For us Filipinos, Christmas is all about spending time with our families. It remains to be my personal favorite holiday because growing up, my Christmas memories involved playing with all my cousins, my great grandma’s cooking, my titos and titas giving us money, lots of singing, and just a fun time overall. So, for you and your family’s reunion this year, we’ve gathered a few Christmas-themed activities for you to try. Read on for ten games guaranteed to make the season more jolly!
Materials Needed:
- Green crepe paper
- Christmas ornaments on hooks
- Tinsel
- Garlands
- Timer
Split your guests up into teams. Give each team a roll of the green crepe paper, ornaments, garland, and tinsel. When the clock starts (set it for at least one minute) the teams will race to wrap one of their members in the crepe paper. This person is now the tree and needs to be decorated quickly. The teams have until the buzzer goes off to decorate their trees. Once the time is up, the groups will vote on who had the prettiest or most creative looking tree, and that team wins.
Materials Needed:
- Balloons
- Santa hat
Have the players place a large inflated balloon under their shirt to represent Santa’s belly. All players must keep their hands behind their backs. On GO, everyone must try and bust their gut without using their hands. The last person left with a Santa belly must wear the Santa hat for the rest of the party.
Materials Needed:
- Pillows
- Long stick (for limbo)
- Music
Have players put a Santa belly under their shirt using a pillow this time. Place a limbo stick at a starting height. Then line up, play festive music, and one by one, try to limbo underneath (with the Santa belly) until everyone has tried. Slightly lower the stick and have those who made it through go again. Continually lower the stick until only one winner remains.
Materials Needed:
- Christmas flash cards
- White board or paper
- Drawing materials
Write down a list of Christmas movies on separate flash cards. Divide players into teams. One person draws from the pile of cards and has one minute to illustrate the Christmas movie. If their team guesses correctly, they get one point. Make sure to alternate the team artist. Teams take turns until one reaches twenty points to win.
Materials Needed:
- Holiday objects
- Paper plates
- Drawing materials
Have two players sit back to back. Give one a holiday object (like an ornament), and give the other a paper plate and drawing materials. The player with the object cannot say what the object is, but he or she must describe the object so that his or her partner can attempt to draw it. The top three most accurate drawings in the group win.
Materials Needed:
- Rudolph photo
- Red paper for Rudolph’s nose
- Tape or thumbtack
- Blindfold
- Marker
Draw or print out a picture of Rudolph and place it on the wall. Get a red circular piece of paper for his nose with a thumbtack or piece of tape. Blindfold the participant, spin them in a circle, then have them try to pin the nose on Rudolph. Mark their attempt with their name. Give everyone a chance to pin the nose, and whoever pins it most accurately, wins.
Materials Needed:
- Blindfolds (for tying)
- Boxes (for gifts)
- Gift wrapper
- Tape
- Scissors
- Example gift
Have participants pair off. Tie one person’s right hand to their teammate’s left hand. The duos will then attempt to wrap a gift using their free hands. Have an example gift for everyone to attempt to duplicate–the harder it is to create, the funnier. Give a time limit of 1–3 minutes, and then have a judge pick the most accurate gift.
Materials Needed:
- List of Christmas words and characters
- Timer
Prepare a list of Christmas words and characters. Group the participants and like the Pictionary game, one person draws from the list and acts out an action without talking. His or her team will try to guess what that person is doing. If they guess correctly, they earn a point. After a set amount of time, the team with the most number of points win!
Materials Needed:
- Music (especially Christmas tunes)
It’s the classic game with a holiday twist. Play a few notes of a Christmas song, and let the players guess the name of the tune. If you want to up the ante, you can ask them to guess the name of the artist as well. It’s best to find old versions of the classics, so the answers are not so obvious.
Materials Needed:
- Balloons
- Markers
- Shaving cream
- Plastic knives
- Confetti
- Glitter
- Whipped cream
- Timer
- Bibs
This is probably the messiest of the Christmas party games, so hand out bibs just in case.
Give everyone an inflatable balloon, a marker, and two minutes to draw a face on their balloon. Next, apply shaving cream to the balloons and hand out plastic knives. On GO, players must all attempt to shave their balloon–without popping it. The first person to succeed wins. To make it extra Christmas-y, you can fill the balloon with confetti or glitter (or whipped cream, for a messier touch).