Every December the same thing happens at our place. The Christmas playlist has been running since lunch, my sister Anna is singing along to every chorus, and by the third round of cookies somebody says: "I know this one." Of course you do. Everybody does. That is exactly why a Christmas music quiz works.
Most music quizzes split the room into the people who know music and the people who do not. A Christmas music quiz does not. Your grandmother knows Last Christmas, your nephew knows it, the new colleague from accounting knows it. Nobody needs to know who sang what. The only question is who recognizes the song first.
Why guessing Christmas songs works for everyone
- Everyone knows the songs. You have heard them in every supermarket since November. Nobody sits there clueless.
- Title only, nothing else. You do not need to know artists, years or anything else. If you can hum the chorus, you can play.
- Every generation is on equal terms. Christmas songs from the 50s, the 80s and the last few years all run on the radio every December. The kids and the grandparents are in the same race.
- It is loud in the right way. Somebody always starts singing before they buzz. Let them.
The real game: the first two seconds
Here is the trick that turns an easy Christmas song quiz into a real race. Christmas songs love the same intros. Sleigh bells. A choir. A soft piano. A big orchestra swell. In the first two seconds, half of them sound the same.
So the person who wins is not the one who knows the most songs, everyone knows them. It is the one who dares to buzz first. Buzz on the sleigh bells and guess wrong, and you are out for that song while everyone else keeps listening. Wait one second too long, and Anna has already shouted the title.
That tension is the whole game. You will hear a lot of "I KNEW it" and "that is not fair, they all start like that".
How to set it up in Guezzer
Guezzer has the Christmas songs in the Events tab of the lobby. That is where the seasonal collections show up, and Christmas is one of them.
- The host opens the Events tab. Pick the Christmas collection. The music plays from the host's iPhone through Apple Music, so the host needs an active Apple Music subscription. Connect a speaker, a phone speaker loses against a room with cookies and wrapping paper.
- Set the difficulty to title only. In the game settings, leave the artist off. Nobody knows who sang the version of Jingle Bells that is playing, and nobody should have to.
- Pick a short game. Five correct answers to win keeps each game short, and you can play a few in a row.
- Answer Time at five seconds. After a buzz, the app gives the player five seconds to answer. A song title takes one. If the grandparents are playing, seven or ten seconds is kinder.
- Everyone else joins. Any iPhone or Android phone works as a buzzer, free and without a subscription. Scan the code in the lobby and you are in.
Local games with up to four contestants are free. From five contestants on, the host needs Guezzer Pro, and a game holds up to 10 phones. The basics of joining and buzzing are in how to play Guezzer.
Christmas with the family
The Christmas family evening is where this quiz is strongest. Kids who know no artists at all know every Christmas song, and grandparents who never heard of this year's charts know them too.
- Pair the little ones with an adult. A child and a grandparent share one phone. Whoever is faster on the screen hits the buzzer.
- Rename the phone. Change the nickname in the Profile tab to something like "Grandpa and Mia", so the scoreboard shows the pair.
- Keep it short. Two or three games between dinner and dessert are plenty.
We wrote more about running a quiz across three generations in our family music quiz post.
The office Christmas party
At the office party you have more people than phones and a wide mix of music taste. Christmas songs solve the second problem, teams solve the first.
- Teams of three to five. Each team shares one phone as its buzzer. Mix departments, it is more fun to win with somebody from IT.
- One quizmaster. One person runs the game with the Game Master setting in the lobby and rules on close calls. The quizmaster does not count as a contestant, so four teams plus a quizmaster stay free.
- Team names on the scoreboard. Rename each team phone in the Profile tab before joining.
Our team music quiz post has more on building fair teams for a big group.
House rules for Christmas
The app takes care of the buzzer, the answer countdown and the score. These are up to you:
- Wrong guess on the sleigh bells, sing the chorus. Optional, but it is Christmas.
- The winner picks the next cookie. Or gets out of washing up.
- Carols for the kids. If you sing carols at home anyway, a round of humming them without the app is a nice break for the youngest players.
- Last game before the presents. Nobody will concentrate once the presents are out.
Hitster or Guezzer at Christmas?
Hitster sells a Christmas expansion with Christmas songs from different decades, and you sort them into a timeline by year. That is a calm game for the table after dinner. If you want everyone guessing the Christmas song as fast as possible, each on their own phone, Guezzer fits better. We compare both honestly in Guezzer vs Hitster.
Quick checklist
- Host iPhone with Apple Music, charged
- A speaker loud enough for the room
- Christmas collection picked in the Events tab
- Difficulty: title only
- Five to win, Answer Time set
- Guezzer on the guests' phones, or one phone per team
- Pro unlocked if you have more than four contestants
The honest one-liner
A Christmas music quiz is the one quiz where everybody knows every song, so it is not about knowledge, it is about nerve. Put on the Christmas collection, ask only for the title, and see who dares to buzz on the sleigh bells.
