86 days to Christmasdays

Christmas Charades

Act out Christmas characters, traditions, songs and festive activities while your teammates race to guess the answer.

Players
4+
Ages
6+
Time
about 20 min
You need
Household items

Play Christmas Charades

Pass the phone to whoever is acting. Tap to see the prompt, act it out, then move on — no timer, no scoring, nothing to print.

Who’s playing?
How many prompts?

Christmas charades ideas

24 prompts from the deck, four from each of its six kinds. Enough to run a full round on paper — write them on slips, fold them into a bowl, and play. The deck above holds 48 more.

Characters

People and creatures of Christmas — the easiest place to start a round.

  • Santa Claus
  • Santa stuck in a chimney
  • Someone secretly playing Santa — older players
  • An elf making toys

Christmas activities

Things people do in December, which act out with whole-body movement.

  • Building a snowman
  • Hanging a Christmas stocking
  • Trying to carry too many Christmas presents
  • Making a snow angel

Objects and decorations

Decorations and things around the house; short to act, quick to guess.

  • Christmas tree
  • Christmas stocking
  • Mistletoe — older players
  • Snow globe

Movies and songs

Titles everybody knows. No singing, no humming, no quoting.

  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  • Home Alone
  • It's a Wonderful Life — older players
  • The Polar Express

Traditions

Customs and rituals — a little harder, and the ones that get the laughs.

  • Leaving cookies for Santa
  • Lighting an Advent candle — older players
  • Trying to stay awake to see Santa
  • Kissing under the mistletoe — older players

Silly ones

Christmas going wrong. Save these for when the room has warmed up.

  • Slipping on an imaginary patch of ice
  • Getting tangled in Christmas lights
  • Pretending to love a terrible Christmas sweater — older players
  • Eating too many Christmas cookies

48 of the 72 are not listed here. The deck deals from all of them, and never repeats a prompt inside a round.

Playing Christmas Charades yourself

The deck above hands you the prompts. If you would rather run a full game with teams and scoring, these are the rules it is built on.

What it is

Christmas Charades turns the classic acting game into an easy Christmas party activity. Players take turns silently acting out festive prompts while their teammates try to guess what they are portraying before the turn ends.

It works especially well with families, groups of friends and office Christmas parties because the rules take seconds to learn and the prompts can be adapted to almost any age group. All you need are some Christmas-themed ideas, slips of paper and people willing to perform.

Setting up

Write Christmas-themed prompts on small slips of paper, fold them and place them in a bowl or container. Divide the group into two teams and decide how long each acting turn will last; about one minute works well. Mix familiar prompts such as decorating a Christmas tree or building a snowman with characters, traditions and other festive ideas appropriate for your group.

How to play

  1. Divide the group into two teams and place all of the folded Christmas prompts in a bowl or container.
  2. Choose one player from the first team to act and have them draw a prompt without showing it to anyone else.
  3. The actor silently performs the prompt while their teammates try to guess the answer.
  4. When the team guesses correctly, award one point. If time remains, the actor may draw another prompt and continue.
  5. When time runs out, switch teams and choose a new actor.
  6. Continue taking turns until everyone has had a chance to act or the group has played the agreed number of rounds.
  7. Add up the points at the end of the game. The team with the most points wins.

Rules

  • Actors may use gestures and body movements but may not speak, mouth words or make sound effects.
  • Actors may not spell words in the air, point to written words or letters, or use nearby objects to reveal the answer directly.
  • Teammates may make as many guesses as they like while the turn is active.
  • A prompt counts only when the team identifies the intended answer before time runs out.
  • Use prompts that are appropriate for everyone playing, especially with children or coworkers.

Winning

Each correctly guessed prompt earns one point. After the final round, the team with the most points wins. If the scores are tied, give each team one final prompt; the team that guesses its prompt in the shortest time wins.

Variations

  • Family Charades: Use simple prompts that children and adults can recognize and let younger players act with a partner if they prefer.
  • Christmas Movie Charades: Use only characters, titles and memorable situations from Christmas movies and television specials.
  • Christmas Song Charades: Act out the title or idea of a Christmas song without singing, humming or quoting lyrics.
  • No-Score Charades: Skip teams and points entirely. Take turns acting while the whole group guesses, making the game more relaxed and less competitive.

Running a good round of charades

The rules above settle teams, turns and scoring. These are the things that decide whether a round is any fun.

Start with a character, not a film

A person or a creature can be acted in one gesture; a film title has to be built up piece by piece. Open with the characters above and let the room learn what everyone’s shorthand looks like before anything harder.

Agree the turn length before the first actor stands up

The setup above suggests about a minute. Whatever you choose, choose it first and time it the same way every turn — a round where one team got “about a minute” and the other got ninety seconds is the one people remember.

Let a stuck actor swap, once

Somebody will draw a prompt they cannot see a way into. One swap per turn, taken from the bowl without looking, keeps the turn alive without turning the game into a search for an easy prompt.

Mix the kinds rather than working through them

Six categories are printed above so you can spread a round across them, not so you can play six rounds of one. Back-to-back film titles start to feel like a quiz.

Keep the guesses loud and the turns short

Teammates may shout as many guesses as they like — that is in the rules, and it is what makes the game noisy. Take the point as soon as somebody says the words and move on; a turn that runs to time with the answer half-guessed kills the momentum.

Charades for kids, families and adults

The deck asks who is playing first

Kids, Family, Adults — that choice is the whole of the tailoring, and it is the first thing the deck asks. Each setting draws only from the prompts written for that group, so nobody has to vet a prompt before handing over the phone.

What Kids actually changes

53 of the 72 prompts are written to be fair to a younger player, and choosing Kids narrows the deck to those. In the list above, the few that setting leaves out are marked; a mistletoe kiss and a film from 1946 are not things a six-year-old can act.

From age 6, with a partner if they want one

The record puts the game at 6+. The rules’ own Family variation lets a younger player act with a partner, which is the difference between a child who joins in and a child who watches.

Rounds of 10, 20, 30

Pick the length with the audience. 10 prompts is a round between courses; 30 is a full evening with teams and a scoreline.

Keep playing

More games for your group

Three that go well after Christmas Charades — or let the Finder choose.