Christmas Games for Family: 12 Easy Party Games Everyone Can Play

The best Christmas party games are simple to explain, need almost no setup, and let a seven-year-old and a grandparent play on the same team. Here are 12 that work at family gatherings, office parties and classroom celebrations.

Games for everyone (all ages)

1. Christmas bingo. Give everyone a card with festive pictures or words and call them out one at a time. The first to fill a line shouts "Ho ho ho!" Use buttons, coins or chocolate chips as markers. It works for 4 or 40 players, and non-readers can play with picture cards.

2. Left-Right gift swap. Everyone holds a wrapped gift. A host reads a silly Christmas story aloud, and every time the story says "left" or "right", the gifts move that way. When the story ends, you keep whatever you're holding. Small, low-cost gifts work best.

3. This or That. Read out two choices ("hot cocoa or eggnog?", "build a snowman or have a snowball fight?") and players jump to one side of the room. No winners or losers, just lots of laughing and loud opinions.

4. Indoor scavenger hunt. Make a list of things to find: something red, something that jingles, a candy cane, a sock. Teams race to find them all. On a mild day, take it outside as a winter walk hunt (a pinecone, a holly leaf, a house with blue lights).

5. Christmas charades. Write Christmas words on slips of paper (reindeer, wrapping a present, ice skating, a melting snowman) and act them out without speaking.

Games for older kids and adults

6. Christmas trivia. Split into teams and ask questions in rounds: traditions, Christmas around the world, songs and stories, winter facts. Mix easy and hard questions so everyone has something to answer. Need questions? Try our Christmas trivia questions with answers.

7. Who's Most Likely To. Read a prompt ("Who's most likely to eat the cookies left out for Santa?") and everyone points at a person on three. It's quick, funny and works best with people who know each other well.

8. Finish the lyric. Play or sing the first line of a well-known Christmas song and stop. The first team to sing the next line wins a point.

9. Pass the parcel. Wrap a small prize in many layers, with a tiny treat or a dare between each one. Pass it round while music plays, and when the music stops, unwrap one layer.

Quick games for little ones

10. Pin the nose on the reindeer. Draw a big reindeer, cut out red noses and add some tape. Blindfold and spin!

11. Snowball toss. Scrunch up white paper "snowballs" and throw them into a bucket from further and further away.

12. Freeze dance. Play Christmas music and everyone dances. When the music stops, freeze like a snowman. Anyone who wobbles is out.

How to run a family game night

• Pick 3 or 4 games for a 90-minute evening. Start with something active, put trivia in the middle and finish with the gift swap.
• Make mixed-age teams so the little ones never feel left out.
• Keep score on a big sheet of paper, and give the winning team a certificate or first pick of the dessert.
• Print everything the day before and put each game in its own envelope.

Want it all ready to print?

Our Family Christmas Game Night Pack puts 7 of these games in one printable pack, plus 5 editable Christmas party invitations: 40 trivia questions with an answer key, 12 different bingo cards, 36 Who's Most Likely To cards, indoor and winter walk scavenger hunts, the Left-Right gift swap story, This or That, plus a scoreboard and champion certificates. It's $10, an instant download, and you'll be playing in 10 minutes.

Planning the whole season? The Complete Christmas Collection adds a holiday planner, a kids' countdown kit and a family cookbook.