considered for culling due to millions of pounds of damage being caused from its population increasing from 450k in 1970 to 2million in 2025?
- Which country did the US launch strikes against on Christmas day due to ‘persecution of Christians’?
- Which artist had the charges dropped against them this week from their controversial Glastonbury performance?
- Noddy Holder recently admitted in an interview that he refuses to go out to restaurants on Christmas day for what reason?
Round 2 – Take A Guess
In this round, the challenge isnt getting the answer exactly right, just closer than the opposing teams. Below are ten questions you realistically shouldn’t know the answer to. All you have to do is take a guess. The team with the closest guess gets 2 points, whilst the 2nd and 3rd closest both get 1.
At some point in the quiz I will drop into your room and ask for your answers before the marking is performed. This avoids last minute tactical changes to answers during the live marking.
- What was the population of the UK in mid 2024 according to the ONS?
- What is the diameter of a olympic standard table tennis ball in mm
- How many distinct models of the iphone has there been since the launch of the original (including all Pro’s, Max’s, mini’s etc)?
- How many grams of sugar are in 1litre of UK full fat Coca-Cola?
- How many officially released songs has Taylor swift got writing credit for (including songs she wrote for other artists but not including re-releases i.e. Taylor’s versions)?
- How many countries are in Asia according to UN definitions?
- How many unique clubs have played in the English football league & premier league since its inception in 1888
- How long in minutes did it take Tom Davies to drive between Lands end and John O Groats in his successful attempt to be the fastest ever to do it?
- According to Nintendo, how many Wii consoles were sold globally?
- What is the total number of marks scored in the boxing day quiz over the last 5 teams across all teams? (for those who have not done the quiz for a long time, the total marks available per quiz is roughly 90 and the number of teams has been between 5-8 each year)
Round 3 – Music
Pretty standard music round, 1 mark for the song name and 1 mark for the artist. A bonus 2 marks will be given for getting the link between the songs. As per usual the scores from this round will be multipled by 0.75 to ensure even weighting with the other rounds:
Round 4 – ExplAIn That to me Again?
I asked AI to really badly explain the plots of 10 famous books to me. These can be found below along with the list of ten books the explanations are based on (The list of books is below all of the descriptions you have to scroll quite far down). All you have to do is match the book to the description.
Use the descriptions as the questions and the books as the answers.
1.
A guy gets way too invested in a bad experience with a very specific problem and decides that the only reasonable response is to quit his job, drag a bunch of coworkers along, and spend months away from home thinking about revenge.
Most of the story is long explanations about equipment and procedures, while everyone politely ignores the fact that their boss is clearly spiralling. Occasionally something interesting happens, but then it’s back to unnecessary technical details.
Eventually the problem reappears, does not apologise, and the whole situation goes exactly as badly as everyone except the obsessed guy expected.
The lesson is: sometimes the universe is not your enemy, and you really should take a day off.
2.
A person tries really hard to win a science fair, forgets about basic aftercare, and then gets extremely surprised when the group project develops feelings and starts sending very angry emails in person.
The project just wants a hug and maybe a job, but everyone keeps screaming, so it goes on a world tour ruining its creator’s life out of spite. The creator responds by chasing the mistake across several countries instead of, you know, apologising.
The lesson is: ignoring a problem does not make it go away, and responsibility doesn’t disappear just because you run from it.
3.
Two impulsive young people meet briefly, decide it must be destiny, and immediately reorganise their entire lives around that assumption.
They’re surrounded by adults who are deeply committed to a long-running disagreement, so instead of anyone communicating clearly, everyone sneaks around, overreacts, and makes things far more complicated than necessary.
A minor misunderstanding escalates into several dramatic decisions, a nap that goes badly wrong, and a group of people discovering—too late—that maybe talking things through would have been faster.
The lesson is: slow down, don’t make life-changing plans in under a week, and maybe check if someone is actually awake.
4.
A group decides they’re tired of being treated unfairly and agree that the solution is to completely reorganise how everything works, based on some very inspiring ideas everyone swears they understand.
At first, things seem better: lots of meetings, big promises, and rules that sound great when read out loud. Over time, a small group becomes very good at explaining why those rules don’t apply to them anymore, and why this is actually for everyone’s benefit.
Eventually, life looks suspiciously similar to how it did at the beginning, except now it’s harder to tell who’s in charge and the explanations are longer.
5.
A child grows up in a small community where everyone claims to value fairness, right up until fairness becomes mildly inconvenient.
An adult with a strong sense of right and wrong tries to do their job properly, which mainly involves calmly explaining obvious things while being ignored by most of the people around them.
Meanwhile, the child slowly realises that growing up isn’t about learning new facts, but about noticing who gets protected, who gets blamed, and how quietly unfairness can be dressed up as “the way things are.”
The lesson is: doing the right thing won’t always fix the problem, but not doing it guarantees nothing ever changes.
6.
A group of people spend a lot of time worrying about money, reputation, and who should marry whom, while insisting they are being perfectly reasonable about all of it.
Several strong opinions are formed almost immediately, mostly based on first impressions, awkward conversations, and very little actual information.
