The Monday Briefing Christmas quiz offers a test of your knowledge of the festive season, economics, politics and sport, in 12 questions. The answers and a brief explanation of the factors at work are provided at the end.
1. Which one of the following Christmas films has the highest box office takings after adjusting for inflation?
a) Die Hard (1988)
b) Home Alone (1990)
c) Love Actually (2003)
d) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
2. UK inflation fell through 2024, but the price of some goods and services has continued to rise rapidly. Which one of the following items saw the largest increase in prices in the 12 months to October?
a) Postal services
b) Whole milk
c) Olive oil
d) Petrol
3. The Bank of England cut interest rates to the lowest level in its 325-year history in March 2020, in response to a weakening of activity caused by the pandemic. How low did UK rates go? (The current Bank of England interest rate is 4.75%.)
a) -0.5%
b) 0.1%
c) 0.25%
d) 1.5%
4. Over the last 200 years there have been numerous innovations in the design and manufacture of artificial Christmas trees. Three of the four following types of artificial trees are genuine. Which one isn’t?
a) Trees made by the brush maker, American Brush, in the 1950s drawing on designs for making bottle brushes with the brushes dyed green
b) Nineteenth century German made trees of goose feathers dyed green
c) Christmas trees made in the 1930s in a diversification effort by the English manufacturer Addis using the same brushes, dyed green, as were used in the firm’s toilet brushes
d) Silver aluminium trees first commercially manufactured in the US from the mid-1950s
5. In the 2024 UK general election, which constituency was won by the narrowest margin, in terms of votes polled?
a) Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat hold
b) Bootle, Labour hold
c) Hendon, London, Labour gain from Conservatives
d) Doncaster North, Labour hold
6. The following are popular Christmas songs and carols with vowels and spaces removed. For example, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” becomes LLWNTFRCHRSTMSSY. Which songs and carols are shown below?
a) LTTLTWNFBTHLHM|
b) GDRSTYMRRYGNTLMN
c) GDKNGWNCSLS
d) WYNMNGR
e) FLZNVDD
7. Before the global financial crisis, 25-year mortgages were the norm in the UK. Only 12% of borrowers obtained mortgages with term lengths of 30 years or more in 2005. What percentage of borrowers obtain new mortgages with 30-year or longer terms now?
a) 20%
b) 30%
c) 50%
d) 70%
8. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which was the most ‘liveable’ city in the world in 2024?
a) Vienna, Austria
b) Copenhagen, Denmark
c) London, United Kingdom
d) Sydney, Australia
9. Many countries went to the polls in 2024. How many governing parties, across the developed world, increased their vote share in elections this year?
a) 7
b) 4
c) 1
d) 0
10. At the 2024 Paris Olympics the US won a total of 126 medals, while China finished in second place with 91, but which one of the following countries won the highest number of medals on a per capita basis?
a) Great Britain
b) France
c) China
d) US
e) Australia
f) South Korea
g) Germany
11. Who has the best claim to have introduced the Christmas tree to England?
a) Charles Dickens (1812-1870), author of, among others, a Christmas Carol
b) Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), German wife of George III of Great Britain and Ireland
c) Prince Albert (1819-1861), Queen Victoria’s German husband
d) Jane Austen (1775-1817), novelist
12. Pigs in blankets – known as kilted sausages in Scotland and Wesley Dogs in the US – are a popular Christmas dish, comprising a small sausage wrapped in bacon. A recent survey by the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and You Gov found that 58% of UK consumers rated pigs in blankets an essential part of their Christmas meal. Which one of the following products has not been produced in pigs in blankets flavour:
a) A vape
b) Ice cream
c) Chocolates
d) Gin
Answers
1. Which one of the following Christmas films has the highest box office takings after adjusting for inflation?
a) Die Hard (1988)
b) Home Alone (1990)
c) Love Actually (2003)
d) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Answer: b) Home Alone. Home Alone, the family comedy headed by child star Macaulay Culkin, swept the box office on its release in 1990, going on to be the second-highest grossing film of that year. Its sequel, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, released in 1992, is the second-highest grossing Christmas film. Love Actually takes the number nine spot while Die Hard comes in at 16. It’s a Wonderful Life was a commercial failure on its release, only going on to gain greater acclaim when its copyright expired in 1974, and it was widely broadcast on TV.
