Play here
Christmas Charades
Act out Christmas characters, traditions, songs and festive activities while your teammates race to guess the answer.
Up and aboutIn teamsA minute of prepHousehold items
Christmas Party Games
Up on your feet, with room for a crowd: the games built for a full house rather than a table.
These are the 8 of our 23 Christmas games built for a crowd: every one works with a full room, and every one is playable tonight with full rules — the most familiar ones have a page of their own that runs the game for you.
They are not interchangeable. Some put everyone on their feet at once, some run in teams, and one is the gift steal that goes one turn at a time and gives a loud evening a breather. Start with the eight below, or jump to try this when if you already know what kind of night it is.
The eight
Choose your party game
Players, ages and time from each game’s record, and how it is played — on your feet or up and about, in teams or all at once, what to prepare and what you need.
Play here
60-Second Christmas Games
Play a series of quick Christmas challenges using simple household items, with each round designed to last about one minute.
On your feetIn teamsA minute of prepHousehold items
Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Race to find Christmas decorations, festive objects and hidden clues around the house or another safe playing area.
On your feetIn teamsSome prepHousehold items
White Elephant
Swap, steal and unwrap mystery gifts in a lively Christmas gift exchange where the most wanted presents can change hands several times.
Up and aboutOne at a timeSome prepSomething to buy or bring
Christmas Freeze Dance
Dance to Christmas music and freeze the instant it stops—anyone caught moving has to sit out or take a festive challenge.
On your feetEveryone at onceA minute of prepHousehold items
Ornament Spoon Relay
Race to carry an unbreakable Christmas ornament on a spoon and hand it off without dropping it.
On your feetIn teamsA minute of prepHousehold items
Gift-Wrap Relay
Race against the other teams as each player wraps a box before the next teammate takes their turn.
Up and aboutIn teamsSome prepSomething to buy or bring
Hidden Candy Cane Hunt
Search the room for hidden candy canes and see who can find the most before the hunt ends.
Up and aboutEveryone at onceSome prepHousehold items
Try this when…
Six things a host usually knows about the evening before anything else, and the game in this set that fits each one — chosen from the records, with the reason shown.
- …you want everyone laughing
- Christmas Charadeshumour: high · in teams
- …the room is full
- 60-Second Christmas Games2+ players · in teams
- …time is short
- Christmas Freeze Danceabout 15 min · a minute of prep
- …the youngest guests are playing too
- Hidden Candy Cane Huntages 4+ · up and about
- …the room needs to settle down
- White Elephantup and about · one at a time
- …you have not prepared anything
- Ornament Spoon Relaya minute of prep · household items
How to choose a Christmas party game
Count the room first
Every game here lists the players it needs and the most it can take. 3 of the 8 have no ceiling at all; the rest run between 2 and 24. If your number is on the edge of a range, the game will be tight rather than impossible — but a relay with two teams of three is a different evening from one with two teams of ten.
Decide how much energy the evening has
“On your feet” means moving around the room; “up and about” means standing, taking turns, sitting between goes. A party with grandparents and a baby asleep upstairs wants more of the second. The calmer pick above is there for the moment the room needs to come down a notch.
Mind the youngest and the oldest
The minimum age on each card is the age at which a child can play properly, not just be present. 2 of these start at 4; the highest is 12, on one game — the one to skip if small children are playing.
Check what you need before the night
“Household items” means cups, spoons, paper, a bowl — things you own. “Something to buy or bring” means wrapped gifts or wrapping paper and tape for everyone, which cannot be improvised at nine o’clock. Anything marked “some prep” is prep you do before guests arrive.
Not one of these eight?
Party games are the loud end of the library. For a dinner table, a quieter room or a smaller group, the Game Finder asks who is coming and what the evening needs and picks from all twenty-three.
Running the games on the night
Open with the easiest one
The first game teaches the room that it is allowed to play. Choose the one with the fewest rules and no teams to sort — people join a game that is already going far more readily than one that needs explaining.
Plan three, not eight
Two or three games over an evening is plenty; a schedule of six is a programme, and guests came for a party. Keep one in reserve for the lull, and be willing to skip it.
Alternate loud and quiet
Follow a relay with something people play sitting down. Energy that only goes up tires the room; a game that lets people talk while they wait for their turn resets it.
Set up before the doorbell
Cups counted, prompts folded, the hunt hidden, the gifts in one place. Ten minutes of setup with guests watching is ten minutes the party stalls; the same ten minutes at four in the afternoon is invisible.
Say the rules once, then start
Read the short version aloud, run the first round as a practice, and settle any arguments in favour of keeping the game moving. Nobody remembers who won the relay; everybody remembers if it took twenty minutes to begin.
Not a party? Browse all 23 Christmas games
Quieter games, games for two, games for the table and games for kids — the whole library with full rules, or the Finder to pick one for the room you are in.
Let the Finder choose