Although we may not realise it, maths is all around us during the festive period, from working out the timings of the turkey to (miscalculating) the length of fairy lights needed to wrap around the tree! 

Check out our festive maths questions! They’re perfect as a classroom activity, or for bringing in the festive season at home.

Question 1: Merry mental maths

• Start with counting the number of the days of Christmas
• Multiply it by 3
• Divide by the number of ‘Geese a-laying’
• Take a third
• Square it
• You have arrived at your final answer!

Question 2: Santa’s sleigh

If Santa’s sleigh is 3m by 2m by 2m, how many 1m cube-shaped presents can he fit inside?

Question 3: Dazzling decorations

To decorate our giant Doodle Christmas tree, we’ll need lots of decorations! We need 6m of tinsel, 12 giant red baubles and 1 giant Doodle star.

Tinsel costs £6 per 2m. Giant red baubles cost £3 for a pack of 6, and a giant Doodle star costs £5.

How much does it cost to decorate our tree?  

Question 4: Christmas biscuits

Santa wants to make some festive biscuits. To make 10 biscuits, the recipe requires:

• • 100g flour
  • 40g sugar
  • 80g butter
  • 1 egg
  • 10 Doodle stars (for decoration)

How much of each ingredient does he need to make 30 biscuits? 

Question 5: Christmas shopping discount

You visit the Doodle Shop and purchase a ruler for your mum, a pack of 10 pencils for you dad and a poster for your teacher. The price list is below:

How much does your order cost? 

Question 6: Santa’s delivery

Santa needs to deliver 127 presents to England, 42 presents to Wales, 99 presents to Scotland, 24 presents to Northern Ireland and 18 presents to France.

• What is the mean number of presents he needs to deliver?
• What is the median number of presents he needs to deliver?
• What is the range of presents he needs to deliver?

Question 7: Perfect presents 

If you give 3 presents to your mum, 2 presents to your dad, 1 present to your sibling and 1 present to your teacher, how many presents have you given?

Question 8: Christmas dinner

It is 10:15 and Christmas dinner is planned to take place at 13:30. In hours and minutes, how long is it until Christmas dinner? 

DoodleMaths Advent calendar

For more maths fun this Christmas, check out our DoodleMaths app! Subscribers can open the in-app advent calendar every day to collect Christmas accessories for their robot.

Find out more

Answers

1. 4
2. 12
3. £29
4. 300g flour, 120g sugar, 240g butter, 3 eggs and 30 Doodle stars
5. £11.70
6. 62; 42; 105
7. 7 presents
8. 3 hours 15 minutes 

Article by Sally Cheeseman