It’s the most wonderful time of year once again, and you know what that means – spending time with friends, family, and loved ones. But when there’s nothing good on the telly, and you’ve done your annual Christmas Day walk, here are some games to get you back in the festive spirit.
1. Christmas Name that Tune
Look, it’s a classic for a reason. You can find some online for free, or pick your now favourite Christmas tunes and put your loved ones to the test! Play them the first 15 seconds of the song and see who can name that tune. A point for the artist and a point for the song only seems fair. For a twist on this game, write out the titles of famous Christmas songs and leave blanks for your guests to fill in. On the off chance that you have a kazoo to hand, why not try playing the song to your friends and family, and have them guess which festive song is being performed?
2. Festive Charades
It wouldn’t be Christmas without a frustrating family game of charades. Film? TV show? Book? Right, what is that? And to top it all off, someone will inevitably end up just talking. But before they do, why not put a twist on the classic charades by making all of the answers Christmas themed? Nothing is funnier than watching Aunt Nora do an impression of a reindeer, I promise you.
3. The Chocolate Game
Ok, onto the slightly less well-known Christmas games out there, but certainly no less enjoyable. The Christmas link here is a slightly tenuous one, but I would argue that hats and gloves are very festive. If you have any space left after Christmas lunch, the rules are as follows: Place a wrapped bar of chocolate in the centre of the group, alongside a wooly hat, a scarf, and some gloves. Take it in turns rolling a dice until someone rolls a 6, and then it’s to try eating the chocolate! The player puts all of the accessories on, before trying to eat the chocolate with a knife and fork – make sure the chocolate bar is wrapped, too! This makes it even harder. In the meantime, the other players with keep rolling the dice until someone rolls a 6, and then it’s their turn, and so on. You can make the person who eats the last bite the winner, or have a short game by making the person who has the first bite the winner, or maybe you count every square as a win! It’s completely up to you – good luck!
4. The Christmas Wrapping Game
So you’ve wrapped up all your presents, but what to do with all the leftover wrapping paper? Well, the obvious choice would be to save it until next December, but the second choice, is to wrap up a loved one with it. The premise is simple but effective: split up into teams, and choose one volunteer “present”, the rest of the team “wrap” their volunteer. Fastest wins. Don’t have any leftover Christmas wrapping? Easy peasy, just use loo roll and call it “the snowman game” instead, although make sure to bring a hat and scarf to complete the look, otherwise you’ve just thrown loo roll all over a loved one, and that’s not very festive.
5. Festive Pictionary
By now I’m sure you’re sensing a theme: it’s the same as normal Pictionary, with a Christmassy twist. Split up into teams and have one player draw clues while the rest of the team tries to guess the image. You must guess before the time runs out, or before the other team. Words and numbers are strictly forbidden. Fastest team to five points wins. It seems simple enough, but honestly, once you see the star as a turkey, and not a star, it’s going to be pretty hard to un-see. Be warned.
6. Christmas Hedbanz
Another classic, sometimes called “who am I?”, sometimes “Head’s Up”. In our house we tend to just call it, “the sticky note game”. Again, the premise is very simple. Everyone writes a famous figure on their sticky note, and they get drawn out at random. Players stick the sticky notes to their forehead. They can’t see their own character, but they can see everyone else’s. Now each player must ask yes or no questions to find out who they are. The catch with this version is that your famous figure has to be Christmas themed. Think Michael Bublé, Nigella Lawson, or maybe The Snowman. This is the perfect opportunity to argue amongst yourselves about whether Jack Skellington counts as a Christmas famous figure.
So there you have it, some of the best Christmas party games to liven up your festive celebrations, whether they be with friends or family. Merry Christmas and Enjoy!