32 games
Checked October 2026

Ugly Sweater Party Games

Games for an ugly Christmas sweater party that need the sweaters in the room: contests, crafts, spot-it games and relays.

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Pairs Dress One Player1. In each pair, one player stands still with arms out like a coat rack.2. The other has five minutes to decorate the front of the partner's plain top with wrapping scraps, bows and tape. Nothing goes above the shoulders.3. At the whistle, the decorators step back.4. Each coat rack walks one lap of the room, and the pair that loses the fewest decorations on the lap wins.Players: 4 to 30. You need: wrapping paper scraps, gift bows and tape.
Ornament Down the Line, Sleeve to Sleeve1. Teams stand in lines. Every player pulls both hands up inside their sleeves.2. The first player picks up a plastic ornament using only sleeve-covered hands and passes it to the next.3. A dropped ornament goes back to the start of the line.4. The first team to pass three ornaments from one end to the other wins. Guests in short sleeves wear mittens.Players: 8 to 40. You need: three shatterproof plastic ornaments for each team.
Snowballs Caught in the Hem1. In each pair, the catcher holds the hem of their sweater out in front with both hands to make a pouch.2. The thrower stands three steps away with ten paper snowballs.3. The thrower lobs them underarm, one at a time. The catcher may step and lean, but hands stay on the hem.4. Count the snowballs in the pouch, then swap roles. The best pair total wins.Players: 4 to 30. You need: ten crumpled paper snowballs for each pair.

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Sweater contests and awards 8

Blind Vote: Described, Not Seen 1. Three judges sit with their backs to the room. 2. Each wearer gets twenty seconds to describe their sweater out loud: what is on it, what it does, where it came from. No one may show it. 3. The judges note the description they most want to see. 4. They turn around, and the wearer they picked steps forward. The room finds out whether the sweater lives up to the pitch. Players: 6 to 40. You need: three chairs, paper and pens for the judges.
Clash Pairs: Find the Worst Match 1. On go, every wearer has two minutes to find a partner whose sweater clashes with theirs as badly as possible. 2. Each pair agrees on a name for the pair, such as "Tinsel and the Reindeer". 3. Pairs stand side by side and announce their name. 4. The room votes by pointing, and nobody points at their own pair. The pair with the most fingers wins. Players: 8 to 50. You need: nothing.
Heard, Not Seen: The Jingle Test 1. Every sweater with bells, crinkly foil or a sound chip lines up. Everyone else sits and shuts their eyes. 2. The host taps one wearer at a time, who jumps on the spot three times. 3. Listeners score each sound from one to five on their fingers, eyes still shut, and a helper adds up the fingers. 4. The top score takes the title Loudest by Ear. Players: 8 to 40. You need: nothing.

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Sweater contests and awards, continued

Most Colors, Counted Twice 1. Wearers pair up. Each counts the different colors on their partner's sweater out loud, touching nothing. 2. The six highest counts line up at the front. 3. A second counter checks each of the six, and the lower of the two counts stands. 4. The highest count takes the title Most Colors. A tie is settled by counting the pom-poms. Players: 6 to 40. You need: nothing.
Name That Sweater Like a Painting 1. Everyone gets a slip and a pen and stands in a circle. 2. Each guest writes a gallery title for the sweater of the person on their left, such as "Reindeer in a Snowstorm, With Regret". 3. The slips go into a hat, and the host reads them out one by one. 4. The room points to the sweater each title fits. 5. Each wearer keeps their slip, and the title that got the biggest laugh wins. Players: 6 to 30. You need: slips of paper, pens and a hat.
Sweater Bracket, Two at a Time 1. Draw eight names from a hat and write them on a bracket taped to the wall. 2. Call the first two wearers to stand on either side of the host. 3. The room points left or right, and the sweater with more fingers moves on. 4. Run four face-offs, then two, then the final. Guests who are not in the bracket do the voting, so nobody votes on their own round. Players: 10 to 60. You need: a hat with every name in it, paper, tape and a marker.
Sweater Walk-Off With Table Judges 1. Clear a lane down the middle of the room. Give each table three cards that read LOUDEST, MOST HOMEMADE and MOST FESTIVE. 2. Wearers walk the lane one at a time, turn once at the end and walk back. 3. After each walk, every table agrees on one card and holds it up. The host tallies the cards on a sheet. 4. The sweater with the most cards of each kind takes that title, so three wearers win. Players: 8 to 60. You need: three word cards for each table, a tally sheet.
The Sweater's Life Story 1. Each wearer gets thirty seconds to tell the made-up history of their sweater: who knitted it, why, and how it escaped the donation bag. 2. The story must use three things that are really on the sweater. 3. After every story, the room claps. 4. The host stands the three loudest stories side by side for a final round of applause. Players: 5 to 30. You need: nothing.

