25 Christmas Games Everyone Will Love
As someone who has been hosting parties for years and coming up with new Christmas party games every year, I’m here to tell you that these fun Christmas games will make every holiday occasion more fun. Kids, teens, and adults will all be laughing hysterically playing and watching other people on their play these games! If you’re looking for something less active, these aren’t for you but this Christmas scavenger hunt or this Christmas kisses trivia game might be! Or maybe one of these Christmas activities for families. There’s a fun activity for everyone! I created 25 Christmas games to play but you could easily just pick out a handful! These work really well for classroom parties (I should know – I’ve been the room mom for years), family parties, and even office parties! They’re guaranteed to make your next Christmas party one to remember! I know they always have been at our past Christmas parties!
How to Play These Christmas Games
All of these games are Minute to Win It style games and depending on the number of people playing, there are different ways you can play them. Don’t know what what minute to win it games are? Start with my minute to win it games page that’s full of instructions, scoring ideas, and more! Or just pick and choose a couple of games and don’t do a Christmas edition of minute to win it games at all! Just use them as short games – perfect for Christmas games for kids stations!
Style #1: Minute to Win It for Individuals – Man vs. Clock
In this version, one player will be trying to beat the clock for each game. So for instance, they will have to try and complete the game within a minute (hence the minute to win it name). If they do, they win a prize.
Style #2: Minute to Win It for Groups
In this style, you’ll pick two players for each game who will going head to head against each other playing a game rather than trying to beat the clock.
Style #3: Minute to Win It for Teams
In this style, you’ll split your group into two (or 3 or 10 depending on the number of guests) teams. For each game, teams must choose one player from each team to compete head to head in the game with the other teams.
Minute to Win It Christmas Games
These festive games are perfect for playing before or after Christmas dinner, at parties throughout the holiday season, or any time you’re just looking for some holiday fun! They’re the best Christmas games we’ve tried and just so much fun!
#1- Marshmallow Munch
Supplies Needed: Mini marshmallows, hot chocolate, and small cups How to Play: Eat an entire bowl of mini marshmallows and drink a cup of hot chocolate in a minute (or race to be the first) or the allotted time.
#2 – Candy Cane Catch
Supplies Needed: Christmas tinsel, chairs, and candy canes How to Play: Tie a piece of ribbon or twine from one post or chair to another. Players must stand on top of the chairs and try to be the first to drop a candy cane from the chair onto the ribbon and get it to stay there. Play until the first player gets a candy cane to catch on the ribbon or see who can get the most in a minute. This is one of the more difficult Christmas minute to win it games for kids but is one of my favorite games for adults because it’s actually challenging.
#3 – Toy Touchdown
Supplies Needed: Christmas figurines or plastic Christmas ornaments, Christmas basket, duck tape, and panty hose How to Play: Players must pass small toys or ornaments under their legs like they’re hiking a football and have a teammate catch them in a small Christmas basket that’s attached to the second player’s back. Teams race to be the first team to catch five or see who can get the most in a minute. This one is great for the entire family – just pair older players with younger ones!
#4 – Elf Toss
Supplies Needed: Plastic elves, holiday buckets How to Play: Players have a minute to try and toss mini plastic elves into a line of buckets (one 5″ away, one 7″ away, and one 10 feet away). Player has to make elves into each of the buckets in the time to win. This is the perfect game for when you want kids to be able to play on their own (like at classroom parties).
#5 – Snowman Shake
Supplies Needed: White ping pong balls or ball ornaments, tissue boxes, duct tape, and panty hose How to Play: Decorate white ping pong balls to look like snowman faces. Fill an empty tissue box with the snowmen ping pong balls and tape the tissue box (or use a velcro belt glued to the box) to someone’s backside. Player has to shake all of the snowmen out of the tissue box before the time runs out. Or if you’d rather not decorate like snowmen, use ornaments instead. If you’re looking for family-friendly Christmas activities that are also hilarious, this one is always a good time! Try it at your next holiday party, office party, or even just for a little friendly competition for a Christmas family night!
#6 – North Pole Pop
Supplies Needed: Balloons (these holiday balloons would be fun!) and winter gloves How to Play: Player have to pop 10 balloons using just their hands with winter gloves on before the time runs out. We did this in our Avengers party with hulk gloves, and it was absolutely hilarious! Definitely one of the most fun minute to win it Christmas games for adults! This one can be more difficult for younger children but makes a perfect game for a teen or adult type of party.
#7 – Jingle Bell Jam
Supplies Needed: Gift boxes, jingle bells, holiday wrapping paper How to Play: Before the party, fill five boxes with different amounts of jingle bells than wrap like holiday presents. Player has to shake wrapped presents filled with jingle bells to determine how many jingle bells is in each, putting them in order of the most jingle bells to the least. This holiday game can be changed up for any season just using different items inside the box!
