Virtual Christmas Party Games

Camera, chat, shared-screen and breakout-room games for a Christmas party on a video call: press Pick 3 new games.

Virtual Christmas Party Games

  1. Guess the Decoration From Its Shadow1. One guest holds a sheet of plain paper in front of the camera and lights it from behind with a phone flashlight. 2. They hold a decoration or a wrapped shape between the light and the paper, so that only its shadow shows. 3. The others guess what it is in the chat. 4. Three shadows each, then pass the turn. Turning the thing slowly is the only hint. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: a sheet of paper, a phone flashlight and three small things each.
  2. Room Against Room: Draw the Host's Tree1. The host describes their own tree for one minute with the camera off: its height, its colors, what is on top. 2. In rooms, one member shares a whiteboard and the room draws the tree from memory in three minutes. 3. Back together, the host turns the camera on the real tree. 4. Rooms hold up their drawings. The host names the closest. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 15 min. Props: the whiteboard of the call.
  3. A Feast on One Letter1. The host gives each room a different letter, avoiding Q, X and Z. 2. In four minutes, the room writes a Christmas feast of five dishes, each one starting with that letter. 3. Every member must add one dish. 4. Back together, a speaker reads the menu. The call votes by show of hands on the feast it would sit down to. Players: 12 to 80. Time: 10 min. Props: none.

Next step Games for any call, any day

How it works

These virtual Christmas party games are written for a video call: the steps say what to show, type or share. Nothing needs installing, and one set of winter games has no Christmas in it.

Read the full guide

Christmas games to play virtually, in the order of a party

1. Open with one of the Camera games while people are still joining. 2. Move to Chat-box and poll games once everyone has arrived. 3. Share your screen for one quiz or board. 4. End with a gift swap, or with Breakout-room games for 12 or more if the call is large.

What the host prepares

Most games need nothing from the host beforehand. Half the gift swaps need parcels mailed ahead, bingo needs a printed card each, and three games need something counted, typed out or set outside before the call. Each of those says so in its steps.

Tips
  • Ask guests to switch to gallery view, so that the whole call can be seen at once.
  • Name one helper to watch the chat while the host reads.

Questions and answers

What are good virtual Christmas games to play with coworkers?

Choose Colleagues under More filters in the All games menu. It keeps the games in which no guest has to show their home or answer anything personal, such as Wrap a Mug on Camera, Acrostic Rush and A Cookie by Committee.

Which games work as virtual Christmas icebreakers?

The Paper Crown That Stays On and Rename Yourself With an Elf Name each take five minutes and carry on quietly for the rest of the call. Type on Go: How Many Ornaments? gets every guest typing at once.

How do you run a gift swap when everyone is at home?

Either mail the gifts ahead and open them on camera, or swap on screen and mail them after. Gift swaps across households has both, and A Gift That Fits in the Chat needs no parcel at all.

What if not everyone on the call keeps Christmas?

Use the last set in the All games menu. Its eight winter games, such as Mittens On, Type the Greeting and Sled Race on a Shared Grid, have no Christmas in them.

How many people can play?

Most games suit 4 to 30. For a bigger call, Breakout-room games for 12 or more splits the group into rooms and brings everyone back to share.

More tools

Browse Holiday Games

All 48 games

Camera games 8

  • Guess the Decoration From Its Shadow 1. One guest holds a sheet of plain paper in front of the camera and lights it from behind with a phone flashlight. 2. They hold a decoration or a wrapped shape between the light and the paper, so that only its shadow shows. 3. The others guess what it is in the chat. 4. Three shadows each, then pass the turn. Turning the thing slowly is the only hint. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: a sheet of paper, a phone flashlight and three small things each.
  • The Oldest Decoration in the House 1. Each household has two minutes to fetch the oldest Christmas decoration it owns. 2. In turn, hold it to the camera and say only where it hangs. 3. Everyone else guesses the year it joined the family, typed in the chat. 4. The owner tells its story in three sentences and names the closest guess. Players: 3 to 12 households. Time: 15 min. Props: one decoration for each household.
  • The Paper Crown That Stays On 1. Everyone has two minutes to make a paper crown from whatever paper is nearby, and puts it on. 2. The crown stays on for the rest of the call. 3. If a crown falls off, its wearer reads out the rules of the next game. 4. At the end, anyone still crowned takes a bow. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: paper and tape each.
Show all 48 games (45 more)

