Christmas Riddles with Answers
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Nothing breaks up a long holiday dinner like a good riddle. These Christmas riddles cover Santa, snowmen, and everything under the tree. Easy ones for the kids, harder ones for the table.
Christmas riddles hide a second meaning in the decorations
The riddles on this page take objects already in your house, the tree, the stocking, the star on top, and hand you the wrong meaning first. Needles but I never sew (riddle 1) wants you picturing a sewing kit while the needles sit on the fir. A bow but I cannot shoot (riddle 33) points at archery when the bow is ribbon. Hold the first picture loosely, then hunt for the everyday word that could belong to a decoration instead.
The working habit is to read each noun twice, once as you use it in March and once as it appears in December. Eve is the evening before a feast and a name from Genesis (riddle 20). A carol is a song and a girl (riddle 19). Fall is a tumble or a drift from a cloud (riddle 5). Only one reading survives every clue, and it is nearly always the seasonal one. The plain what-am-I items work differently: red and white, chimneys and vanishing cookies (riddle 23) cut a list down one clue at a time, so keep the clue that removes your first guess, not the clue that suggested it.
The plain what-am-I items need the move that the what am I riddles run for a whole page: the speaker is an object in borrowed parts, so translate the part before you name the thing. The Christmas riddles for adults mostly narrow an object by its details, and five turn on an assumption you supplied.
- Riddle 16: most people say A scarecrow. A scarecrow wears a scarf and has a face, so the guess is fair. No neck removes it: a scarecrow hangs on a post with a neck of straw, while cannot see moves the carrot from eyes to nose, and only one figure wears a carrot there and dreads warm weather.
- Riddle 22: most people say An angel. Angels top as many trees as stars do, so the first clue is a coin flip. Live in the night sky decides it: the riddle wants the one topper whose name is also a thing burning overhead, and no angel appears on a star chart.
- Riddle 46: most people say The chimney. Stockings hang beside the chimney breast and Santa arrives through it, so chimney is the reflex. Logs crackle inside me rules it out: a chimney carries smoke and nothing burns in it, while the open box under the mantel holds the actual fire.
- Riddle 5: most people say A raindrop. Rain falls without getting hurt too, so the first sentence cannot decide it. No two of me are ever alike is the line to trust: every raindrop is the same bead of water, while the frozen kind grows a different six-armed shape on each trip through the cloud.
Read every Christmas noun twice, once as a household word and once as a decoration, and keep the reading that survives the last clue.
Christmas riddles for kids
Trees dressed up in December and songs named Carol. Easy wins for the youngest at the table.
Christmas riddles with answers for adults
The harder entries hide their answers in wordplay. Old snowmen become water, eventually.
Holiday riddles for the classroom and the dinner table
Perfect for the last school week of December or the lull between dinner and dessert.
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1. I have needles but I never sew. Every December people dress me up. What am I?
Most people first say: A porcupine
Show answer
A Christmas tree.
The trick is the word needles, which sounds like sewing pins but here names the thin evergreen leaves of a fir or spruce that stay green all winter.
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2. What do you call a snowman in July?
Show answer
A puddle.
July is peak summer heat, so a snowman would melt into a puddle of water, the joke turning on what snow becomes once it warms up.
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3. I get filled every Christmas Eve, but I am not a plate. I hang by the fire and hold your treats. What am I?
Most people first say: A cookie jar
Show answer
A stocking.
Filled and holds your treats keep a cookie jar in the running even after the plate is denied. Hang by the fire removes it: jars sit on counters, and the one container that dangles from a mantel waiting to be stuffed is a sock.
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4. Which of Santa's reindeer has the shiniest nose?
Show answer
Rudolph.
Shiniest nudges you toward polish, as if the reindeer had been buffed. The fact in play is a glow, not a shine: the song gives one member of the team a nose so bright it lights the sleigh's path through fog.
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5. I fall from the sky but never get hurt. No two of me are ever alike. What am I?
Most people first say: A raindrop
Show answer
A snowflake.
Fall is read as a tumble, the kind that scrapes a knee, so never get hurt sounds impossible. Read it as drifting down from a cloud and the injury disappears; no two alike then drops rain, since every drop looks like the next.
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6. You can catch me under a doorway at Christmas, and I might cost you a kiss. What am I?
Most people first say: A sprig of holly
Show answer
Mistletoe.
Catch is the pivot: you picture grabbing something in your hands, while the custom has the plant catching you. Cost you a kiss turns a price into a forfeit, the toll paid by whoever pauses beneath the sprig.
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7. I am round, I hang from branches, and I shatter if you drop me. What am I?
Most people first say: An apple
Need a hint?
You find me on the tree, not under it.
Show answer
An ornament.
Round and hanging from branches describe fruit in an orchard, and the picture holds until shatter arrives. Fruit bruises and splits, it never shatters, so the branches must be indoors and the round thing a thin glass bauble.
