• 41 games

Christmas Party Games for Kids and Teens

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Christmas Party Games for Kids and Teens

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  1. Fill the Sack RelayPrepare: wrap a dozen empty boxes of odd sizes for each team and lay a pillowcase sack at the far end. 1. Teams line up behind their pile. 2. A runner carries one box, drops it in the sack and runs back to tag the next. 3. When the pile is gone, the last runner drags the full sack home. 4. The first sack over the line wins. The big boxes are slow to carry and the small ones are easy to drop. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 10 min. Props: wrapped empty boxes and two pillowcases.
  2. Hot Cocoa Freeze Tag1. Mark the play area in the yard or gym and pick two taggers.2. A tag is a touch on the shoulder or back, and anyone tagged freezes on the spot with arms out.3. To thaw a frozen friend, two free players join hands around them and shout "hot cocoa".4. Play three-minute rounds and swap taggers after each.5. If everyone is frozen before time is up, the taggers win.Players: 8 to 30. Time: 9 min. Props: none.
  3. Left, Right Christmas Story PassPrepare: a left-right Christmas story and one small wrapped gift per child, all of about the same value. 1. Sit in a circle, each child holding a gift. 2. Practice one pass each way. 3. Read the story aloud at a steady pace: on every "left" all gifts move one seat left, and on every "right" one seat right. 4. At the last word, each child keeps the gift in their hands. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a small wrapped gift each and a left-right story.

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Kindergarten and ages 4 to 7 16

  • Candy Cane Hunt, Three Each Prepare: hide wrapped candy canes around the room, three for each child, with some low and in plain sight for the youngest. 1. Everyone hunts at once. 2. Each child stops at three and then helps a friend find theirs. 3. Canes stay in their wrappers and go home in the party bag. Under-fives hunt for paper candy canes and swap them for a sticker, because hard candy is a choking risk at that age. Ask parents about allergies before you buy. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: wrapped candy canes, or paper ones for under-fives.
  • Christmas Card Halves Prepare: cut old Christmas cards in two with a wavy or zigzag line, one card for every two children. 1. Shuffle the halves and hand one to each child. 2. On go, everyone looks for the child holding the other half of their picture. 3. Pairs sit down together as soon as they match. 4. Keep the pairs for the next game, which saves picking partners. With an odd number, an adult holds a half. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: old Christmas cards cut in two.
  • Christmas Picture Bingo Prepare: print one picture card per child, all different, plus a set of calling pictures, and cut paper squares for counters. 1. Hand out the cards and counters. 2. Draw a calling picture, hold it up and name it: a stocking, a star, a sleigh. 3. Children cover the picture if they have it. 4. A full line wins a sticker and the game goes on, so there are many winners before anyone fills a card. Every call is a picture, so a child who cannot read yet can be the caller. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 12 min. Props: picture bingo cards and paper counters.
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Kindergarten and ages 4 to 7, continued