Make a sweater at the party 8

A Sweater for Your Cup 1. Give every guest a strip of paper long enough to wrap around a cup. 2. Each guest draws the pattern of their own sweater on the strip, in miniature, and tapes it around their cup. 3. Line the cups up on one table with their owners out of sight. 4. Guests match cups to wearers on a slip. The most right matches wins, and every cup now has an owner for the night. Players: 4 to 30. You need: paper strips, markers, tape and a cup for each guest.
Build It From a Description 1. Pairs sit back to back. One partner gets a drawing of a sweater made by the host: a tree in the middle, three bows on one sleeve, a tag at the collar. 2. That partner describes the drawing, and may not look around. 3. The other builds it on a paper bib and may ask no questions. 4. After five minutes, hold the bib beside the drawing. One point for every decoration in the right place. Players: 4 to 24. You need: a sweater drawing for each pair, paper bibs, a small tray of decorations, tape.
One Decoration Each: The Group Sweater 1. Hang one plain sweater on a hanger where everyone can reach it. 2. Each guest adds exactly one thing from the craft tray, taped or clipped on, and says in one sentence why it had to be there. 3. When the last guest has added theirs, the room agrees on a name for the sweater. 4. A volunteer wears it for the group photo. Players: 6 to 40. You need: a plain sweater on a hanger, a craft tray, tape and clothespins.
Pairs Dress One Player 1. In each pair, one player stands still with arms out like a coat rack. 2. The other has five minutes to decorate the front of the partner's plain top with wrapping scraps, bows and tape. Nothing goes above the shoulders. 3. At the whistle, the decorators step back. 4. Each coat rack walks one lap of the room, and the pair that loses the fewest decorations on the lap wins. Players: 4 to 30. You need: wrapping paper scraps, gift bows and tape.
Roll for Your Decorations 1. Write a key where all can see it: 1 is a bow, 2 is tinsel, 3 is a gift tag, 4 is a pom-pom, 5 is ribbon, 6 is your choice. 2. Each builder rolls a die five times and collects what the rolls say. 3. Builders have six minutes to make a design from those five things on a paper bib. Trading is not allowed. 4. The room votes for the bib that made the most of a bad roll. Players: 3 to 20. You need: a die, paper bibs, bows, tinsel, tags, pom-poms, ribbon and tape.
Swap One Thing, Then Find It 1. Every wearer clips one clothespin with a ribbon tail somewhere on their sweater. 2. On go, everyone has two minutes to trade ribbons with three different people. 3. The host then calls a color. Anyone wearing that color of ribbon must name the person it started with. 4. A right answer scores a point. Play until every color has been called. Players: 8 to 40. You need: clothespins with ribbon tails in several colors.
Ten-Minute Sweater From the Craft Tray 1. Put out a tray of tinsel, gift bows, ribbon ends, gift tags, pom-poms and rolls of tape. 2. Each guest who came plain gets a paper bib: a brown paper bag with holes cut for the head and arms. An adult cuts the bags before the party. 3. Builders get ten minutes and may use tape only. 4. Finished bibs join the main contest on equal terms with the store-bought sweaters. Players: 3 to 30. You need: paper bags cut into bibs, a tray of tinsel, bows, ribbon, tags and pom-poms, tape.
Wrapping Paper Vest in Teams of Three 1. Each team picks a model, who keeps their own clothes on. 2. The other two build a vest on the model from wrapping paper and tape. It needs a collar, one pocket and three buttons. 3. Teams get seven minutes. 4. The model then sits down, stands up and turns around. A vest that is still whole after that goes through to the judging. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a roll of wrapping paper for each team and tape.