2. UK inflation fell through 2024, but the price of some goods and services has continued to rise rapidly. Which one of the following items saw the largest increase in prices in the 12 months to October?
a) Postal services
b) Whole milk
c) Olive oil
d) Petrol
Answer: c) Olive oil. Olive oil prices rose by 27% in the year to October, the fastest-rising component of the consumer price index, according to the ONS. High temperatures and droughts in Spain over recent years have led to poor harvests, curtailing the supply of olive oil and raising prices. In second place was postal services, with prices rising by 23% as the price of a first-class stamp increased from £1.35 to £1.65. The price of whole milk has remained relatively flat over the year. Rising energy prices played a major role in the post-pandemic surge in inflation but since October 2023 petrol prices have fallen by over 13%.
3. The Bank of England cut interest rates to the lowest level in its 325-year history in March 2020, in response to a weakening of activity caused by the pandemic. How low did UK rates go? (The current Bank of England interest rate is 4.75%.)
a) -0.5%
b) 0.1%
c) 0.25%
d) 1.5%
Answer: b) 0.1%. Interest rates in the euro area reached a low of -0.5% in the pandemic and US rates hit a low of 0.25%. UK rates stayed at 0.1% between March 2020 and December 2021, when the Bank began raising rates to tackle inflation. Since December 2021, there were 14 rate hikes, with interest rates reaching a high of 5.25% in August 2023. In August this year, the Bank began cutting interest rates as inflation abated.
4. Over the last 200 years there have been numerous innovations in the design and manufacture of artificial Christmas trees. Three of the four following types of artificial trees are genuine. Which one isn’t?
a) Trees made by the brush maker, American Brush, in the 1950s drawing on designs for making bottle brushes with the brushes dyed green
b) Nineteenth century German made trees of goose feathers dyed green
c) Christmas trees made in the 1930s in a diversification effort by the English manufacturer Addis using the same brushes, dyed green, as were used in the firm’s toilet brushes
d) Silver aluminium trees first commercially manufactured in the US from the mid-1950s
Answer: c) Addis. All the others are real examples of artificial Christmas trees. There are numerous references online to the English brush making company, Addis, making Christmas trees using the same type of brushes as were used in the firm’s toilet brushes. However, this appears to be apocryphal. Research by the Hagley Museum and Library of industrial history in Delaware last year found that Addis got into the Christmas tree business later, in around 1970, when it acquired a small English maker of tinsel Christmas trees. Those trees were made of tinsel, not bristles. Sadly, the ‘toilet brush Christmas tree’ doesn’t seem to stack up.
5. In the 2024 UK general election, which constituency was won by the narrowest margin, in terms of votes polled?
a) Kingston and Surbiton, Liberal Democrat hold
b) Bootle, Labour hold
c) Hendon, London, Labour gain from Conservatives
d) Doncaster North, Labour hold
Answer: c) Hendon, which Labour won from the Conservatives by 15 votes. The 2024 UK general election saw a victory for the Labour Party, with it winning 411 of a total of 650 seats and a current working majority of 163. Despite polling just 34% of the votes cast, the lowest of any election-winning party in the post-war era, Keir Starmer’s Labour won only seven fewer seats than in Labour’s landslide victory in 1997. This year’s election has resulted in a large rise in marginal seats, with 115 of the 650 total seats being won with a margin of 5% or less. Bootle was the safest seat by voting majority, with Labour winning by nearly 22,000 votes.
6. The following are popular Christmas songs and carols with vowels and spaces removed. For example, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” becomes LLWNTFRCHRSTMSSY. Which songs and carols are shown below?
a) LTTLTWNFBTHLHM
b) GDRSTYMRRYGNTLMN
c) GDKNGWNCSLS
d) WYNMNGR
e) FLZNVDD
Answers: a) O Little Town of Bethlehem; b) God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen; c) Good King Wenceslas; d) Away in a Manger; e) Feliz Navidad
7. Before the global financial crisis, 25-year mortgages were the norm in the UK. Only 12% of borrowers obtained mortgages with term lengths of 30 years or more in 2005. What percentage of borrowers obtain new mortgages with 30-year or longer terms now?
a) 20%
b) 30%
c) 50%
d) 70%
Answer: c) 50%. According to the Bank of England, high interest rates, rising house prices and the increased cost of living have stretched mortgage affordability, with more households opting for longer mortgage terms to reduce monthly repayments. At the start of 2024, 50% of new mortgages came with terms of 30 years or longer, with a higher prevalence among first-time buyers and younger borrowers. Almost 10% of mortgages have terms of 40 years or more. Longer terms mean that a growing proportion of homeowners will make mortgage payments well beyond retirement age.