  • Cotton Snowball Spoon Relay Prepare: a bowl of cotton balls at the start line and an empty bowl at the far end for each team. 1. The first runner scoops one cotton ball onto a spoon and puts the other hand behind their back. 2. They walk it to the far bowl, tip it in and run the spoon back. 3. A dropped snowball goes back to the start bowl. 4. The first team to move ten wins. Cotton balls weigh almost nothing, so a fast walk blows them off. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 10 min. Props: spoons, bowls and cotton balls.
  • Feather Snowflake Blow 1. Teams of four kneel in a ring with heads together and hands behind their backs. 2. A helper drops a white craft feather, the snowflake, above the middle. 3. The team keeps it in the air by blowing only. 4. Time each flight; it ends when the feather lands or touches anyone. 5. Give every team two tries and keep the better time. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 5 min. Props: one white craft feather per team and a timer.
  • Paper Plate Ice Skating Race 1. Clear a lane on carpet, and have each skater stand on two paper plates with shoes on. 2. On go they slide to the far wall and back without lifting a foot off a plate. 3. Race in pairs, then let the winners skate a final. 4. Finish with a slow round in which the most graceful skater wins, judged by the children who are not racing. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: two paper plates per skater.
  • Penguin Egg Shuffle 1. Each racer stands at the line with heels together and a beanbag egg resting on top of their feet. 2. On go they shuffle to the far line without lifting a foot. 3. If the egg slides off, they stop, put it back and carry on. 4. Run heats of four. Ask first which penguin parent carries the egg this way: emperor penguin fathers balance it on their feet through the winter. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 8 min. Props: one beanbag per racer.
  • Pin the Nose on the Reindeer Prepare: draw a reindeer face on poster board, tape it up at child height and cut a red paper nose for each child, with a loop of tape on the back. 1. Write initials on the noses. 2. Blindfold one child, turn them round once and let them walk to the poster with an adult walking beside them. 3. They stick the nose where they think it goes. 4. The closest nose wins, and the poster stays up as a decoration. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a reindeer poster, paper noses, tape and a blindfold.
  • Roll-a-Snowman Dice Draw 1. Give each table one die, and each child paper and a pencil. 2. Take turns to roll and draw the part you earn: 1 the bottom snowball, 2 the middle, 3 the head, 4 a hat, 5 stick arms, 6 the face. 3. The three snowballs must go on in order from the bottom up, and the hat and the face need a head first. 4. A roll you cannot use passes the die on. 5. The first finished snowman at each table wins. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a die for each table, paper and pencils.
  • Santa Says 1. One leader is Santa and gives orders: "Santa says stomp the snow off your boots", "Santa says rock the sleigh", "Santa says tiptoe past the tree". 2. Players copy only when the order starts with "Santa says". 3. Anyone who moves without those words sits in the sleigh, a row of chairs, for one round and then comes back. 4. Change Santa every two minutes. With five-year-olds, play with nobody out and count the slips aloud instead. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Snowman Freeze Dance 1. Play music and have everyone dance like a falling snowflake. 2. Stop the music, and everyone freezes into a snowman. 3. Anyone still wobbling melts slowly to the floor, claps through the next round and then joins in again, so nobody sits out for long. 4. From round three, call the pose to freeze in: a snow angel, a skater on one leg, a penguin. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: music.
  • Sock Snowball Bucket Toss Prepare: roll white socks into snowballs and set three buckets at one, two and three big steps from a tape line. 1. Each child throws three snowballs. 2. The near bucket scores 1, the middle 2 and the far one 3. 3. A helper adds every score to one class total on the board. 4. Play a second round and try to beat that total together, so the last thrower matters as much as the first. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: rolled white socks, three buckets and tape.
  • Stack the Presents Tower Prepare: wrap ten empty boxes of different sizes for each team, from a shoebox down to a tea box. 1. Teams have two minutes to stack all ten into one tower, one box on another. 2. The tower must stand alone for a slow count of five. 3. The tallest standing tower wins. 4. Play again with a new rule: the smallest box goes at the bottom. The boxes from Fill the Sack Relay do the job. Players: 4 to 24. Time: 8 min. Props: ten wrapped empty boxes per team.
  • What Is Missing From Santa's Sack 1. Lay eight Christmas objects on a tray, such as a bauble, a bow, a bell and a card. 2. Name each one together, then give the group thirty seconds to look. 3. Cover the tray and slip one object into the sack. 4. Uncover it: the first child to name the missing object takes the next one away. With ages 8 to 12, use twelve objects and remove two at a time. Players: 3 to 15. Time: 8 min. Props: a tray, a cloth, a sack and eight to twelve shatterproof objects.
  • White Cup Snowman Bowling Prepare: draw a snowman face on one white paper cup and stack six cups into a pyramid on the floor, three, two and one, with the snowman on top. 1. Mark a rolling line two big steps away for ages 4 to 7 and four steps for older children. 2. Each bowler gets two rolls of a soft ball. 3. Score a point for each cup knocked down and a bonus point for the snowman. 4. An older helper restacks. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: six white paper cups, a marker and a soft ball.
  • Who Has the Jingle Bell 1. Sit in a circle with one child in the middle, eyes covered. 2. Pass a jingle bell round quietly until the leader says stop, and the holder hides it in closed hands. 3. Everyone shakes both fists at once, so the bell rings from somewhere. 4. The guesser looks up and gets three tries to point to the real bell. 5. The child who had the bell guesses next. An adult keeps the bell between rounds: a small bell is a choking risk for any under-threes in the room. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: one jingle bell.