#8 – Naughty or Nice
Supplies Needed: Red and green candies, bowls, pieces of paper that say naughty and nice How to Play: Set out bowls full of red and green candies, making sure to have the same amount in each one. Players must quickly go through a bowl of red and green candies and divide the candies (one candy at a time) into separate bowls across the room labeled naughty or nice. Red candies go into the naughty bowl and green candies go into the nice bowl. First player to separate all of their candies wins.
#9 – Reindeer Wrap
Supplies Needed: Brown crepe paper and reindeer headband How to Play: Players have to wrap a teammate from head to toe with brown crepe paper and top with reindeer headband to finish the challenge. If player breaks the crepe paper, they can continue wrapping to cover them completely. You could also switch this up and use green streamers and wrap them up like a Christmas tree, bonus points for decorating them later!
#10 – Snowball Fight
Supplies Needed: White ping pong balls, fish bowl, cotton balls How to Play: Player has to bounce (or toss) white ping pong balls into an empty fish bowl at the other end of the table while other players are throwing cotton balls at the ping pong balls the player is bouncing, trying to knock their balls out of the way. Player has to bounce one ping pong ball into the bowl to win.
#11 – Rudolph Race
Supplies Needed: Red poms, spoons, vaseline, and Rudolph poster How to Play: This is one of my absolute favorite minute to win it Christmas games! Give each player a red pom pom and a spoonful of vaseline. Players have to race to be the first person to put a red pom pom on Rudolph’s nose (make sure to put a bit of vaseline on his nose as well) on the other side of the room. To play, players must dip their nose into the spoonful of vaseline then get the red pom pom to stick to the vaseline on their nose. Once the red pom is on their nose, they must move across the room and stick it to Rudolph’s nose. The catch? They can’t use their hands at any time.
#12 – All Through the House
Supplies Needed: Mini Christmas figurines How to Play: Before the party, hide mini Santa or Christmas figurines (at least one for each player) all through the house. To play, players must race to search the house to find a mini Santa. This one would be great to play as a team relay, have one player search first and when they find one, they tag the next player who searches. Either the player or team to find Santa first wins.
#13 – Ornament Roll
Supplies Needed: Ball ornaments, gift boxes, and painter’s tape How to Play: Give each player an ornament and a gift box and have stand behind a lined taped on the ground with painter’s tape. Tape another line across the room (best done in a large empty room or gym). To play, players must fan their gift box toward their ornament to get it to roll across the room and over the other line. Players can’t actually touch the ornament with the box, just use it to create wind to “blow” it.
#14 – Mistletoes
Supplies Needed: Christmas tinsel, chairs, and artificial mistletoe How to Play: Hang a thin Christmas ribbon or strand of garland across two chairs or posts, low enough to the ground that players can reach it with their feet if they’re sitting on the ground. Give each player plastic mistletoe, two for kids and three to five for teens and adults. To play the game, players must race to be the first to hang the mistletoe on the ribbon using just their toes to hold it.
#15 – Trim the Tree
Supplies Needed: Mini Christmas trees, plastic Christmas ornaments How to Play: Pick up a handful of mini Christmas trees and place them in a line on the floor. Give each player a bucket full of plastic ornaments that have hooks on them and have them stand on a line of painter’s tape 10 feet away from the mini trees. Players race to be the first to trim a tree by tossing ornaments from the line to try to get them to hang on the tree. First one to get five ornaments on their tree wins.
#16 – Mommy Kissing Santa
Supplies Needed: Hershey kisses, mom stickers, Santa stickers How to Play: Before the party, put little stickers on the bottom of Hershey kisses – some mom/woman stickers and some Santa stickers. To play the game, set out the Hershey kisses in a grid (lined up). To play, players must pick a Hershey kiss from the grid and look at the bottom. If they pick a kiss with a mom or Santa sticker on the bottom, they hold on to it and pick another Hershey kiss. If they pick one with no sticker on the bottom, they must eat the Hershey kiss and pick another one. Players continue picking Hershey kisses until they find a kiss with a mom and a kiss with a Santa on the bottom.
#17 – Jingle Bell Rock & Roll
Supplies Needed: Ball ornaments and jingle bells How to Play: Place five ball ornaments lined up on the end of a table and give the player 10 jingle bells and have them stand on the opposite end of the rectangle table. To play, players must roll their jingle bells from one end of the table and attempt to knock off all five ornaments from the opposite end of the table.
#18 – Let It Snow
Supplies Needed: Plastic spoons, cups, cotton balls, and bowls How to Play: Give each player a plastic spoon and a cup full of cotton balls. On the other side of the room, place an empty bowl for each player. Players must race to get 10 cotton balls from the cup to the bowl on the other side of the room, using just the plastic spoon. The plastic spoon must be held in the player’s mouth. If they drop a cotton ball, they should leave it and go back and get another one. First player to get all 10 cotton balls in their bowl wins.
#19 – White Christmas
Supplies Needed: White streamers How to Play: Give each player two large rolls of white streamers. Players must hold one roll of streamers in one hand and one in the other. When the timer starts, players have to try to unroll both rolls of streamers, however they can. The only rule is that they cannot use their hands other than to hold the streamers.
