Below are 92 of them, sorted by who they are about, with a round of daft ones and a set pitched at children who are still working out how old they are. Swap the names for your own and most of them are ready to read out tonight.
The answers are not printed here, and that is the point. They are sitting round your table, usually disagreeing with each other, and the argument about whether Nan's first house really cost four thousand pounds is worth more than any point on the scoresheet.
Before you start, ask the person each question is about to whisper the real answer to the quizmaster. Otherwise Dad will simply announce that every answer the table gives is wrong, and he will enjoy it.
About Mum and Dad
16 questionsChildren tend to know far less about their parents than they think. These work best when the kids answer and the parents mark.
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Where did Mum and Dad go on their first date?
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Which of them said "I love you" first?
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What was Mum's first job, and how long did she last?
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What did Dad want to be when he was ten?
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What is the worst car either of them has ever owned?
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Who was the first band Mum saw live?
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How many attempts did it take Dad to pass his driving test?
A closest guess wins if he claims to have forgotten.
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What was Mum's nickname at school?
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Who was Dad's teenage celebrity crush?
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Which phrase does Dad say on every single car journey?
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Which of them cries at films, and which film did it last?
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What is the one dish Dad cooks when it is his turn?
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Which subject did Mum fail at school?
Allow a stewards' enquiry if she insists she "just did not enjoy it".
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Which parent is secretly the better singer?
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What did they fall out about most on the last family holiday?
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If Dad could only eat at one restaurant forever, which would he pick?
Grandparents, and the stories the family tells
20 questionsThe first half is about the oldest people at the table. The second half is the family folklore, the stories that get retold at every wedding and slightly improved each time.
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Where did Grandma and Grandad first meet?
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What job did Grandad do for the longest stretch of his working life?
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How much did Nan's first house cost?
Closest guess wins. Expect gasps.
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What was Grandma's maiden name?
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Which town was Grandad born in?
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What was the first record Nan ever bought?
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What did Grandad get told off for most at school?
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How many brothers and sisters did Grandma grow up with?
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Which dish does Nan make that nobody else is allowed to attempt?
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Where was Grandma when she heard the biggest news story of her childhood?
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What did Grandad's wedding suit look like?
Bonus point for anyone who can produce the photo.
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Who got lost on a family holiday, and where were they eventually found?
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Which relative is famous for being late to every wedding?
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What is the story behind the family's most used nickname?
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Which family pet made the most dramatic escape?
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What went wrong at the most chaotic Christmas dinner anyone remembers?
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Which ancestor has the most exaggerated story attached to them?
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Which family member once met somebody famous, and who was it?
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Where did the car break down on the most memorable holiday?
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Whose secret recipe is it, and who is actually allowed to see it?
Why these beat a round of general knowledge
A general knowledge family quiz is a pub quiz with children present. The adult who reads the most wins, the youngest give up by the second round, and somebody ends up checking answers on their phone under the table.
Questions about the family flip that. The eight year old knows exactly what Dad shouts at the television, and Grandad is the only one who can settle how much a pint cost in 1974. Everyone is an expert in something, and the wrong answers are often funnier than the right ones.
They also need no preparation beyond a pen. Change the names to suit your family, skip anything that touches a sore point, and let the person each question is about be the judge. If you want the full picture on rounds, scoring and keeping the smallest players involved, our guide to running a family quiz covers it; this page is the question bank.
About the siblings
14 questionsGrown-up brothers and sisters are the best contestants in any family quiz, because they have been keeping score against each other for decades.
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Which sibling was most likely to get the others into trouble?
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What got broken and blamed on somebody else, and who really did it?
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Who won the bigger bedroom, and how?
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Which sibling has the longest running grudge, and what is it about?
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Who was the fussiest eater, and what would they refuse to touch?
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Which sibling had the most regrettable haircut, and in what year?
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Who phones Mum the most?
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Who is the worst at keeping a secret?
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Who has flipped a Monopoly board, or come closest?
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Who had an imaginary friend, and what was it called?
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Who takes longest in the bathroom?
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On a desert island, which sibling survives longest and who is voted off first?
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What was the most memorable fight over the TV remote about?
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What secret did one sibling keep from the parents for years that is safe to tell now?
Check with the sibling in question before reading this one out.
About the kids
14 questionsReplace "the kids" with a name. The adults answer, the child marks them, and they will mark hard.
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What was their first word?