Spot-it games around the room 8

Back to Back: What Was on My Sweater? 1. Pairs face each other and study the other sweater for thirty seconds. 2. They turn back to back. 3. The host asks five questions, such as "How many animals?", "What color are the cuffs?" and "Is anything hanging off it?" Each player writes answers about the partner's sweater. 4. Turn around and mark each other. The pair with the highest total wins. Players: 4 to 40. You need: paper and a pen for each player.
Count the Reindeer in the Room 1. The host names one thing to count across every sweater in the room: reindeer, snowflakes or bells. 2. Guests get two minutes to walk around and count, without a word. 3. Everyone writes a number on a slip. 4. For the real count, wearers stand one at a time and call out their own number while a helper adds them up. The closest slip wins. Players: 8 to 50. You need: slips and pens.
I Spy a Sweater With 1. Everyone mingles. The host calls "I spy a sweater with antlers", or with stripes, a scarf, a star. 2. Guests walk to stand beside a sweater that has one. A wearer who has it stays put. 3. Only three guests may stand at any one sweater. Anyone left without a place sits out one call. 4. Play ten calls. Guests who never sat out win. Players: 10 to 50. You need: nothing.
Reddest to Greenest, Without a Word 1. Mark one wall as the red end of the room and the opposite wall as the green end. 2. On go, everyone lines up between the walls by how red or how green their sweater is. Nobody may talk. 3. Guests settle a disagreement by pointing at sleeves and trading places. 4. When the line stops moving, the host walks along it and moves anyone the room boos. Players: 8 to 50. You need: nothing.
Sweater Feature Bingo 1. Give each guest a card of nine squares that name things on a sweater: bells, a reindeer, working lights, a pocket, a snowman, a pom-pom nose, a tree, sequins, a zipper. 2. Guests look for a sweater with each thing. The wearer signs the square. 3. No wearer signs the same card twice. 4. The first full card wins. The host checks it by calling the signers forward. Players: 9 to 60. You need: a card of nine squares and a pen for each guest.
Sweater Twins 1. Everyone has three minutes to find the person whose sweater shares the most with theirs: the same color, the same animal, the same kind of sleeve. 2. Each pair lists what the two sweaters share on one card. 3. Pairs read their lists out, and the room strikes anything that is not really there. 4. The longest list that survives wins the title Sweater Twins. Players: 8 to 50. You need: a card and a pen for each pair.
Three Things Changed 1. One wearer stands at the front while the room studies the sweater for twenty seconds. 2. The wearer steps out of the room and changes three small things: a sleeve pushed up, a bow moved, a tag flipped over. 3. Back in the room, the wearer turns around once. 4. Guests call out changes. The first guest to name all three is the next to step out. Players: 5 to 30. You need: nothing.
Whose Sweater Is This Close-Up? 1. As guests arrive, the host photographs one small detail of each sweater: a single button, half a snowflake, one hoof. 2. Later, the host shows the photos one at a time on a phone held up, or on a TV. 3. Tables write down whose sweater each one is. 4. Wearers stand as their detail is revealed. The table with the most right answers wins. Players: 8 to 50. You need: a phone for the close-up photos, paper and pens.