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8. What kind of music do elves listen to?
Show answer
Wrap music.
Wrap music is a pun on rap music, swapping in wrap because elves spend the season wrapping presents.
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9. I am a striped stick you can eat, shaped like a shepherd's hook. What am I?
Most people first say: A lollipop
Show answer
A candy cane.
Stick you can eat leaves lollipops and pretzel rods in play, and striped keeps the lollipop alive. The shepherd's hook does the cutting: only one sweet is bent into a crook at the top, which is also why it hangs from a branch.
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10. The more presents I cover, the less of me is left on the roll. What am I?
Most people first say: A roll of tape
Show answer
Wrapping paper.
More and less sound like a contradiction until you notice the roll and the covering are one sheet. Each gift dressed is a length torn off, so the wrapped pile grows as the tube empties. Tape sits on a roll too, but tape seals.
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11. I am a house you can eat, held together with icing. What am I?
Most people first say: A frosted cake
Show answer
A gingerbread house.
House and eat clash until you shrink the building to tabletop size. Held together with icing then rules out a cake, where icing is a topping: mortar you can lick means the walls are baked slabs, and only one house is built from cookie.
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12. What does Santa use when his sleigh breaks down?
Need a hint?
It is a vehicle made for winter.
Show answer
A snowmobile.
Breaks down is car language, and the riddle borrows it on purpose. Once the sleigh is treated like a stalled car, the replacement has to be the car built for snow, a word that stitches snow onto automobile.
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13. I count the days until Christmas, and behind each of my little doors there is often chocolate. What am I?
Most people first say: A wall calendar
Show answer
An advent calendar.
Counting days describes any wall calendar, so the doors carry the work. A calendar page has no doors, and a chocolate box has lids but never counts; the one object that does both hides a sweet behind each numbered flap.
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14. I ring but I am not a phone. You hear me on sleighs and in carols. What am I?
Most people first say: A doorbell
Show answer
A bell.
Ring without a phone still leaves the doorbell, and that is where most people go. Sleighs cut it out: nothing wired to a house rides on runners, and the carol clue leaves the small metal cup that chimes when shaken.
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15. How do Santa's elves take pictures of themselves?
Show answer
They snap elfies.
Elfies is a pun on selfies, blending elf with the word for a self-taken photo.
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16. I wear a scarf but have no neck, a carrot but I cannot see. Warm weather is my enemy. What am I?
Most people first say: A scarecrow
Show answer
A snowman.
Scarf but no neck is the first contradiction, and it removes every person and every scarecrow, which hangs on a post by its straw neck. Carrot but cannot see teases you toward a face: the carrot is a nose, and warm weather names its material.
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17. Santa rides in me all night, yet I have no engine and no wheels. What am I?
Show answer
A sleigh.
Rides in me sends you to vehicles, and vehicles as most people picture them come with wheels and a motor. Strip both away and what remains is a seat on runners, pulled rather than driven, the one ride the man in red is famous for.
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18. Where does Santa keep his suits?
Need a hint?
Say it out loud. It sounds like a place for clothes.
Show answer
In the Claus-et.
Claus-et is a pun on closet, mixing Santa's surname Claus into the word for where clothes are stored.
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19. I am a song sung door to door in December, and my name is also a girl's name. What am I?
Most people first say: The name Holly
Show answer
A carol.
Two lists collide here: the December songs (Silent Night, Deck the Halls) and the girls' names (Holly, Noelle, Eve). The word that sits on both lists at once is the one where the type of song and the first name are spelled identically.
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20. I am the night before the big day, and I share my name with the first woman in the Bible. What am I?
Show answer
Christmas Eve.
Eve is doing double duty. In one sense it is the evening before a feast day, in the other the first woman in Genesis, and the riddle stacks the two so the night before the big day and the biblical name share three letters.
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21. What do elves learn first at school?
Show answer
The elf-abet.
Elf-abet is a pun on alphabet, the set of letters children usually learn first, with elf swapped in for the opening sound.
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22. I sit on top of the tree and I also live in the night sky. What am I?
Most people first say: An angel
Show answer
A star.
Top of the tree points at a tree topper, and an angel is the usual rival. Live in the night sky removes the angel: only one topper shares its name with something burning far overhead, so the riddle wants the word naming both.
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23. I am red and white, I come down chimneys, and cookies vanish when I visit. Who am I?
Most people first say: A candy cane
Show answer
Santa Claus.
Red and white alone covers a candy cane, and candy canes do get eaten near the tree. Come down chimneys is the clue that cuts: sweets don't travel, and the vanishing cookies describe a visitor who eats rather than a thing that gets eaten.
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24. You leave me out for Santa with a glass of milk. What am I?
