Guide · 6 min read
What are good trivia questions for seniors?
Good trivia questions for seniors are about the decades they lived and give two or three answers to choose from, so nobody digs for a name. Which came first: The Andy Griffith Show or The Wizard of Oz movie with Judy Garland? The Wizard of Oz, 1939. Below are eight real questions and answers, then how to run them.
Updated October 20, 2026 · Selenby Puzzles
The best trivia for an older group is a conversation with a score attached. The questions reach back to the radio, the movie palace and the kitchen table, and every answer gives someone a story to tell. Here are eight real questions from our large print games, and how to run them.
Eight trivia questions for seniors, with answers
These come from five of our games, from different rounds, and they are copied exactly as printed in the Host Packs. Read each one slowly, twice if it helps, and wait for the room before you read the answer.
Which came first?
From Which Came First for Older Adults: two choices, and both years in the answer.
Which came first? A. The Andy Griffith Show premieres · B. The Wizard of Oz movie with Judy Garland (Answer: B. A: 1960, B: 1939.)
Which came first? A. Major league baseball’s first night game · B. James Naismith invents basketball (Answer: B. A: 1935, B: 1891.)
Which came first? A. Josephine Cochrane patents her dishwasher · B. The Wright brothers’ first powered flight (Answer: A. A: 1886, B: 1903.)
After the dishwasher question, the Host Pack adds that the Wright brothers’ very first powered flight lasted just 12 seconds.
Finish the saying
From Old Fashioned Sayings: the host reads the start, and the room says the finish.
Make hay… (Finish: while the sun shines. Also accept: while the sun is shining.)
Little pitchers have… (Finish: big ears. Also accept: long ears, wide ears, large ears.)
The Host Pack gives the meaning and the origin of each one. A pitcher’s handles were once called ears, and John Heywood recorded the saying in 1546.
The year they were born
From our birth-year trivia games, three answers to choose from:
Who wrote ‘Gone with the Wind,’ the novel published in June 1936? A. Pearl S. Buck · B. Harper Lee · C. Margaret Mitchell (Answer: C, Margaret Mitchell.) From 1936 Trivia.
Who was president of the United States for all of 1946? A. Franklin D. Roosevelt · B. Harry S. Truman · C. Dwight D. Eisenhower (Answer: B, Harry S. Truman.) From 1946 Trivia.
Who played Moses in Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic ‘The Ten Commandments’? A. Kirk Douglas · B. Burt Lancaster · C. Charlton Heston (Answer: C, Charlton Heston.) From 1956 Trivia.
Which topics work best
The topics that get a room talking are the ones people lived: the songs and films of their youth, radio and early television, the news of the day, and what things cost. Those are the four rounds of every birth-year game: Music & Movies, the radio round, News & Firsts, and Everyday Life & Prices. Which Came First for Older Adults covers everyday American life from the 1870s to the 1980s, from toys and kitchens to landmarks and ballgames. Sayings work in any room, because the whole group already knows them.
How to run trivia for a group of seniors
- Seat everyone close together, facing you, and give the best seats near you to anyone who hears or sees less.
- Choose how people answer. Teams of two to four share an answer sheet, or play Easy Mode: no pencils, no scores, just A and B paddles held up.
- Show the card or the TV slide and read the question twice, then wait about 20 seconds (30 for teams).
- Read the answer and the fun fact, then ask the card’s “Talk about it” question if there is time. There are no wrong answers to it.
- At the end of a round, swap sheets and mark them, or in Easy Mode simply celebrate every guess.
- Settle a tie with a tie-breaker: the closest number wins.
If a story turns sad, thank the speaker warmly and move on, as the Host Packs suggest.
How many rounds, and how big the print
One round of ten questions is plenty for a short session. In Which Came First for Older Adults, the Gentle 20 takes about 20 minutes, rounds 1 and 2 about 30, and all five rounds about 75 minutes, or two sessions. Play a round a week and the game lasts five weeks.
The display cards are made to be read across a room: 60 pt and larger in Which Came First, 76 pt or larger for each saying, and 38 pt or larger in the birth-year games, with 18 pt body text in every Host Pack. Every game also has TV slides for a common-room screen.
Which game for which group
| Game | Questions | Answers | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Which Came First for Older Adults | 50 in 5 rounds | A or B | Senior centers and senior living, weekly sessions |
| Old Fashioned Sayings | 60 in 6 rounds | Say the finish | Gentle groups of 6 to 10, church socials |
| 1936, 1946 and 1956 Trivia | 40 in 4 rounds | A, B or C | A 90th, 80th or 70th birthday; a club’s “year” afternoon |
The Games for Older Adults Bundle puts Which Came First, Old Fashioned Sayings and three more games in one download, with a ready 90-minute afternoon. For Bible questions, see our Bible trivia questions and answers, and for every game we make for older adults, our games for seniors page.