After many misunderstandings, social events, and dramatic internal monologues, everyone slowly realises they may have been wrong about nearly everything.
The lesson is: judging too quickly is inefficient, communication would solve most problems, and self-awareness is an acquired skill
7.
A quiet observer moves to a new place and becomes deeply involved in the emotional chaos of people who have far more money than sense.
One person throws extremely elaborate gatherings for strangers in the hope that one specific individual might eventually notice, while everyone else treats the events like a free buffet and leaves without learning anything.
There is a lot of talking about the past, very little understanding of it, and several people make life-changing decisions based on nostalgia and bad timing.
In the end, things fall apart quietly, responsibility is expertly avoided, and the only person who cared enough to clean up is the one least rewarded for it.
8.
A teenager has a few days alone in a large city and responds by criticising absolutely everything while claiming this is a personality trait, not a problem.
They avoid going home, spend money irresponsibly, and bounce between wanting human connection and being deeply annoyed by anyone who provides it.
Most of the plot is walking, thinking, and having very strong opinions about strangers, with brief moments of honesty that are immediately buried under sarcasm.
The lesson is: being confused and overwhelmed doesn’t make you special, but it does mean you probably need rest, help, and someone you trust.
9.
A group of people live in an isolated setting and make that everyone else’s problem by refusing to process their emotions in a healthy way.
Two individuals form an intense bond early on and then spend the rest of their lives proving that love and resentment can coexist very loudly. Most decisions are driven by pride, jealousy, or the desire to emotionally devastate someone who would have preferred a quiet afternoon.
Time passes, new people get dragged into old grudges, and the situation remains hostile despite multiple opportunities to calm down and move on.
The lesson is: unresolved feelings don’t fade on their own, and choosing bitterness as a lifestyle has excellent long-term consequences for absolutely no one.
10.
A young person spends their time enthusiastically making terrible choices and treating chaos like a hobby, supported by a group that confuses loyalty with poor judgment.
After this predictably goes too far, the authorities decide the real problem isn’t the behaviour but the individual’s ability to choose it, so they attempt a very confident, very uncomfortable fix.
The solution technically works, except it removes agency, creates new problems, and is enthusiastically misused by everyone involved.
The lesson is: taking away choice doesn’t create goodness, and systems that value control over humanity tend to get unsettling results.
List of Books:
- The Catcher in the rye
- Pride and Prejudice
- Moby Dick
- A Clockwork Orange
- The Great Gatsby
- Frankenstein
- Animal Farm
- Wuthering Heights
- Romeo & Juliette
- To Kill a Mockingbird
Round 5 – High 5!
In this round there are two prompts below, each require you to submit 5 answers. You get 1 point for each correct answer in each list. You do not have to get the 5 answers in the right order however if you do manage to get all 5 correct and in the right order for either list, you will get 3 bonus points.
- Rank from highest to lowest, the top 5 calendar months for births in the UK
(Data taken from the ONS for births between 1995-2025). - What are the top 5 most common male names found in the UK population
(Data taken from Forebears analysing data from UK Census in 2021)
Round 6 – Instrumental Christmas Songs
You know the lyrics of these Christmas songs, but how well do you know the backing instrumentals? In the video below you will hear 10 well known christmas songs, but with the vocals stripped out (some better done than others it must be said). All you have to do is tell me the name of the christmas song. No points for artists sorry!
Round 7 – Famous Family Names
Below are the pictures of 12 famous people all sharing the same names as my immediate Family (Andrew, Alison, Matthew and Adam for those who don’t know us so well…). You just have to tell me the names of each person, first name and surname.
Round 8 – 6 Years in Review
For those familiar with the quiz, you were probably all expecting to see another classic 2025 year in review round here. Well jokes on you we’re mixing it up a bit this year.
Did you know this is the 6th boxing day in a row this quiz has been going on for?! Therefore, I have taken 2 of the events from each year for the last 5 years (2020-2024), and added in two from this year. All you have to do is put them in date order (longest ago to most recent).
As I’m generous, if you get both events from a given year in the correct year, but wrong order, you can have half a point.
The clearest way to display you answer will probably be to set it out by year (2020-2025) i.e.
2020:
- Event which happened first in 2020
- Event which happened second in 2020
2021
- Event which happened first in 2021
- Event which happened second in 2021
etc
List of Events:
- Donald Trump narrowly avoids assassination as bullet grazes his ear
- ‘Barbenheimer’ grips the world as both films release on the same day.
- Protests are first held across the world for the death of George Floyd
- Death of Pope Francis
- King Charles is coronated at a ceremony in Westminster Abbey.
- Funeral of Prince Philip, consort to Queen Elizabeth II
- Captain Tom Moore gets knighted after raising over £32 million for medical charities
- Liz Truss is appointed as prime minister
- Meeting between Trump and Zelensky is curtailed as he’s “not said thank you once”
- Matt Hancock is caught ‘breaking COVID rules’ and quits as Health Secretary
- Russia invades Ukraine
- Luke Littler becomes the youngest finalist of the PDC World Darts Championship at the age of 16 years (supposedly…)