Most people first say: Carrots for the reindeer
Show answer
Cookies.
The custom is the whole riddle: on Christmas Eve a plate of something sweet goes beside the milk for the visitor in red. The glass narrows it further, since milk pairs with a baked snack, not with the carrots left out for reindeer.
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25. What falls in winter but never gets hurt and never makes a sound?
Show answer
Snow.
Snow drifts down as light ice crystals, so it lands silently and cannot be injured, unlike a person who falls.
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26. I am green, I hate noise, and I once tried to steal a whole holiday. Who am I?
Most people first say: Ebenezer Scrooge
Show answer
The Grinch.
Two grumps haunt December stories, and Scrooge is not green, which is what steal a whole holiday confirms: the Dickens miser only refuses to celebrate, while the Seuss creature hauls every gift and tree out of Whoville on a sled.
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27. I am a ball of snow that grows bigger the farther I roll. What am I?
Most people first say: A snowman
Show answer
A snowball.
Ball of snow already narrows things to the loose sphere you throw and the packed one you stack. Grows the farther I roll decides between them: a snowman stands still once built, while the thing still gathering fresh snow is the one in motion.
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28. Why did the Christmas cookie go to the doctor?
Need a hint?
Think about what cookies leave behind on the plate.
Show answer
Because it was feeling crummy.
The punchline plays on crummy, which means both feeling unwell and being full of crumbs, exactly what a cookie leaves behind.
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29. I am a circle of branches on your front door, with no beginning and no end. What am I?
Most people first say: A garland
Show answer
A wreath.
Circle of branches removes a garland, which hangs in a line, and front door removes the ring of lights on a tree. No beginning and no end sounds mystical but is plain geometry: a closed loop has no ends, and door greenery is a loop.
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30. I work all year in a toy shop, I am short, and my shoes curl at the toes. Who am I?
Most people first say: A leprechaun
Show answer
An elf.
Short with curled shoes fits a leprechaun just as well, and leprechauns even work with shoes. Toy shop all year narrows it: the little cobbler makes footwear for himself, while the small worker building toys every month answers to Santa.
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31. I am a hot drink with marshmallows floating on top, perfect after sledding. What am I?
Most people first say: Warm milk
Show answer
Hot chocolate.
A warm drink after sledding could be tea, cider, warm milk or cocoa, and the first two clues fit all four. Marshmallows make the cut: nobody floats them on cider or tea, so the drink is the sweet brown one they melt into.
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32. What do you get when you cross a snowman with a vampire?
Need a hint?
It is also what happens to fingers left out in the cold too long.
Show answer
Frostbite.
Frostbite combines the snowman's frost with the vampire's bite, and it is also the real cold-weather injury the hint points to.
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33. I have a bow but I cannot shoot, and ribbon but no hair. Kids shake me to guess what is inside. What am I?
Show answer
A present.
The misdirection is bow, which sounds like an archery weapon but here means the decorative ribbon knot on a wrapped present.
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34. I am the plant with red leaves that shows up in every store in December. What am I?
Most people first say: A holly bush
Need a hint?
My leaves are often mistaken for flowers.
Show answer
A poinsettia.
Red leaves is the fact the riddle leans on: on this plant the red is not a flower but a ring of colored leaves (bracts) around tiny yellow buds, so a solver hunting for a red bloom, like an amaryllis, searches the wrong category.
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35. Where do Santa and his elves live and build toys all year?
Most people first say: The South Pole
Show answer
The North Pole.
The fact in play is a location every carol assumes: the workshop sits at the top of the globe, not the bottom. That drops the South Pole and Antarctica, both frozen, both empty of elves in any telling of the story.
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36. I light up the house but I am not the sun. You string me along the roof and the tree. What am I?
Most people first say: A candle
Show answer
Christmas lights.
String me along is the sneaky phrase. As an idiom it means keeping someone waiting on false promises; taken literally it is a strand run along a gutter and through branches, which rules out a candle, the other light that is not the sun.
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37. What do you call an old snowman?
Show answer
Water.
Old sets you thinking about age the way a person ages, wrinkles and grey hair, so you hunt for a joke about a grandpa made of snow. A figure that has stood long enough stops being a snowman, and the yard holds a wet patch.
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38. I am a creamy holiday drink, thick and sweet and dusted with nutmeg. Grown-ups sometimes add a splash of something stronger. What am I?
Most people first say: Hot cocoa
Show answer
Eggnog.
Creamy and sweet fits cocoa, and cocoa is the guess most people start with. Nutmeg is the divider: nobody dusts cocoa with it, and the splash grown-ups add belongs to the one holiday drink built on eggs and cream that adults traditionally fortify.
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39. I am shiny and thin, I drape over branches to catch the light, and I get absolutely everywhere when you unbox me. What am I?
Most people first say: A garland of beads
Show answer
Tinsel.
