60 Christmas Riddles for Kids (With Answers)

Start with the easy Christmas riddles: the answer is something every child has seen in December, so even a 4-year-old gets the first one.

20 easy Christmas riddles

Every answer here is something a child can point to in the room. They work for kids 4 to 6.

Santa and his reindeer

1. Start here I wear a red suit, I have a white beard and I come down the chimney once a year. Who am I? Answer: Santa Claus.
2. I have antlers and I pull a sleigh across the sky. What am I? Answer: A reindeer.
3. Which reindeer has a nose that glows? Answer: Rudolph.
4. Where does Santa live? Answer: The North Pole.
5. What does Santa check twice? Answer: His list.

Snow

6. I am white, I fall from the sky and I land on your mittens. What am I? Answer: A snowflake.
7. I have a carrot nose and coal eyes, and I melt in the sun. What am I? Answer: A snowman.
8. What falls but never gets hurt? Answer: Snow.
9. You can roll me into a ball, but I melt in your hands. What am I? Answer: Snow.
10. What do you call a snowman in July? Answer: A puddle.

The tree and the presents

11. I stay green all winter and wear lights in December. What am I? Answer: A Christmas tree.
12. What has a bow but no arrow? Answer: A present.
13. I hang by the fireplace and get filled on Christmas Eve. What am I? Answer: A stocking.
14. What goes on the very top of the tree? Answer: A star or an angel.
15. What do kids leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve? Answer: Cookies and milk.

Sweets and songs

16. I ring, but I am not a phone, and I hang on a sleigh. What am I? Answer: A bell.
17. People sing me from door to door in December. What am I? Answer: A Christmas carol.
18. I’m made of gingerbread, and I run away from the baker. Who am I? Answer: The Gingerbread Man.
19. I’m red and white, I’m striped, and I’m shaped like a hook. What am I? Answer: A candy cane.
20. People stand under me and kiss. What plant am I? Answer: Mistletoe.

20 medium Christmas riddles

These play with the words a little. They work for kids 7 to 9, and grown-ups get stuck on a few.

Winter wordplay

21. What can you catch in winter but never throw? Answer: A cold.
22. What kind of ball never bounces? Answer: A snowball.
23. What has lots of needles but never sews? Answer: A Christmas tree.
24. What comes once in a year, twice in a week, but never in a day? Answer: The letter E.
25. I’m tall when I’m young and short when I’m old, and I glow in the window in December. What am I? Answer: A candle.

Count and think

26. Santa’s sleigh has eight reindeer in the poem, plus Rudolph. How many reindeer is that? Answer: Nine.
27. You have five candy canes and give away all but two. How many are left? Answer: Two.
28. How many presents can you put in an empty stocking? Answer: One. After that it isn’t empty.
29. What can fill a whole room but takes up no space? Answer: Light, like Christmas lights.
30. What has a face and two hands but no arms or legs, and counts down on New Year’s Eve? Answer: A clock.

Around the house

31. What gets wet while it dries? Answer: A towel, after a snowball fight.
32. What has to be broken before you can use it? Answer: An egg, for the cookie dough.
33. What has keys but opens no locks, and plays carols? Answer: A piano.
34. What runs all the way around the yard but never moves? Answer: A fence, with lights on it.
35. What can travel all over the world while staying in one corner? Answer: A stamp on a Christmas card.

At the table

36. What has a head and a tail but no body, and sometimes hides in a stocking? Answer: A coin.
37. What begins with T, ends with T and has T in it? Answer: A teapot.
38. What starts with E, ends with E and only has one letter in it? Answer: An envelope, with a Christmas card inside.
39. What goes up but never comes down, even on your birthday? Answer: Your age.
40. What has many teeth but never bites, and fixes your hair for the photo? Answer: A comb.

20 hard Christmas riddles

Logic and tricky words. These work for kids 10 and up, and they make a good table game for the whole family.

Tricky questions

41. A man walked home in the snow with no hat and no umbrella, and not a single hair on his head got wet. How? Answer: He was bald.
42. What is always coming but never arrives? Answer: Tomorrow.
43. There are three presents under the tree and you take two. How many do you have? Answer: Two, the ones you took.
44. The more of me there is, the less you see. What am I? Answer: Darkness, on a long winter night.
45. Which is heavier: a pound of feathers or a pound of snow? Answer: Neither. They both weigh a pound.

Word puzzles

46. Forward I am heavy, but backward I am not. What am I? Answer: A ton.
47. What word gets shorter when you add two letters to it? Answer: Short.
48. What room has no doors and no windows? Answer: A mushroom.
49. What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add “er” to it? Answer: Short, which becomes shorter.
50. What word is spelled wrong in every dictionary? Answer: Wrong.

Reindeer and the fireplace

51. Rudolph’s mother has three children: Dasher, Dancer and who? Answer: Rudolph.
52. What is black when you get it, red when you use it and gray when you throw it away? Answer: Coal.
53. I have a heart that doesn’t beat and a home that doesn’t walk, and I’m hung on the tree. What am I? Answer: An ornament shaped like a heart.
54. What can go up a chimney down, but can’t go down a chimney up? Answer: An umbrella.
55. I have bark but no bite, and in December I stand in the living room. What am I? Answer: A real Christmas tree.

Last riddles of the night

56. I have cities, but no houses. I have rivers, but no water. Santa needs me for his trip. What am I? Answer: A map.
57. What has words but never speaks, and gets opened on Christmas morning? Answer: A book.
58. What breaks as soon as you say its name? Answer: Silence, on a silent night.
59. I am taken from a mine and shut in a wooden case, and almost everyone uses me. What am I? Answer: Pencil lead, for writing to Santa.
60. What has one eye but can’t see, and pulls the thread for a stocking? Answer: A needle.

I find that number 47 starts the best arguments, because half the table says “short” and the other half says it isn’t fair.

A few notes on the riddles

Number 49 and number 47 have the same answer on purpose: once a child has solved one, the second is a test of whether they remember it.

For more December fun, try our Christmas jokes for kids, the Christmas games for the whole family and the Elf on the Shelf ideas. The rest live in the Family hub, and we explain how we write these lists on How we pick.