Camera games, continued

  • Sing on Mute, Guess the Carol 1. The host sends one guest the name of a carol by private message. 2. That guest stays muted and sings the first verse to the camera with full expression. 3. Everyone else types guesses in the chat. First right answer scores. 4. The guesser sings next. Humming along at home is allowed, unmuting is not. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Strike the Scene for the Group Card 1. The host names a scene: untangling the lights, the cat meets the tree, the last parcel that will not close. 2. Count down from three. Everyone strikes the scene and holds it. 3. The host takes a screenshot of the whole gallery. 4. After four scenes, the group picks one by a show of hands. The host sends it around as this year's card. Players: 4 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Tree Tour, Then Five Questions 1. Each household carries the camera slowly past its tree, or one decorated shelf, for twenty seconds. 2. Nobody takes notes. 3. When every tour is done, the host asks five questions written during the tours: whose tree had a bird on it, who had blue lights? 4. Write the answers on paper and hold them up. Most right wins. Players: 3 to 10 households. Time: 15 min. Props: paper and a pen each.
  • Twelve Moves, One More Each Turn 1. A memory chain made of gestures. The first guest makes one Christmas move: shaking a parcel, placing a star. 2. The second repeats it and adds a move of their own. 3. Carry on around the call in an order the host posts in the chat. 4. A missed or muddled move ends the chain. The group's goal is a chain of twelve. Players: 4 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Wrap a Mug on Camera 1. Everyone fetches a mug, one sheet of any paper and tape. 2. On go, wrap the mug completely in ninety seconds, handle included, in view of the camera. 3. Hold the parcels up together when time is called. 4. The host gives a point for the neatest, the fastest and the one that least looks like a mug. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: a mug, a sheet of paper and tape each.

Chat-box and poll games 8

  • A Carol Typed in Emoji 1. An emoji riddle, written by the guests and not by the host. Everyone has two minutes to spell the title of a carol in emoji. 2. On go, all send their line to the chat at once. 3. Guests reply under each line with a guess. 4. A point to the first right guess and a point to the writer. A line nobody solves scores nothing. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Acrostic Rush 1. The host types one short Christmas word in capitals: STAR, HOLLY, SLEIGH. 2. Everyone writes a sentence in which each word starts with the next letter of that word. 3. Send it when the host says go, not before. 4. The host reads the three that made them laugh. Their writers choose the next word. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Champion Cookie Bracket 1. A poll bracket. Guests name kinds of Christmas cookie in the chat until there are eight. 2. The host pairs them off and runs a poll for each pair. 3. Winners meet in two semi-finals and a final. 4. Before the final, each guest has ten seconds on the microphone to plead for one side. Players: 6 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: the poll tool of the call.
  • Dear Santa, From the Sofa 1. Each guest chooses a thing in the room they are sitting in and tells nobody. 2. They type a one-line letter to Santa from that thing: Dear Santa, please make them stop putting cups on me. 3. The host reads the letters aloud in turn. 4. The call guesses the thing. The writer shows it to the camera. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Rename Yourself With an Elf Name 1. The host shares our Christmas elf name generator on screen and presses it once for each guest. 2. Each guest changes their display name to the elf name they were given. 3. For the rest of the call, speak to one another by elf name only. 4. Anyone who uses a real name types a snowflake in the chat. The fewest snowflakes at the end wins. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: one shared screen.
  • Thank You for the Single Mitten 1. The host names an unlikely present: one left mitten, a calendar for last year, a jar of buttons. 2. Everyone types one polite sentence of thanks to an imaginary aunt, finding something good to say about it. 3. All send on go. 4. Guests mark the kindest lie with a reaction. The most reactions names the next present. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Type on Go: How Many Ornaments? 1. Before the call, the host counts the ornaments on their tree, or the lights on one string, and keeps the camera off it. 2. The host gives two facts only: how tall the tree is, and how long it took to decorate. 3. Everyone types a number and sends it only on go. 4. The closest number wins. Then the camera turns to the tree. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: a tree counted beforehand.
  • Unscramble Ten Christmas Words 1. Before the call, the host mixes up the letters of ten words: tinsel, wreath, mitten, sleigh, candle, ribbon, garland, icicle, chimney, stocking. 2. Paste one scramble into the chat at a time. 3. The first guest to type the word spelled right scores a point. 4. Whoever scores sits out the next word, so that the points get shared around. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: ten scrambled words, typed out beforehand.

