Christmas games are a great way to relax after your Turkey dinner and spend time with family and friends. Even if you are not planning to meet in person there is nothing stopping you from playing games with other households virtually.
Take a look at some of our favourite Christmas games below..
1. Letters and Words
This game can be played individually or in teams.
Choose 9 letters of the alphabet (4 vowels and 5 consonants). Each player or team then has 10 minutes to come up with as many words as possible using only those 9 letters.
The winner is the team/player with the most words after 10 minutes.
Want to make it harder?
Consider setting a minimum of 3 letter words or forbidding plurals and hyphenated words.
2. I went to the shop and I bought
This game is ideally played with a group of people. Following the letters of the alphabet, the players take turns adding items to the shopping list. However, they must say all of the other items on the list first.
Each player begins their turn by saying the phrase “I went to the shop and I bought”.
For example:
- The first player starts off by saying “I went to the shop and I bought an Apple”.
- The next player says “I went to the shop and I bought an Apple and a banana”.
- Player 3 could then say “I went to the shop and I bought an Apple, a banana and a clock”.
If a player forgets an item they are declared out and can no longer take part.
The game continues until all letters of the alphabet have been used or only one player is left.
3. What has changed?
This one might be slightly tricky to play virtually (although not impossible).
One person is selected to leave the room. The rest of the players have 2 minutes to change something in the room. For example, you could remove something, change the position of something or add something from a different room. The person then comes back into the room and must try to guess what has been changed. They have 5 minutes to guess correctly.
Some examples
- Move a photo/painting/clock from one wall to another
- If you are sitting in the living room you could bring in an object from the kitchen
- Someone could move to a different seat
- Hide something such as a cushion, ornament, lamp etc
4. Christmas sing along
Get your singing voices at the ready! This game needs to be played with at least 2 teams.
Each team takes a turn at singing a different Christmas song. They must sing for at least 10 seconds. A team will be declared out if they:
- Cannot think of a song
- Fail to sing at least 10 seconds
- Sing a song that has already been sung
The winners are the team left remaining after the other team/s are out.
5. Twenty Questions
A classic guessing game that can be played by people of all ages. All you need is a group of willing participants. This game is best played with 2-5 players
- A player thinks of an object that is either an animal, vegetable or mineral. The other players take turns asking Yes or No questions to try to identify the object. Remember, the answer can only be Yes or No. A player may at any point offer a guess as to what the object is.
- The players continue asking questions until twenty questions has been reached or someone guesses correctly.
- The players then try to guess what the object is. The winner is the person who correctly guesses what the object is and this person will choose the next object. If no one can work out what the answer is simply choose someone else to go next.
Want to make it easier?
To make it easier you can limit the game to just animals or vegetables.
6. Family Quiz
Nothing beats a good old quiz night. Why not get someone in your family to create a quiz all about the family? The questions could be about previous family holidays, stories from your childhood, about people’s favourite things or any other family trivia.
For example:
- What is Grandma’s favourite TV show?
- Where did we go on holiday in 2009?
- What was the name of the high school that Dad went to?
- What is John’s nickname at school?
You could also choose other topics such as general knowledge, film and television, music or history.
7. Scavenger Hunt
It’s entirely up to you how you play. You could set a time limit and see who can gather the most items in that time. Another option is to see who can be the first to collect all of the items on the list.
You can use the list below and add some of your own ideas or create your own list!
- A magazine/newspaper/book
- A left shoe
- A right sock
- A sheet of toilet roll
- Something you can eat
- A pen/pencil
- Something red
- A Christmas decoration
- Something you can put on your head
8. Charades
Sometimes the traditional games are the best. Each person takes a turn selecting a book, film or a song (you can also have famous people, sports or sayings) and acting them out word by word. No speaking is allowed!
Typically the round starts with the person confirming (without talking) whether it is a book, film, song etc and how many words are in the title.
Everyone else must try to guess what the person is acting out.
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