8. According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, which was the most ‘liveable’ city in the world in 2024?
a) Vienna, Austria
b) Copenhagen, Denmark
c) London, United Kingdom
d) Sydney, Australia
Answer: a) Vienna. According to The Economist’s 2024 Global Liveability Index, the Austrian capital is the most liveable city, with it earning the top spot for the third year running after receiving perfect scores for stability, healthcare, education and infrastructure. Copenhagen, Zurich and Geneva also made the top ten, with the remainder consisting of Vancouver and Calgary in North America and, in Asia-Pacific, Melbourne, Sydney, Auckland and Osaka. Top-rated cities tend to do well on public transport, health, education and housing. Damascus, Tripoli and Algiers were rated as the least liveable cities.
9. Many countries went to the polls in 2024. How many governing parties, across the developed world, increased their vote share in elections this year?
a) 7
b) 4
c) 1
d) 0
Answer: d) 0. Analysis by the Financial Times suggests that in the ten developed nations it monitored, which went to the polls this year, none of the governing incumbents increased their vote share. This is the first instance of this happening on record, amid difficult economic conditions and heightened geopolitical tensions. The UK Conservative Party’s vote share fell nearly 20 percentage points. The US Democratic Party suffered a lesser decline in support, with its vote share falling by 3 percentage points.
10. At the 2024 Paris Olympics the US won a total of 126 medals, while China finished in second place with 91, but which one of the following countries won the highest number of medals on a per capita basis?
a) Great Britain
b) France
c) China
d) US
e) Australia
f) South Korea
g) Germany
Answer: e) Australia. Australia won 19.9 medals for every 10m people. The overall medals table was dominated by the US and China, but on a per capita basis, they won 3.8 and 0.7 medals per 10m people, respectively. Great Britain won 9.5, France 9.4, South Korea 6.2 and Germany 3.9 per 10m population. The top three spots were occupied by Caribbean islands Grenada, Dominica and St Lucia, each with populations of under 200,000. Each of these three countries won the equivalent of over 100 medals per 10m population.
11. Who has the best claim to have introduced the Christmas tree to England?
a) Charles Dickens (1812-1870), author of, among others, a Christmas Carol
b) Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), German wife of George III of Great Britain and Ireland
c) Prince Albert (1819-1861), Queen Victoria’s German husband
d) Jane Austen (1775-1817), novelist
Answer: b) Queen Charlotte. While Prince Albert is usually credited with having introduced the Christmas tree to England in 1840 it was actually ‘good Queen Charlotte’ who set up the first known tree at Queen’s Lodge, Windsor, in December 1800. Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol helped shape modern ideas of Christmas. Christmas features in a number of Jane Austen’s novels.
12. Pigs in blankets – known as kilted sausages in Scotland and Wesley Dogs in the US – are a popular Christmas dish, comprising a small sausage wrapped in bacon. A recent survey by the UK’s Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board and You Gov found that 58% of UK consumers rated pigs in blankets an essential part of their Christmas meal. Which one of the following products has not been produced in pigs in blankets flavour:
a) A vape
b) Ice cream
c) Chocolates
d) Gin
Answer. d) Gin. Gin features in some pigs in blankets recipes but we could find no record of a pigs in blankets flavoured gin. A pigs in blankets vape has been described as having, “plenty of smoky, sweet flavour that combines a savoury base with plenty of sweet overtones”. One specialist maker has offered vegan-friendly chocolates with pigs in blanket flavoured ganache. Last Christmas Aldi launched a pigs in blanket ice cream made by Yorkshire ice cream makers and farmers, Yorvale.