10 Christmas Party Games for Kids

Gather all the kiddos, warm up a pot of snowman soup (That's what we call hot chocolate 'round here.), and get ready for a night of family fun with a Christmas twist. I've gathered together ten of my favorite kid-friendly Christmas party games in hopes to add some Merry to your Christmas celebrating this year.

(If no instructions are included with a particular game, click on the title of the game to be redirected to the instructions.)

Right to Left Snowman Game

To ensure that everyone wins a prize in this game, give each player a ziplock containing one Christmas cookie. It's best if each bag contains a DIFFERENT kind of cookie. As the game progresses, the bags of cookies get passed from right to left all the way around the circle. Whichever cookie a player is holding in his hand by the end of the game, is the cookie he/she gets to eat.

Beyond White Elephant Exchange

Who Am I?

As a guest arrives to a family gathering or party, attach a name tag to his/her back. Each tag should depict a Christmas character. Throughout the duration of the party, he/she can ask other guests questions that lead to only YES or NO answers in order to discover WHO he/she is.

EXAMPLE: Am I a character from the Christmas story in Luke? Am I pregnant? Am I Mary? 

Character suggestions

• Mary
• Joseph
• baby Jesus
• shepherd
• wiseman
• Elizabeth
• Zachariah
• King Herod
• Angel Gabriel
• The Grinch
• Ebenezer Scrooge
• Tiny Tim
• Frosty the snowman
• a caroler
• the innkeeper
• piper piping
• lord-a-leaping
• maid-a-milking
• lady dancing
• drummer boy

Christmas Wrapping Paper Game

I Spy Ornament Game

Use the ornaments on your tree to play a Christmas version of the classic I Spy game. Take turns describing ornaments for others to guess. Whoever correctly identifies an ornament being described gets to describe the next ornament.

What's in the Stocking Game

The Oven Mitt Game

You will need:

• a small prize
• an assortment of different size boxes
• an assortment of Christmas wrapping paper
• two oven mitts
• one dice

To prepare the game:

Wrap the small prize in Christmas paper. Place it inside a box that is slightly larger than the original prize. Wrap the box in a different kind of Christmas paper. Place THAT box inside a slightly larger box and wrap with Christmas paper. Continue placing each wrapped box inside a slightly larger box and wrapping it until you have one large wrapped box. 

To play:

Instruct players to sit in a circle on the floor. Place the large wrapped box and the oven mitts in the middle of the circle. Randomly select one number to be the TARGET NUMBER and announce it to the players. Hand the dice to one player. That player must begin by rolling the dice. If he rolls the target number, he can go to the center of the circle, put on both oven mitts, and begin unwrapping the box. If he does not roll the target number, he passes the dice to the player next to him. 

When someone rolls the target number and begins unwrapping the box with the oven mitts, the dice continues to be passed around the circle until someone else rolls the target number. That player then trades places with the player who is currently wearing the oven mitts in order to have a turn at unwrapping the box. This continues until all the boxes have been opened. The player who takes the last Christmas paper off to reveal the actual prize wins and gets to keep the prize.

Build-a-Snowman Dice Game

Christmas Charades

When playing charades with a wide variety of ages, I like to create two stacks of action cards...one stack of EASY cards for really young kids and one stack of MORE DIFFICULT cards for older kids. I color code these cards to make them quickly identifiable. For instance, RED cards might have the easier actions and GREEN cards might have the more difficult ones. I divide the players evenly into two teams so that each team contains both younger and older children. Although a child might only be able to preform the actions of a particular colored card, he/she can guess any of the actions preformed by his/her teammates...no matter the difficulty level. 

Easy charade suggestions

• Mary holding baby Jesus
• a donkey
• an angel
• catching a snowflake with your tongue
• putting on mittens
• building a snowman
• making a snow angel
• decorating the Christmas tree
• chopping down the Christmas tree
• shaking a present to hear the sound
• eating Christmas dinner
• skiing
• ice skating

More difficult charade suggestions

• no room in the inn
• shepherds watching their flocks
• shepherds worshipping at the manger
• the angels making an announcement to the shepherds
• wisemen following the star
• wisemen giving gifts
• wrapping a present
• unwrapping a present
• Christmas caroling
• the Twelve Days of Christmas
• shopping for gifts
• drinking hot chocolate
• shoveling snow
• snowball fight
• sledding
• lighting an Advent candle
• making a snow fort
• eating a candy cane
• hanging Christmas lights
• mailing Christmas cards
• Salvation Army bell ringer
• making paper snowflakes
• Jingle Bells
• making gingerbread houses
• reading the Christmas story from the Bible
• baking cookies

Christmas Pictionary