Christmas party games
with rules short enough to shout.

29 Christmas party games, with players, time and kit

Games 1 to 7 are gift and prize games, 8 to 15 are minute to win it heats, 16 to 20 handle large groups, 21 to 25 suit adults, and 26 to 29 are for kids.

1. White elephant: 6 to 30 players, 30 to 60 minutes, one wrapped gift per person under an agreed cap. Draw numbers; on your turn, open a new gift or steal an opened one. A gift freezes after its second steal, and player one gets a final steal at the end.
2. Left-right gift pass: 6 to 20 players, 10 minutes, one wrapped gift each and a short Christmas story stuffed with the words "left" and "right". Pass your gift that way every time the reader says the word; you keep whatever you hold at "The End".
3. Dice gift swap: 6 to 16 players, 20 minutes, two dice and one gift each. Roll in turn: 1 unwraps yours, 2 swaps left, 3 swaps right, 4 steals any opened gift, 5 sends every gift one seat left, 6 rolls again. Keep what you hold when a 15-minute timer rings.
4. Secret Santa guessing reveal: 5 to 20 players, 15 minutes, gifts plus a card with three clues from each Santa. Recipients open one at a time, read the clues and get three guesses before their Santa owns up. It turns a queue into a game.
5. Pass the parcel: 4 to 15 players, 10 minutes, one prize wrapped in 10 to 20 layers with a sweet or forfeit between each. When the music stops, the holder removes one layer. For kids, put a treat in every layer.
6. The oven-mitt chocolate game: 6 to 12 players, 20 minutes, a big chocolate bar wrapped in several layers, oven mitts, a hat, a scarf, a knife and fork, and one die. Roll a six, gear up and attack the bar with cutlery until someone else rolls a six.
7. Plastic-wrap ball: 6 to 20 players, 20 minutes, a long roll of plastic wrap and 20 small prizes rolled into a ball. One player unwraps in oven mitts while the next rolls two dice; doubles take the ball. Anything that falls out is a keeper.
8. Candy cane hook: 2 to 4 per heat, 60 seconds, a dozen candy canes each. Hold one cane in your mouth by the straight end and use its hook to lift the others off the table. No hands.
9. Jingle in the trunk: 2 to 6 per heat, 60 seconds, an empty tissue box holding six jingle bells, belted to the small of each player's back. Shake until the box is empty.
10. Cookie face: 2 to 6 per heat, 60 seconds, a sandwich cookie per attempt. Start it on your forehead and work it into your mouth using only face muscles.
11. Ornament stack: 2 to 4 per heat, 60 seconds, ten shatterproof baubles each. Build a tower that stands for three seconds. Glass ornaments stay on the tree.
12. Reindeer ring toss: pairs, 60 seconds, inflatable antler headbands with six rings per pair. One partner wears the antlers and catches; the thrower stands two big steps away.
13. Snowball spoon relay: teams of four, two minutes, a bag of cotton balls and a spoon per team. Carry snowballs bowl to bowl with the spoon handle in your mouth.
14. One-handed wrapping race: pairs, three minutes, paper, tape and an awkward object such as a mug or a ball. Each partner may use only one hand. Judge on looks, and the looks will be terrible.
15. Marshmallow snowman: 2 to 6 per heat, 60 seconds, a bag of mini marshmallows and toothpicks. Tallest freestanding snowman wins.
16. Team Christmas trivia: 8 to 60 players in teams of four to six, 40 minutes, answer sheets and pens. Five rounds of eight questions (films, songs, food, traditions abroad, the host's family), sheets collected each round.
17. Name that Christmas tune: 6 to 60 players in teams, 20 minutes, a speaker and 20 songs cued to the first five seconds. Points double for naming the artist too.
18. Christmas bingo: 6 to 60 players, 20 minutes, printed cards of Christmas words or pictures and a caller. Grandparents and five-year-olds can play it at the same table.
19. Paper snowball fight: 10 to 80 players, 15 minutes, paper and pens. Everyone writes a little-known fact about themselves, crumples it, throws for thirty seconds, then opens one and hunts down its writer. The best icebreaker for a room of strangers.
20. Human Christmas tree: teams of four to six, five minutes, a bag of tinsel, paper chains and baubles per team. Decorate one teammate; a judge picks the best tree.
21. Christmas Pictionary: 6 to 20 players, 30 minutes, a large pad or whiteboard and slips with film titles, carols and objects. Sixty seconds per drawing, teams alternate.
22. Most likely to: 6 to 20 players, 15 minutes, 20 prompts on cards ("most likely to re-gift tonight's present"). Everyone points on three. Edit the prompts for a work crowd.
23. Worst plot summary: 6 to 20 players, 20 minutes, pens and paper. Each guest writes the most misleading one-sentence summary of a Christmas film; the host reads them out and the room guesses the film.
24. Two truths and a Christmas lie: 5 to 15 players, 20 minutes, no kit. Each person tells three Christmas memories, one invented; the room votes on the lie.
25. Stocking feel test: 6 to 30 players, 10 minutes, ten stockings each holding one mystery object (a whisk, a clementine, a string of lights). Hands in, no peeking, guesses on paper.
26. Pin the nose on Rudolph: 3 to 12 kids, 15 minutes, a Rudolph poster, a red paper nose with tape, a blindfold. Spin twice, not five times, unless you want tears.
27. Elf hunt: 3 to 15 kids, 15 minutes, 20 paper elves hidden around the house, one marked with a gold star for a prize. Every elf found swaps for a small treat.
28. Freeze dance to carols: 4 to 20 kids, 10 minutes, a speaker. Stop the music; anyone still moving becomes a judge rather than sitting out, so nobody is left sulking on the stairs.
29. Cookie decorating contest: 2 to 16 players, 30 minutes, plain sugar cookies, three colors of icing in zip bags and sprinkles. Award categories (most festive, most chaotic) so every child wins something.

