25 Christmas Games for the Best Holiday Party Ever

When you’re throwing a Christmas party, it can seem intimidating to come up with things to do that all of your guests will love – especially if they’re a mix of ages.

So we’ve taken the work out of it for you! Below you’ll find a list of holiday-themed games that provide guaranteed fun. With each one, we’ve noted the materials that you’ll need and the number of players required for the game.

Feel free to pick and choose based on who you’re inviting and which you think will most interest your specific guests. And, of course, make sure to have fun!

Pin the Nose on the Reindeer

This game is a spin on the party classic – pin the tail on the donkey!

Hang your reindeer at eye level and stick a piece of tape on the nose. Blindfold each guest and spin them around. Then, ask them to stick the nose on the reindeer. The person who gets the nose closest to where it belongs wins!

Christmas Charades

Have your guests contribute ideas related to Christmas (songs, movies, characters – be creative!) and mix them up in a bowl. Divide into teams. Each person will draw a topic and act it out without saying a word while their team guesses what they’re demonstrating. The team with the most correct guesses wins!

Santa’s Bag Board Game

The goal of this game is to create toys for kids by collecting the parts needed to build each toy. Gather the right parts by trading with friends or using Elven magic! Earn points for each toy; the person with the most points at the end wins.

Christmas Movie Bingo

This is great for a movie night! Turn on your favorite Christmas movie and check off the things on your card that happen in the movie. The first person to check off five boxes horizontally, vertically, or diagonally wins!

Santa Bean Bag Toss

The goal here is to throw cookie-shaped bean bags through Santa’s mouth! Each player gets six bean bags and the person who feeds Santa the most wins.

Pass the Parcel

Wrap a box with a prize inside in layers of wrapping paper. Play music and pass the box around from guest to guest. When the music stops, the person holding the box removes a layer of paper. Whoever removes the last layer wins the prize! You can add smaller prizes between the layers to make it more exciting.

Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt

Pile everyone into the car (or multiple cars!) and drive around town to see what you can find! Each scavenger hunt sheet has common Christmas decorations and lights. Whoever finds the most things on the trip wins!

The Christmas Tree Game

Divide into teams. Give each team green crepe paper, ornaments, tinsel and garland and set the timer for two minutes. Teams race to wrap one person in the crepe paper (they’re a Christmas tree!) and then decorate with ornaments, tinsel, and garland. Whoever has the most creative tree when the timer goes off wins!

Snowman Bowling

Decorate Styrofoam cups to look like snowmen – glue on construction paper eyes, mouth, and a carrot nose. Then, stack six cups to make a pyramid. Have your party guests roll a ball to knock down as many cups as they can. Play it just like bowling – whoever gets the most points wins!

Jingle Bell Toss

Place 10 red solo cups in a triangle on a large piece of cardboard and hot glue them down. Flip the cardboard over and glue two cups to the top corners to create legs. Repeat with the second piece of cardboard. Set the boards directly across from one another and have your guests toss jingle bells into the cups. The person who gets the most bells in wins!

12 Days Board Game

The 12 Days game takes the “Twelve Days of Christmas” song and turns it into a fun card game! In 12 rounds, your guests try to re-gift unpopular cards while keeping strong cards that will help them win the game. At the end, players count points for each holiday card they’ve gained and whoever has the most points wins.

Holiday Family Feud

This is a fun way to get to know more about your guests! At the beginning of the party, ask your friends to answer 25 questions on a piece of paper (you can download below). Tally the answers. Break up your guests into two teams and act as the host. Then, play Family Feud with the answers to your questions!

Christmas Lyric Challenge

Write snippets of Christmas songs on a piece of paper, leaving words out that your guests can fill in. Print one copy per guest. Then, have each guest fill in the blanks on their sheet. Whoever guesses the most correct answers wins!