#20 – Wreath Toss
Supplies Needed: Green or red poster board, Christmas wreath, and empty paper towel rolls
#21 – Fill the Stockings
Supplies Needed: Stockings, Christmas tinsel or ribbon, and colored ping pong balls How to Play: Hang stockings (1 for each player) from a ribbon or rope tied tightly across from two posts or chairs. Give each player a bucket full of ping pong balls, preferably of different colors then send them across the room from the stockings. Players race to be the first to bounce the ping pong balls into the stockings from across the room. If you have multiple colored ping pong balls, players can shoot for any of the stockings. If you’re using all white ping pong balls, I recommend assigning everyone to one stocking to make it easier.
#22 – I Want a Hula Hoop
Supplies Needed: Hula hoops and Christmas gift bags filled with heavy items (just to weight them down) How to Play: Give each player a hula hoop and set up one gift bag per person on the other side of the room. Players must roll their hula hoop down the hall and try to get it to land around the gift bag (make sure they’re heavy!). First player to get their hula hoop to land successfully around the gift bag wins. If they miss the gift bag, they must run down and get their hula hoop and run back. Or make it more difficult and make them hula back.
#23 – Sugar Plums Dancing
Supplies Needed: List of Christmas songs How to Play: Give each team a list of Christmas songs that everyone other than one person on the team can see. Teams must race to be the first to get their “guesser” to guess the title of all of the Christmas song titles on their list. Teams can work together like in reverse charades to act out the song title but no words, no singing, and no sign language. It’s speed charades. You can either do the first person to get through the entire list or first team to guess like five of the songs on the list.
#24 – Twelve Days of Christmas
Supplies: 12 days of Christmas items, bucket, other small Christmas trinkets and figurines How to Play: Give each team a bucket filled with Christmas trinkets, including items associated with the 12 days of Christmas (e.g., partridge, doves, gold rings, etc.). Make sure that there are all of the items for the 12 days as well as other items to confuse the teams. Have teams stand at one end of the room and put a bucket per team at the other end of the room. When you say go, a team member must run to the bucket and find something that fits ones of the 12 days of Christmas and bring it back to their team. Players rotate like a relay, going to the bucket until they find something for each of the 12 days. I recommend giving them a list of the 12 days to check them off as they go. Ideas for 12 days of Christmas items:
1st day – Plastic pear, stuffed partridge, pear shaped anything2nd day – Turtle candies, toy turtles, Dove chocolate, dove stuffed animal3rd day – Plastic French fries, plastic eggs, stuffed hen, toy French horn4th day – Cell phone, calling card, telephone, toy birds5th day – Golden rings, plastic donut, earrings, bracelet6th day – Plastic eggs, duck duck goose game, down pillow, toy goose7th day – Swimming floaties, pool toys, bath toys, ugly duckling book, stuffed swan8th day – Plastic milk container, empty milk carton, Milk Duds, maid outfit, duster9th day – Dance music, dance shoes, Barbies, Just Dance game10th day – Leap frog anything, leapin’ lizards game, Plastic leap frogs, Ken dolls11th day – Toy pipes, pitch pipe, recorder, plastic pipe12th day – Toy drums, drum stick, Little drummer boy book
#25 – Secret Santa
Supplies Needed: Small gift boxes, picture of Santa, index cards or small pieces of paper, wrapping paper How to Play: Before the party, wrap up a a bunch of small boxes (about 5 person team playing) and inside some of those, put a small piece of paper with a picture of Santa on it. In the other boxes, put a small piece of paper with nothing on it. To play, players have to choose one present from the table and unwrap it with oven mitts on their hands. If the present has a Santa inside, they’re done. If not, they have to choose another present and continue unwrapping until they find a secret Santa.
Christmas Prize Ideas
Christmas movies like A Christmas Story or Home AloneOne of these hilarious white elephant giftsChristmas music album or iTunes gift cardAn awesome Christmas sweaterChristmas game like Christmas-opolyChristmas candyYour favorite Christmas cookies wrapped up with one of these Christmas gift tags
Christmas Games fAQs
More Great Christmas Games
I have an entire collection of awesome Christmas games – so many you’re guaranteed to find something for the party you’re looking for!
Christmas party games – a collection of fun Christmas party games including printable ones, more minute to win it games, and more! Christmas dice game – the best gift exchange game ever and all you need are dice! Christmas gift games – 12 fun and unique gift exchange ideas for any event including ones that use Christmas cards, poems and more! Christmas emoji game – how many Christmas movies can you guess when they’re described just using emojis? Left Right Christmas game – two poems (one for adults, one for kids) for gift swapping! Christmas matching game – this go caroling game is one of the most fun Christmas memory games and kids love it!
Print These Games
Want a printable list of all of these games? Click the button below or click here to be able to print all of these games at the click of a button! All of the best Christmas party games in one place!
