diff --git a/lib/_http_server.js b/lib/_http_server.js
index 3b2d7f50419127..96f05f5819d3a8 100644
--- a/lib/_http_server.js
+++ b/lib/_http_server.js
@@ -47,6 +47,7 @@ const { IncomingMessage } = require('_http_incoming');
 const {
   ERR_HTTP_HEADERS_SENT,
   ERR_HTTP_INVALID_STATUS_CODE,
+  ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE,
   ERR_INVALID_CHAR
 } = require('internal/errors').codes;
 const Buffer = require('buffer').Buffer;
@@ -281,6 +282,8 @@ function Server(options, requestListener) {
     options = {};
   } else if (options == null || typeof options === 'object') {
     options = util._extend({}, options);
+  } else {
+    throw new ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE('options', 'object', options);
   }
 
   this[kIncomingMessage] = options.IncomingMessage || IncomingMessage;
diff --git a/test/parallel/test-http-server.js b/test/parallel/test-http-server.js
index d46e25bdf6c558..f591cd59fc63c2 100644
--- a/test/parallel/test-http-server.js
+++ b/test/parallel/test-http-server.js
@@ -27,6 +27,19 @@ const http = require('http');
 const url = require('url');
 const qs = require('querystring');
 
+// TODO: documentation does not allow Array as an option, so testing that
+// should fail, but currently http.Server does not typecheck further than
+// if `option` is `typeof object` - so we don't test that here right now
+const invalid_options = [ 'foo', 42, true ];
+
+invalid_options.forEach((option) => {
+  assert.throws(() => {
+    new http.Server(option);
+  }, {
+    code: 'ERR_INVALID_ARG_TYPE'
+  });
+});
+
 let request_number = 0;
 let requests_sent = 0;
 let server_response = '';