Team games in sweaters 8

Draw the Sweater, One Part Each 1. Each team picks one of its own sweaters and looks at it for thirty seconds. Then the wearer puts a coat on over it. 2. Teammates take turns at a big sheet of paper. Each has ten seconds to draw one part from memory: a sleeve stripe, an antler, the collar. 3. Go around the team twice. 4. Coats off. The judges award the drawing that is closest to its sweater. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a large sheet of paper and a marker for each team, a coat for each wearer.
Ornament Down the Line, Sleeve to Sleeve 1. Teams stand in lines. Every player pulls both hands up inside their sleeves. 2. The first player picks up a plastic ornament using only sleeve-covered hands and passes it to the next. 3. A dropped ornament goes back to the start of the line. 4. The first team to pass three ornaments from one end to the other wins. Guests in short sleeves wear mittens. Players: 8 to 40. You need: three shatterproof plastic ornaments for each team.
Oven Mitts and Three Buttons 1. Lay a cardigan with big buttons on a table for each team, unbuttoned. 2. The first player puts on oven mitts, does up three buttons, then undoes them. 3. The mitts go to the next player, who starts again. 4. The first team to send every player through wins. A team with no cardigan can use a shirt with large buttons. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a cardigan with large buttons and a pair of oven mitts for each team.
Snowballs Caught in the Hem 1. In each pair, the catcher holds the hem of their sweater out in front with both hands to make a pouch. 2. The thrower stands three steps away with ten paper snowballs. 3. The thrower lobs them underarm, one at a time. The catcher may step and lean, but hands stay on the hem. 4. Count the snowballs in the pouch, then swap roles. The best pair total wins. Players: 4 to 30. You need: ten crumpled paper snowballs for each pair.
Stuff the Spare Sweater 1. Each team gets a spare sweater, a chair and a pile of newspaper. 2. Teams have three minutes to crumple the paper and stuff the sweater until it sits up on the chair like a guest. 3. Add a paper-plate face. 4. The host takes hands off each chair in turn. The sweater guest that sits up longest by itself wins. Players: 6 to 30. You need: a spare sweater, a chair, a paper plate and a pile of newspaper for each team.
The Sweater Is the Baton 1. Each team gets one very large sweater that fits over anything. 2. The first runner puts it on over their own clothes, walks fast to a chair, goes around it and comes back. 3. To pass it on, the runner and the next teammate hold both hands. The rest of the team peels the sweater over the runner's head and along the arms onto the teammate. 4. The first team with every member back wins. Players: 8 to 40. You need: one oversized sweater for each team, a chair as the turning mark.
Sweaters on the Clothesline, in Order 1. Cut eight paper sweaters for each team and draw a different pattern on each: stripes, dots, a tree, a star, zigzags, a reindeer, a snowman, plain. 2. Tie a string between two chairs for each team. 3. The host calls an order of four patterns, once. 4. One player at a time walks up and pegs one sweater. The first line with the right four in the right order scores. Play five rounds. Players: 6 to 30. You need: eight paper sweaters, a string and clothespins for each team.
Tinsel Loops Onto the Sweater Target 1. Pull a sweater over the back of a chair so the sleeves hang down and the collar sits at the top. 2. Twist short lengths of tinsel into loops the size of a saucer. 3. From three steps away, each player tosses five loops. A loop that catches on a shoulder scores one, and a loop that stays on the collar scores three. 4. Add up the team scores after everyone has thrown. Players: 4 to 30. You need: a sweater over a chair back, tinsel twisted into loops.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions, written for this site for a party where the guests come in loud holiday sweaters. The wording is ours and the player counts are our estimates. Every award goes to a sweater and never to the person in it, the titles are kind, and nothing involves alcohol. The list states no rule or history of a traditional game, so no outside source was needed. Licence: own work

How it works

A sweater party has one thing no other party has: a room of loud sweaters. Each of these ugly sweater party games uses them. Every title goes to a sweater, never its wearer, so the list suits an office party.

Read the full guide

Give the guests in plain tops a way in

Someone always arrives without a sweater. Open with one of the games under Make a sweater at the party: Ten-Minute Sweater From the Craft Tray turns a paper bag and a tray of bows into an entry, and it joins the contest on equal terms.

Fun games for an ugly sweater party with more than one winner

One vote for "ugliest" leaves most of the room out. Sweater Walk-Off With Table Judges hands out three titles, and Most Colors, Counted Twice is settled by counting, so nobody argues about taste. Keep the relays under Team games in sweaters for the end, when people are warm enough to take a layer off.

Tape and clothespins hold decorations on without a hole in anyone's sweater.
Photograph every sweater at the door. Whose Sweater Is This Close-Up? needs the pictures.

Questions and answers

What games can you play at an ugly sweater party?

Four kinds: contests such as Sweater Bracket, Two at a Time; crafts such as Pairs Dress One Player; spot-it games such as Count the Reindeer in the Room; and relays such as The Sweater Is the Baton, where one oversized sweater passes down the team.

How do you judge an ugly sweater contest fairly?

Use more than one title and more than one judge. In Sweater Walk-Off With Table Judges, each table holds up one of three word cards after every walk. In Blind Vote: Described, Not Seen, the judges choose from a spoken description before they see anything.

What are good ugly sweater contest categories?

Titles that describe the sweater: Loudest, Most Homemade, Most Festive, Most Colors and Loudest by Ear, which is judged with eyes shut. Leave out any title about the person inside it.

What if a guest does not have an ugly sweater?

Put out a craft tray. A brown paper bag with holes for the head and arms becomes a bib, and tinsel, bows and gift tags go on with tape. In Roll for Your Decorations, a die decides what each builder gets.