Christmas gift exchange games: white elephant, Secret Santa and variants

Secret Santa assigns each person one recipient, so gifts can be thoughtful; draw names two to three weeks ahead and ask for a short wish list. White elephant is a shared pile with stealing, so gifts should be funny or universally useful. Four rules keep a white elephant fun: a price cap everyone can afford ($20 to $25 is typical), a freeze after the second steal so it ends, a final steal for player one, and one spare gift from the host for the guest who forgets. A gift card becomes the only thing anyone steals, so ban them or allow exactly one.

For speed, swap the full exchange for the left-right pass or the dice swap (games 2 and 3), which finish in a quarter of the time. The Ugly Sweater Chaos Exchange runs a white elephant with turn order decided by the worst sweater, and office Christmas party ideas covers caps and opt-outs at work.

Minute to win it Christmas games

Run games 8 to 15 as heats: two to four players at a time, a phone timer everyone can see, and one referee per station. Eight games with four heats each fill about 45 minutes for 16 players. Allow a ten-second practice before each heat, because nobody understands the candy cane hook until they try it. The kit for all eight comes in under $40: candy canes, tissue boxes, jingle bells, sandwich cookies, shatterproof baubles, inflatable antlers, cotton balls, marshmallows and toothpicks. Score it as a knockout with the tournament bracket and the final becomes the evening's main event.

Christmas party games for adults

The best adult picks are the white elephant, the paper snowball fight and games 21 to 25. Keep drinking optional: any game that works as a drinking game works just as well without the rule, and guests who are not drinking stop feeling like spectators. "Most likely to" needs a gentler prompt list at work; the paper snowball fight and trivia are safe anywhere. More adult crowd-pleasers are in party game ideas.

Christmas games for large groups

Above about twenty people, play in teams, at tables, with a host voice that carries through a speaker or a cheap microphone. Games 16 to 20 all scale and let people play from their seats. Assign teams by table and read the standings from a whiteboard between rounds.

Christmas games for kids

Under-sevens manage about ten minutes per game, so plan twice as many as you think and stop each one early. Elimination games should turn the eliminated into judges, and every child should leave with a prize; the party bag ideas page has cheap fillers. Candy canes, marshmallows and small prizes are choking hazards for under-threes, and every ornament within reach of a child should be shatterproof. For structure and ages, see kids party ideas.

Christmas party games for family

Family gatherings span four to eighty-four, so build teams across generations: one grandparent and one grandchild per team settles most fairness arguments. Give kids 90 seconds where adults get 60. Bingo, the stocking feel test, the plastic-wrap ball and the dice swap all work seated around a dining table.

How many games to plan

For a three-hour party, plan four games and two spares. Play the icebreaker about thirty minutes in, once most guests have arrived; an active block of minute to win it after food; and the gift exchange as the finale, because it is the thing people stay for. The party game generator and the game picker will fill gaps for odd headcounts. The games carry straight into the New Year's Eve party a week later, and the rest of the festive planning lives in Christmas party ideas.