Christmas is just around the corner, your shopping is done and you’ve got the expected arrival times of your niece's, nephew's, grandkids, great aunt etc, the whole family are descending on you for the holiday season, the shops are closed, the sherry will be flowing but, after presents and Christmas dinner you may be wondering “what in the holly am I going to do with them for the rest of the visit?”
You've bought your Christmas Murder Mystery game from Masters of Mystery. We have a few options available at Masters of Mystery that can be downloaded and printed at home, so no need to worry about delivery before Christmas and we’ve also compiled a list of fun, family friendly games to amuse and entertain both young, old, drunk and sober this Holiday season.
No. 1 A Christmas Quiz.
Popular at office and school Christmas parties, is this take on a pub quiz idea.
Resources: a little bit of google research, paper, pens, prize
Rules
- Spend a bit of time scrolling through the internet for Christmas questions, these can be Christmas song lyrics, Christmas movie questions or random Christmas facts.
- Split your guests into teams and give each team a sheet of paper and a pen.
- Get them to write down 1- 10, 1-20 etc. (how many questions you’ve come up with).
4.Go through your questions and get them to write their answers down
- at the end, get them to swap with another team and go through the answers, add up the score and give the wining team a prize.
No. 2. Candy Cane Olympics.
Resources: candy cane, marshmallows, sweets, string, paper/plastic cups
Rules: This is a series of team games that use the Christmas candy cane sweets. For a list of candy cane games and how to play them click here
No. 3. Christmas charades
What better family game than the classic charades game, but with a Christmas twist?
Resources: Paper, pens, prizes, old hat
Rules
- Spend some time writing Christmas Movies and Christmas Songs on sheets of paper, fold them up and drop them in a hat.
- Split your party into teams and get the first team to pick a title out of the hat.
- The team must pick someone to represent them who will have to try and communicate silently to the other groups what song or movie title they have.
- The other groups will try and guess, if they guess right, they get a point for their team and it’s their turn to pick a title and do the same.
- Carry on for around 10 rounds and add up the scores, give a prize to the team with the most points.
No 4. Pin the nose on the reindeer.
A Christmas version of the popular party game, pin the tail on the donkey.
Resources: paper or cardboard cut out of a reindeer (as big or small as you like), sticky tack, tape (folded over) or double sided tape, paper/card/foam red noses, blindfold
Rules
- Attach the reindeer cutout to a wall
- Attach sticky tack, tape or double-sided tape to the back of your red noses and give to each player.
- Form a line and blindfold the person at the front of the line. They must then walk up to the reindeer and attempt to pin the nose on it.
- Take the blind fold off and give to the next person, who will then try and do the same.
- After everyone has had a go, look at who got the closest and they win.
No 5. Christmas Bingo
Who doesn’t love bingo? Why not print your own bingo cards at home and play your own Christmas bingo game at your family gathering?
Resources: print at home bingo boards, pens or sweets and prizes
Rules
- Split your party into teams and give them each a bingo card.
- Either print and cut out your own set of bingo cards to draw out at random, or list all the different options.
- Pick out an image/ read out from the list at random, if a team has that they can tick it off or place a sweet over it.
- When a team has a full line (vertical, horizontal or diagonal) they shout ‘bingo’ and win a prize.
You can get your hands on some free printable bingo cards here
No 6. Reindeer ring toss
Ring toss, traditional fairground game but with a Christmas twist. You can buy an inflatable reindeer ring toss or other versions of this game, but why not just make it yourself?
Resources: a cardboard box, black and red markers, paper plates, scissors, 2 large sticks
How to build
- Go for a walk in your local woods or park, keep an eye out for good size sticks, not too thick and not too thin we recommend about 1-2cms thick and approx. 50cm long.
- Give them a good wash and leave them to dry
- Get a taped up cardboard box and draw a reindeer face and head on it (without the antlers), draw the eyes, nose and mouth on it with a black marker (alternatively you can draw a reindeer on some brown paper, make eyes with white/black paper or even googley eyes, be as creative as you like).
- cut 2 holes in the top of the head, just big enough for the sticks to go into them to create the antlers.
- Cut out the middle of the paper plates, leaving just the outer rim of them to create the rings. You will need 5 to 10 rings.
For a tutorial on how to make your own reindeer ring toss click here
Rules
- Individually or in teams take it in turns to throw the rings at the reindeer in an attempt to get them over the antlers
- The person/team with the most rings over the antlers wins.
No 7. Gift Mix Up
Add an extra layer to your secret Santa game. This can be a fun way to make sure people get different gifts.
Resources: wrapped, unlabelled gifts (ask everyone to bring a gift, set a price cap to make it fairer), some dice
Rules
- Ask everyone to place their gifts in a pile in the middle of the room and sit around it in a circle.
- Ask everyone in the circle to grab a gift at random and return to the circle.
- Take it in turns to roll the dice. If they roll a 1 they must swap gifts with the person on their right, if they roll a 2 they must swap gifts with the person on their left, if they roll a 3 or a 4 they can swap a gift with anyone in the circle, if they roll a 5 or 6 they can open the gift in their hands. Continue until everyone has opened their gifts (If someone ends up with their own gift when they roll 5 or 6 then roll again)
No 8. Cookie Decorating
This is a fun activity where everyone can decorate their own Christmas cookie or gingerbread. You can keep this just easy and fun, or you can add another layer by doing it blindfolded or in teams.
Resources: cookies/gingerbread, edible glue, sweets, writing icing
Rules
- Place all the decorating tools on a table and get everyone to sit around it.
- Give each person a cookie or gingerbread to decorate.
- Have a cookie judging contest and offer a prize to the winner.
No 9. Guess the Christmas song.
This is quick, fun game that can be used on its own or as part of your christmas quiz.
Resources: a phone or other electronic device with access to the internet, something to keep score with
Rules
- Everyone who is playing must sit around the room where they can hear the phone or other electronic device (tablet, laptop etc.) if you have access to a Bluetooth speaker this might make it easier but it’s not a necessity.
- Play a few seconds of a Christmas song, the first person to guess wins a point. Continue for a few rounds and then add up the scores and see who wins.
You can add another layer to this game by finding versions of the songs that are not sung in your native language, to see if people can guess based on the music alone.
No 10. Christmas ten-pin bowling
A Christmas take on bowling you can have a theme of Santas, Snowmen, Christmas trees, whatever your imagination and creativity can do.
Resources: 10 empty toilet paper rolls, toilet paper or tissues, paper, glue, scissors, or other craft supplies and pens and a small ball (tennis, golf etc.), something to keep score
- Pick a theme (Christmas trees, snowmen etc.) and decorate your empty toilet rolls
- Place them on the floor or on a tabletop and take it in turns to roll a ball and see how many of them you can knock down.
- At the end of each go, mark your scores down and reset the pins, after 10 rounds check your scores.
For a guide on how to make (snowman) bowling go here.
We hope we’ve provided you with lots of fun Christmas games to play this holiday season and you and your guests will not be short of things to do once gifting and Christmas dinner is over. Happy Holidays!
