diff --git a/ibis/backends/bigquery/__init__.py b/ibis/backends/bigquery/__init__.py
index 4961a9529516..70e3dda84aa3 100644
--- a/ibis/backends/bigquery/__init__.py
+++ b/ibis/backends/bigquery/__init__.py
@@ -1036,8 +1036,8 @@ def create_table(
         if obj is not None and not isinstance(obj, ir.Table):
             obj = ibis.memtable(obj, schema=schema)
 
-        # This is a no-op if there aren't any memtables
-        self._register_in_memory_tables(obj)
+        if obj is not None:
+            self._register_in_memory_tables(obj)
 
         if temp:
             dataset = self._session_dataset.dataset_id