Ages 8 to 12 24

  • Blindfold Snow Shovel 1. One player from each team sits at a table with a bowl of cotton balls in front of them and an empty bowl beside it. 2. Blindfold them and hand over a spoon. 3. They have one minute to shovel snow from one bowl to the other with one hand. 4. Count the cotton balls that made it. Cotton weighs nothing on a spoon, so the shoveler cannot feel whether it is loaded, and teammates may not help. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: two bowls, a spoon, cotton balls and a blindfold.
  • Candy Cane Fishing Prepare: tie a wrapped candy cane to a ruler with a short string so that it hangs hook down, and pile ten wrapped canes on a plate with their hooks sticking out over the edge. 1. One minute on the clock. 2. Hook as many canes as you can and lift them clear of the plate, with one hand on the ruler and nothing else touching. 3. Most canes wins. Canes stay wrapped during the game; ask about allergies before anyone takes one home. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: wrapped candy canes, a ruler, string and a plate.
  • Candy Cane Ornament Pass 1. Teams stand in a line, each player holding a wrapped candy cane by its straight end with the hook up. 2. Hang a shatterproof ornament with a ribbon loop on the first hook. 3. Pass it down the line from hook to hook, with no hands on the ornament. 4. If it drops, the player who dropped it picks it up and carries on from there. 5. The first ornament to reach the end and come back wins. Canes stay wrapped. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a wrapped candy cane each and one shatterproof ornament with a ribbon loop per team.
  • Christmas Charades in Two Teams Prepare: a stack of Christmas charades cards, with the easy ones marked for the youngest. 1. Split into two teams. 2. One actor takes a card and acts it with no sounds: hanging lights, shaking a snow globe, a partridge in a pear tree. 3. The actor's own team has one minute to guess, for one point. 4. Teams take turns until everyone has acted once. A nervous actor may take a partner. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: Christmas charades cards and a timer.
  • Christmas Clue Hunt to the Tree Prepare: write six clue cards, each pointing to the hiding place of the next, and hide them in reverse order so you do not lose track. 1. Read clue one aloud: "Look where the stockings hang". 2. The group finds clue two there, and children take turns to read. 3. The last clue leads to a small shared prize under the tree. Draw the clues for children who cannot read yet, and keep every hiding place at child height and out of the kitchen. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 15 min. Props: six clue cards and a prize.
  • Christmas Draw and Guess Relay Prepare: a list of twelve Christmas words that are easy to draw, such as sleigh, wreath and mitten. 1. Each team has paper and a marker at its table, and the host stands at the far end with the list. 2. The first drawer runs up, reads word one, runs back and draws it with no letters or numbers. 3. When the team guesses it, the next drawer runs up and whispers the answer to get word two. 4. The first team through six words wins. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: paper, markers and a Christmas word list.
  • Christmas Forbidden Words Prepare: cards with a Christmas word on top and three forbidden words under it. For snowman: snow, carrot, cold. 1. A describer has one minute to get their team to say as many top words as they can. 2. No forbidden words, no part of the word and no gestures. 3. A player from the other team watches the card and calls any slip, which hands that card to their side. 4. One point a card. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 12 min. Props: forbidden word cards and a timer.
  • Christmas Survey Showdown Prepare: survey questions with ranked answers, such as "Name something you leave out for Santa". 1. Two teams send one player each to the front, and the first to name an answer on the list wins control. 2. That team guesses the rest, one player at a time, with no conferring. 3. After three misses, the other team can steal the round with one correct answer. 4. The top answer scores the most. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: survey questions with ranked answers.
  • Christmas Trivia Bell Ringers Prepare: twenty questions, easy to hard, and one jingle bell per team. 1. Read a question. 2. The first team to ring answers, and a wrong answer passes the question to the next ring. 3. Swap the ringer after every question so one fast child does not answer everything. Sample: how many reindeer are named in the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas? Eight. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: a question list and a bell per team.
  • Christmas Would You Rather, Stand or Sit 1. Read a Christmas would you rather question, such as live in a gingerbread house or ride in the sleigh. 2. Stand for the first choice and stay seated for the second. 3. Ask one stander and one sitter to explain themselves. 4. Ten questions fill the last minutes before the bell. It works at desks with no room to move, and nobody is ever out. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: none.
  • Fill the Sack Relay Prepare: wrap a dozen empty boxes of odd sizes for each team and lay a pillowcase sack at the far end. 1. Teams line up behind their pile. 2. A runner carries one box, drops it in the sack and runs back to tag the next. 3. When the pile is gone, the last runner drags the full sack home. 4. The first sack over the line wins. The big boxes are slow to carry and the small ones are easy to drop. Players: 6 to 24. Time: 10 min. Props: wrapped empty boxes and two pillowcases.
