Five Fantastic Christmas Games for Groups

Christmas is a great time of the year for celebrating the birth of Jesus and catching up with friends, work mates and family. It's also a time for parties galore. How many calories do you put on your waistline at Christmas parties?

One way to keep the waistline trim during the party season is to include lots of games and activities. Here are five fantastic Christmas games for groups to make your next Christmas party even more fun.


M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S is a wonderful game for breaking the ice and getting to know some soon-to-be friends. Each player is given a pen or pencil, and a piece of paper with the fourteen letters M-E-R-R-Y C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S written down the left hand side of the paper. If you are an organised sort of person, you may hand out sheets of paper already printed with the letters, or you could get each participant to write the letters themselves (presuming they can spell!). On a given signal, players must go around the room and seek an autograph from other players for each of the letters. However, players may only sign next to a letter if their first or last name contains that letter. They can only sign their name once on each piece of paper, so you will need to find three different players for the three 'R' letters for example. Give the players enough time to really mingle and get to know each other before starting the next game.

Christmas Carol Relay is a musical game that really tests players' memories of Christmas carols. Players divide into two teams. One team starts singing the first verse of a Christmas carol. As soon as they have finished, the opposite team begins singing a different carol and so on. Teams must not repeat a carol that has been sung by either team and they only have five seconds to start a new carol. This game is best played before any carols are sung at the party, for obvious reasons.

Christmas Card Hunt suits young children and adults alike. You can play with about four to six players for each round. Before the party gather at least three old Christmas cards for each player. Make sure each card is different to the others. Cut them in half before putting the top parts of the cards in a box and spreading the bottom halves of the cards around the room or in a jumbled pile. At the start of the game players take one card from the box and then try to find the matching half of the card. Once they match a card they can collect a second card top and so on. The first player to match three whole cards wins. You can play as many rounds as you like so that everyone gets to participate.

Christmas Bells Game needs a little preparation before the party. You will need to purchase enough small bells for every player to have one. The bells should be small enough to be hidden in your hand. One bell should be painted or otherwise marked so that it is different to all the other bells. Players are given the bells and then move around the room, approaching each other and saying "Jingle Bells". The first person to say "Jingle Bells" can then guess which of the other player's hands hides their bell. If successful, they swap bells.

They cannot approach that player again until each of them has approached another player. Players continue to move around the room, swapping bells, for one minute until the leader gives a signal. The player holding the coloured bell is out, and one of the non-coloured bells is removed from the game. Play continues (with one less player and one less bell each round) until there are only two or three players (the winners) left.

Christmas Secret is a slightly quieter game. Players sit in a circle. The leader holds a wrapped Christmas box and says, "This Christmas I'm getting..." and names a gift they will receive before throwing the parcel to any other player. That player also says, "This Christmas I'm getting..." and completes the sentence. However, only some gifts are allowed and the leader can tell them if they chose an appropriate gift or not. If a player says a wrong gift they must stand up. The parcel is thrown from person to person and anyone nominating a gift that does not fit the secret stands up. Later, if a standing player chooses a correct gift they may sit down again. So what is the secret for the gifts? The gift must start with the initial of that player's first name. For example, Trevor may say, "This Christmas I'm getting a tennis racquet" while Rachel may say, "This Christmas I'm getting some roses". Alternative secrets could include gifts that are (i) six letters long, (ii) start with the letters in the word Christmas, (iii) described while the Christmas box is being held in the player's left hand, (iv) coloured red, and so on.

For more information on these and many more Christmas games for groups, please visit our website.

Andrew owns Family Games Treasurehouse which has rules for over two hundred family games. We also publish party game ebooks including "Christmas Party Games Volume 1" with 24 great Christmas games. This article is copyright but may be freely republished provided the text, author credit, site links and this copyright notice remain intact.

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