Reindeer Antlers

This is a fun game that challenges your guests to create reindeer antlers! Divide into teams. Give each team pantyhose and assorted balloons. Set a time limit (like 10 minutes) and have team members blow up the balloons and hand them to a leader (a reindeer!) who will try to stuff the balloons into the pantyhose. When the timer goes off, have the reindeer leader put the antlers on their head – whoever has the best set of antlers wins!

Gift Wrapping Game

See who can wrap gifts the fastest! Place a pile of boxes that are various sizes in the middle of the room. Set a timer (like for five minutes) and see who can successfully wrap the most boxes during that time.

Dear Santa

Divide into teams of 3 or 4 and give them a Christmas card. Challenge them to write the most creative card to Santa and let them know that prizes will be awarded based on various categories (don’t say the categories). Once letters are written, read them out loud. Judges will choose a winner in each category (overall favorite, longest, shortest, most clever use of words, etc.).

Christmas Pictionary

This version of the classic game uses Christmas themes as picture ideas! Divide into teams. Have one player draw a Christmas-themed word. Then, set a one-minute timer and have the player start drawing their word. The goal is to get their team members to guess what they’re drawing within the time limit! Assign one point per word and take turns. Whichever team gets the most points wins!

Snowball Toss

Use the sharpies to draw eyes, a mouth, and a snowman nose on each plastic cup. Set the cups in a triangle shape on the floor with the openings facing up. Have your guests toss cotton balls into the cups; whoever gets the most in wins!

Worst Present Wins

This game is just like “two truths and a lie”! Each guest lists three of the worst presents they ever received and the others guess which one they really received and which two are made up.

GiftTRAP Board Game

In this game, cards are dealt to the table showing different holiday gifts. Players use face-down tokens to mark gifts they would give to other players and to themselves. Then, the tokens are revealed and scores are given based on the relationship between the gifting and receiving tokens.

Name that Carol

Turn on five seconds of a Christmas carol and then stop the song! Have your guests guess the carol. Whoever guesses the most, wins!

Stack the Tree

Have players race to see how high they can build a Christmas tree (tower) with plastic cups in one minute! Whoever has the highest tree wins.

3-Armed Race

Instead of a 3-legged race, try a 3-armed race! Tie the arms of two guests together and have them wrap a present within one minute. Whatever team wraps the best present wins!

Christmas Stocking Guessing Game

Hide a variety of Christmas or holiday-themed items inside a stocking (holly, scotch tape, pine cones, ornaments, etc.) and tie off the top of the stocking. Pass it around to your guests and have them write down what they think is inside just by touch. Then, reveal the items. Whoever got the most right, wins!

Rudolph Operation

This is exactly like the classic Operation but with Bumble from the Rudolph movie as the patient! Use a pair of tweezers to remove items from inside Bumble and pretend to be a surgeon. This game is great for kids and adults alike.

Tips for a Successful Party

Decorate but don’t go overboard. Stick to the classics – tree, wreath, lights, etc. – and consider making a few other items holiday themed. For example, you may want to add a belt to red solo cups to make them look like Santa. But if everything in your home is Christmas-themed, it can look tacky. Keep it classy!

Mix homemade and store-bought foods. Pick 2-3 items to make from scratch, things that you know people like and that you feel comfortable making. Fill in the gaps with store-bought foods – it saves you a lot of time and stress! Consider a cheese board or placing out bowls of nuts, pretzels, chips, or fruit.

Consider rearranging your furniture. Think through the games that you want to play and take a look at your house. Is there enough space? You may want to move your furniture (push it back against the walls, angle your couch, etc.) to make the party and games flow better.

Make a festive music playlist but mix it up. Plan your playlist ahead of time and add plenty of holiday classics. But make sure to mix in some other music, too! After all, your guests may be a bit tired of hearing Christmas music everywhere.

Have drink options that everyone will love. Plan a mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. And if you’re inviting kids, make sure there are drink options that they’ll love, too.

Let your guests choose their prizes. When giving out prizes for your games, consider having several to choose from that are all about the same value. This ensures that the winner will find something that he or she loves!