How are robins related to Christmas and how do icicles form? Try our kids’ quiz

Illustration: Hennie Haworth/The Guardian

1. Jude, 6, asks: how are robins related to Christmas?

   1. Robins’ red breasts look like Santa’s jacket

   2. Robins’ red breasts look like postal workers’ jackets

   3. Robins’ red breasts look like Christmas baubles

   4. Robins continue to fly and sing in snowy winters

2. Samuel, 8, asks: why are Christmas trees used to celebrate Christmas?

   1. Because they were made popular by Queen Victoria

   2. Because their lights counteract winter’s darkness

   3. Because Jesus’s manger was said to be next to an evergreen forest

   4. It began in America, to increase consumerism around Christmastime

3. William, 12, and Poppy, 10, ask: how do icicles form?

   1. From rain on cold days

   2. When the wind carves spikes in sheets of ice

   3. When snowflakes get caught on each other and melt together

   4. When ice melted by sunlight refreezes as it drips down

4. Teddy, 5, asks: is there anywhere where it snows all year round?

   1. No – although some places have snow that never melts, nowhere has constant snowfall

   2. No, even in cold places, ice and snow melt in summer

   3. Yes, at mountaintops it is always snowing

   4. Yes, in certain forests

5. Robin, 13, asks: how many legs do robins have?

   1. 1

   2. 2

   3. 3

   4. 4

Solutions

1:B - In Victorian times, Royal Mail postmen wore bright red coats, so were nicknamed “robin redbreasts”. Christmas cards became popular then and because postmen delivered them, people began drawing robins on cards., 2:A - Many countries claim to have started the tradition, but it was really popularised by Queen Victoria. Her grandfather, King George III, was married to a German princess, Queen Charlotte, who is thought to have first introduced Christmas trees to England from Germany. Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, was also German and they made Christmas trees fashionable., 3:D - Icicles form when melted ice or snow drips down and refreezes because the air temperature is below freezing. After one drop of water freezes, the next drops freeze on that one, eventually growing into an icicle., 4:A - There is nowhere in the world where it always snows. Some places have more snowfall than others, such as Japan, Austria and parts of the US; that’s why people love skiing there!, 5:B - Robins usually have two legs. Most born without two don’t survive leaving the nest.

Scores

1. 5 and above.

2. 4 and above.

3. 3 and above.

4. 2 and above.

5. 0 and above.

6. 1 and above.

Molly Oldfield hosts Everything Under the Sun, a weekly podcast answering children’s questions, out now as a book.

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