  • Finish the Carol Line 1. Split into teams. 2. Sing or read the first half of a carol line, such as "Dashing through the snow", and point to a team. 3. The team sings the rest, "in a one-horse open sleigh", for a point. 4. A miss passes the same line to the next team. Stick to carols the group has sung this month, and let anyone shy say the words instead of singing them. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Five-Minute Snowflake Cut-Off 1. Give everyone one square of paper and their usual school scissors. 2. Fold the square in half, in half again and once corner to corner. 3. Five minutes to cut notches into the folded edges, never all the way across. 4. Open them together and vote for the most detailed, the most lopsided and the biggest surprise. 5. Tape every snowflake to the window. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: paper squares, scissors and tape.
  • Hot Cocoa Freeze Tag 1. Mark the play area in the yard or gym and pick two taggers. 2. A tag is a touch on the shoulder or back, and anyone tagged freezes on the spot with arms out. 3. To thaw a frozen friend, two free players join hands around them and shout "hot cocoa". 4. Play three-minute rounds and swap taggers after each. 5. If everyone is frozen before time is up, the taggers win. Players: 8 to 30. Time: 9 min. Props: none.
  • Left, Right Christmas Story Pass Prepare: a left-right Christmas story and one small wrapped gift per child, all of about the same value. 1. Sit in a circle, each child holding a gift. 2. Practice one pass each way. 3. Read the story aloud at a steady pace: on every "left" all gifts move one seat left, and on every "right" one seat right. 4. At the last word, each child keeps the gift in their hands. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a small wrapped gift each and a left-right story.
  • Loudest Paper Sweater Contest Prepare: a paper sweater outline for each designer and trays of scraps: pom-poms, tinsel, ribbon ends, foil. 1. Designers get ten minutes and a glue stick. 2. Hang the finished sweaters on a string with clothespins. 3. Everyone votes with a sticker dot for the loudest, and nobody may vote for their own. The sweater line stays up as the party decoration. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: paper outlines, glue sticks, craft scraps, string, clothespins and sticker dots.
  • Mitten Cup Stack 1. Two racers at a time put on thick winter mittens and stand behind a stack of ten plastic cups. 2. On go they build a pyramid of four, three, two and one. 3. Then they slide it back down into a single stack. 4. The fastest clean time of the day wins, and a cup that rolls off the table has to be fetched with the mittens on. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: two stacks of ten plastic cups, two pairs of mittens and a timer.
  • Mitten Unwrap Race Prepare: wrap one small prize that is not food for each player, such as an eraser or a sheet of stickers, in a single layer of paper and tape. 1. Everyone puts on thick mittens. 2. On go, each player unwraps their own parcel with the mittens on. 3. The first to hold up the prize wins, and everyone keeps what they unwrapped. 4. Collect the paper for recycling before the next game. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: mittens and a small wrapped prize for each player.
  • Partner Gift Wrap, One Hand Each 1. Partners stand side by side and link arms, which leaves each of them one free hand. 2. Give each pair an empty box, a sheet of paper, tape and a bow. 3. On go they wrap the box, tape it and stick the bow on top, talking all the way. 4. Judge speed first and neatness second. Tear the tape into strips beforehand for ages 8 to 10, and at a family party pair each teen with a small child. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: a box, paper, tape and a bow per pair.
  • Plate-on-Head Christmas Scene 1. Everyone holds a paper plate flat on their head with one hand and a marker in the other. 2. The host calls the drawing in order, with a pause after each part: a tree, a star on top, three baubles, a present underneath. 3. Plates come down and neighbors swap to score. 4. Give one point for a star that touches the tree, one for each bauble on the tree and one for a present under it. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: paper plates and markers.
  • Snowball Fact Swap 1. Everyone writes one true fact about their winter break on a sheet of paper, with no name, and crumples it into a snowball. 2. On go, throw snowballs below shoulder height for thirty seconds. 3. On stop, each player picks up the nearest one. 4. Take turns to read a fact aloud and take three guesses at who wrote it. Before the break, write one hope for the holidays instead. Players: 8 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: paper and pencils.
  • Toilet Paper Snowman Wrap 1. Teams of three or four pick one snowman. 2. They have three minutes to wrap them in toilet paper from shoulders to ankles, arms included, and never over the face or neck. 3. Add a hat, a scarf and a paper carrot nose. 4. The snowman then has to walk five steps without falling apart. 5. Judges pick the neatest and the one that survived the walk best. Bag the paper for recycling. Players: 6 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: toilet paper, hats, scarves and paper noses.
  • Twelve Days Memory Chain 1. The first player says "On the first day of Christmas my friend gave to me" and adds a silly gift. 2. The next player repeats it and adds a second gift, and so on round the circle. 3. A player who slips drops out or, in a young group, gets one prompt from a neighbor. 4. Play up to twelve gifts. The song itself probably began as a memory and forfeit game like this one. Players: 4 to 15. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Words From Merry Christmas 1. Write MERRY CHRISTMAS at the top of a page. 2. Players have five minutes to make words from those letters, using each letter only as often as it appears. 3. Three-letter words score one point and longer words score two. 4. Read the lists aloud and cross out any word that two players share. Ages 8 and 9 work in pairs. Three words to get a slow table going: mist, charm, stream. Players: 2 to 30. Time: 8 min. Props: paper and pencils.