Shiny, thin and draped over branches fits a garland, the usual first guess. Absolutely everywhere is the divider: a garland is one long strand you lift off whole, while the stuff that sheds into carpets and clings to sweaters comes as hundreds of loose slivers.
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40. Santa squeezes down me on Christmas Eve, though smoke usually travels the other way. What am I?
Most people first say: The front door
Show answer
A chimney.
Squeezes down already rules out doors and windows, which you walk through rather than drop through. Smoke travels the other way is the flip: the passage is built for something to rise out of the house, and one night a year the traffic runs backward.
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41. I am a painted wooden soldier who cracks a hard snack between my jaws, and I star in a famous winter ballet. What am I?
Most people first say: A toy soldier
Show answer
A nutcracker.
Painted wooden soldier casts a wide net, and a toy soldier is where most people stop. Cracks a hard snack between my jaws makes the cut: toy soldiers have no working jaw, and the figure whose hinged mouth splits walnut shells has a ballet too.
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42. I hang from the roof, I am built from frozen drips, and I grow longer on the coldest nights. What am I?
Most people first say: A stalactite
Show answer
An icicle.
Built from drips and hanging from above describes a stalactite too, and cave fans jump there first. Roof is the narrowing word: stalactites grow from cave ceilings over centuries, while the spike forming on a gutter overnight and lengthening in the cold is frozen water.
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43. I pull a sleigh across the night sky, I wear antlers, and one of my team lights the way with a glowing nose. What am I?
Most people first say: A horse
Show answer
A reindeer.
Pulling a sleigh is a job horses do every winter, so horse is the first guess. Antlers throw the horse out, and across the night sky throws out the elk and moose, which never leave the ground. A glowing nose up front confirms it.
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44. Why did the snowman name his puppy Frost?
Show answer
Because Frost bites.
The punchline puns on frostbite, splitting it into Frost the name and bites the verb, the same joke as a dog that bites.
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45. I am a small label that says who a present is from and who it is for. What am I?
Most people first say: A Christmas card
Show answer
A gift tag.
Label narrows the field to things stuck or tied on, which a card is not. From and for is the cut: a greeting card carries a message and a price tag a number, but the scrap naming both giver and receiver rides under the ribbon.
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46. Stockings hang from me, logs crackle inside me, and I keep the living room cozy on Christmas Eve. What am I?
Most people first say: The chimney
Show answer
A fireplace.
Stockings hang from me pulls most people toward the chimney, since the two share a wall. Logs crackle inside me sorts it out: nothing burns inside a chimney, only smoke passes through, while the brick box with the mantel above it holds the fire itself.
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47. I carry you down a snowy hill on a wooden or plastic seat, and I am no fun without a good slope. What am I?
Most people first say: A snowboard
Show answer
A sled.
Down a snowy hill covers skis and a snowboard as well. Seat is the divider: you stand on a board and on skis, and the only ride you sit on while gravity does the work is the runner-bottomed one you drag back up afterward.
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48. What is an elf's favorite kind of math?
Show answer
Elf-gebra.
Elf-gebra is a pun on algebra, swapping elf into the name of the math subject.
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49. I am a prickly green plant with bright red berries, and I show up on doors and Christmas cards every December. What am I?
Most people first say: A sprig of mistletoe
Show answer
Holly.
Green plant with red berries sounds like mistletoe to many people, and mistletoe does hang over doors. Prickly is the cut: mistletoe leaves are smooth and its berries are white, so the spiny leaves with the scarlet berries belong to the other December plant.
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50. I am a grumpy old man from a Christmas story who learns to be kind after three ghosts pay me a visit. Who am I?
Most people first say: The Grinch
Show answer
Scrooge.
Three ghosts is the fact that does the sorting: the Grinch is also grumpy and also reformed, but nothing haunts him except a dog and a heart that grows. The visitors of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come belong to the Dickens miser alone.
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FAQ about Christmas Riddles with Answers
Are these Christmas riddles for kids or adults?
Both, with this page sitting in the middle. Most items are wordplay a ten year old can follow with one nudge. The youngest solvers do better on the kids page, where the clues are plain, and adults who want assumption traps and logic teasers should go to the adults page.
How do you solve a Christmas riddle?
Find the everyday word that could also name a decoration or a custom, then try that reading. Needles, bow, star, fall and Eve all have a December sense. If no word flips, treat the clues as a checklist and cross off each guess the moment one clue fails it.
Can teachers use these riddles before winter break?
Yes. Read one aloud, let the class shout a first guess, then ask which word ruled that guess out. The short note under each answer names that word, so the riddle doubles as a two-minute vocabulary lesson.
Once the tree and the stocking have given up their second meanings, the winter riddles pull the same trick on snow and ice, and the Christmas rebus puzzles hide whole phrases inside pictures instead of words.