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What did they want to be when they grew up, aged five?
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What is their favourite thing in the fridge right now?
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Who is their best friend at school this term?
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Which film properly scared them for the first time?
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What song are they playing on repeat at the moment?
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Which house rule do they think is the most unfair?
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Which teacher do they talk about most?
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What did they dress up as for their first World Book Day?
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What is the strangest thing they have ever eaten willingly?
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What would they buy with a hundred pounds, today, no saving allowed?
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Who is their favourite YouTuber or TV character right now?
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What time do they claim to go to sleep, and what time do they actually go to sleep?
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What did they get told off for most last year?
Quizriella
Or let the family write the quiz
The catch with any family quiz is that one person writes it, knows every answer, and spends the evening reading rather than playing. Quizriella fixes that by letting everybody write a few questions about the others, in secret, on their own phone.
It then turns the pile into a presenter-led game show: hot seats, a buzzer race, a wheel of dares, breaking news bulletins about whoever is losing, and a podium at the end. The quizmaster reads most of the questions for the first time along with everyone else.
- Players join in a browser, nothing to install
- Teams can pair a teenager with a grandparent
- A segment made for the smallest players
- Free for the whole family, with emoji and coloured discs as avatars
Hot seat
One player alone, the rest waiting to steal
Buzzers
Ten seconds, panic starts at three
Wheel of fate
Lands on a dare nobody volunteered for
Breaking news
A bulletin about whoever is losing
The daft ones
16 questionsAnswer by pointing. Majority rules, and the person pointed at is allowed one appeal.
Who would last longest without their phone?
Who is most likely to fall asleep before the film ends?
Who photographs their dinner most often?
Who would be first out of a reality TV show, and which show?
Who has the worst sense of direction?
If the family were a sitcom, who walks in at exactly the wrong moment?
Who is most likely to reply all by mistake?
Who hides the good biscuits, and where?
Who could be talked into a timeshare most easily?
Who takes longest to say goodbye at the front door?
Whose laugh is loudest in a cinema?
Who argues with the satnav?
Who has the most unread emails?
Phones out. The number on the screen is the answer.
Who would be worst at a silent retreat?
If the dog had to choose, who would it live with?
Who is most likely to still be in pyjamas at 3pm on a Sunday?
For the little ones
12 questionsQuestions a three to six year old can actually answer. Every answer earns a point, and a very confident wrong answer earns two.
What noise does Grandad make when he sits down?
What colour is Mummy's car?
Who is the tallest person in the family?
Who reads you the most bedtime stories?
What does Daddy say when he stubs his toe?
Who is best at hide and seek?
What is Nana's favourite colour?
Who makes the best pancakes?
Point to the person who snores.
How old is Grandma?
Any answer between seven and four hundred is accepted.
What would you call a new puppy?
Who would make the best superhero, and what is their power?
Turning these into a proper quiz night
About twenty minutes of setting up for an hour or so of play.
Pick 30 to 40 questions
Take a few from each section so every generation gets asked about, and every generation gets something they can answer. Forty is plenty for one sitting; beyond that the room drifts.
Fill in the names and check the answers
Swap "Mum" and "Grandad" for real names, then quietly confirm each answer with the person it is about. Drop anything likely to reopen an old wound.
Make mixed-age teams
Put a child with a grandparent and a teenager with a parent. Teams of two or three stop the adults winning everything and give the youngest someone to whisper to.
Break the questions into rounds
Run five or six rounds of six to eight questions, one per section, and put the daft round somewhere in the middle where energy usually dips. Save the family legends for last.
Score it so the end still matters
Make the final round worth double, and let the little ones earn points for the whole table. A result that is still open going into the last round is what keeps everyone at the table.
Questions people ask
The best ones are about the family itself: first jobs, first dates, holiday disasters, childhood nicknames, who hides the biscuits. Nobody can look them up, every age knows something, and the wrong answers start conversations. Mix in a few questions small children can answer so nobody is left out.
Let everyone write three about the others
Share one code to the family group chat, let each person write questions about the rest in secret, and Quizriella turns the lot into a game show you can play on the television tonight.
Play it as a game showFree to play. Players join from their phones.
More for the family table
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Rounds, scoring and keeping every age in the game, from grandparents to toddlers.
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A ready to run Christmas family quiz: 60 questions with answers, a kids round, films, food, carols and a round about your own family, plus a running order.
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