Teens 1

  • White Elephant Swap for Teens Prepare: put a price cap in the invitation and ask for wrapped gifts with no name tags. 1. Everyone draws a number. 2. Number one opens a gift from the pile. 3. Each later player opens a new gift or steals an open one, and a player who is robbed chooses again. 4. Many groups freeze a gift after its second steal, and some let number one swap at the very end, so agree both before number one goes. Players: 6 to 20. Time: 30 min. Props: one wrapped gift per player and numbered slips.

How this list was compiled: Written for Christmas and winter parties at home and at school, in our own words; ages, player counts and times are our estimates. The traditional rules and the three facts in the list (the memory game behind The Twelve Days of Christmas, the eight reindeer of the 1823 poem and the emperor penguin father carrying the egg on his feet) were checked on 2026-09-19 against Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelve_Days_of_Christmas_%28song%29, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus%27s_reindeer, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_penguin and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_elephant_gift_exchange. Licence: own work

How it works

Five-year-olds and fifteen-year-olds cannot share a game list, so these Christmas party games for kids are sorted by age in the All games menu. Nobody eats in any game, and every candy cane stays wrapped.

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A class party in one 40-minute period

Choose School and classroom parties in the All games menu for 32 Christmas party games for school that fit between desks. Under More filters, pick your class size in the Players menu and press Up to 10 minutes. Plan one moving game, one seated and one to finish: Snowman Freeze Dance, Christmas Picture Bingo, Twelve Days Memory Chain. Winter games with no Santa holds 15; see winter party games for more.

Children and teens want opposite things

The Christmas party games for kindergarten, such as Santa Says and Who Has the Jingle Bell, have one rule and no waiting. Teens holds 22 Christmas party games for teens. All but the gift swap also suit ages 8 to 12, so the full list files them there.

  • Ask about allergies before any game with candy canes.
  • Wrap a dozen empty boxes once: Fill the Sack Relay and Stack the Presents Tower use the same pile.

Questions and answers

Which games work if the class has to stay at their desks?

Calm and seated holds 10 games, all of them classroom games. Christmas Picture Bingo, Roll-a-Snowman Dice Draw and Words From Merry Christmas need only paper and pencils. Twelve Days Memory Chain needs nothing, and Five-Minute Snowflake Cut-Off leaves the room decorated.

Are there Christmas party games with no candy or food?

Yes, 38 of the 41, and nobody eats in any of them. Candy canes are props in Candy Cane Hunt, Three Each, Candy Cane Fishing and Candy Cane Ornament Pass, and they stay wrapped. The hunt gives under-fives paper canes.

How do I run a gift swap for teens?

Put a price cap in the invitation and ask for wrapped gifts with no name tags. Each player opens a gift or steals an open one. Many groups freeze a gift after its second steal, so agree that first. Allow thirty minutes.

What are fun Christmas party games for kids and teens together?

Pair each teen with a small child for Partner Gift Wrap, One Hand Each, or let a teen call the pictures in Christmas Picture Bingo. Christmas Charades in Two Teams and Mitten Cup Stack work with mixed-age teams.

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