Quizzes and boards read from a shared screen 8

  • Carol Game Rounds, Answers by Private Message 1. The host opens our Christmas carol game and shares the screen. 2. Teams are households, or pairs set by the host. 3. Each team sends its answer to the host by private message, so that no team sees another's. 4. The host shows the answer on screen and keeps the score on paper. Players: 4 to 40. Time: 20 min. Props: one shared screen.
  • Christmas Charades, the Card Sent Privately 1. The host presses our Christmas charades generator and sends the card to one actor by private message. 2. The host puts that actor in the spotlight, so that everyone sees the same large picture. 3. The actor has one minute and makes no sound. 4. Guesses are spoken. Whoever gets it acts next. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Draw With the Mouse, Guess in the Chat 1. The host sends a drawer one word from our Christmas drawing game words by private message. 2. The drawer shares a whiteboard and draws with the mouse. No letters or numbers. 3. Guesses go in the chat. 4. The first right guess draws next. Drawing with a mouse evens out the artists and the rest. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: the whiteboard of the call.
  • Hand to Hand at Every Left and Right 1. Each guest holds one small thing in their left hand. 2. The host reads one of our left right Christmas stories aloud. 3. At every left, pass it to your own left hand. At every right, to your right hand. 4. Anyone caught with it in the wrong hand at the end sings the first line of a carol. Players: 3 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: one small thing to hold each.
  • Hangman on the Whiteboard 1. The host picks a word from our Christmas hangman words and draws its blanks on a shared whiteboard. 2. Guests call letters in the order their names appear in the chat list. 3. A wrong letter adds one part to a snowman: three balls, two arms, a hat, a nose. 4. The guest who completes the word chooses the next one. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: the whiteboard of the call.
  • Print-at-Home Bingo, Read From the Screen 1. Send the link to our Christmas bingo cards a day ahead. Every guest prints one card or opens one on a second device. 2. The host shares the call list on screen and reads each square aloud. 3. Guests cross off squares on paper. 4. The first to hold a full line up to the camera wins. Play on for a full card. Players: 4 to 60. Time: 20 min. Props: a printed bingo card and a pen each.
  • Trivia: Unmute to Buzz 1. The host shares our Christmas trivia questions and reads one aloud. Everyone starts muted. 2. To buzz, unmute and say your own name. The first name the host hears gets to answer. 3. A wrong answer locks that guest out of the next question. 4. Ten questions make a round. The host keeps the score in the chat. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 15 min. Props: none.
  • Would You Rather: Camera Covered or Clear 1. The host reads a question from our Christmas would you rather questions. 2. For the first choice, cover your camera with a hand. For the second, leave it clear. 3. The gallery turns into a board of dark and light squares. The host counts them aloud. 4. One guest from the smaller side says why. Eight questions, no score. Players: 4 to 60. Time: 10 min. Props: none.

Gift swaps across households 8

  • A Gift That Fits in the Chat 1. Nobody mails anything. Each guest prepares one gift that can be typed or pasted: a recipe, a walk worth taking, a list of five books. 2. The host draws names so that everyone gives one and gets one. 3. In turn, each giver says who it is for and pastes it into the chat. 4. The receiver reads it aloud and says when they will use it. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 15 min. Props: one prepared text each.
  • An Ornament by Mail, Hung on Camera 1. Three weeks ahead, the host draws names. Each guest mails one ornament, bought or made, to the name they drew, with a signed tag. 2. Parcels stay closed until the call. 3. In turn, each guest unwraps the ornament, reads the tag and hangs it wherever they like in view of the camera: a tree, a lamp, a door handle. 4. The sender says in one sentence why they chose it. Players: 4 to 16. Time: 20 min. Props: an ornament mailed to each guest.
  • The Doorstep Loop 1. For households in one town. The host puts the households in a loop: each leaves a parcel on the next doorstep an hour before the call. 2. Ring the bell and go. Nobody waits to be seen. 3. On the call, each household opens its parcel on camera. 4. The household that left it stays quiet until the others have guessed who is before them in the loop. Players: 3 to 8 households. Time: 20 min. Props: a parcel from each household.
  • Draw the Opening Order Where All Can See 1. Every household wraps one gift and keeps it at home until the call. 2. The host shares our white elephant number generator and draws a number for each household where all can see. 3. In number order, each household holds its gift to the camera and says one word about it. 4. The numbers also set who opens first in any swap that follows. Players: 3 to 20 households. Time: 10 min. Props: a wrapped gift for each household and one shared screen.
  • The Giver in Three Clues 1. Each secret giver writes three clues about themselves, the hardest first, and sends them to the host. 2. After a gift is opened, the host types its giver's first clue in the chat. 3. The receiver guesses aloud. A wrong guess brings the next clue. 4. After the third clue the giver unmutes and says, it was me. Our secret Santa reveal ideas page has more ways to do it. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 20 min. Props: three written clues from each giver.
  • Photo-Board White Elephant, Mailed After 1. Each household sends the host a photo of its wrapped gift. The host numbers the photos on one shared slide. 2. In turn order, a player claims a free number, and its owner unwraps that gift on camera. Or the player steals a gift already opened. 3. A gift may change hands twice, and then it stays. 4. The host writes the final list. Each household mails its gift to whoever holds its number. Players: 4 to 12 households. Time: 30 min. Props: a wrapped gift and a photo of it from each household.
  • Questionnaire First, Then the Draw 1. A month ahead, every guest fills in our secret Santa questionnaire and sends it to the host. 2. The host draws names and sends each giver the sheet of the person they drew. 3. Gifts are mailed to arrive before the call and stay wrapped. 4. On the call, each guest opens a gift and says which answer on their sheet it matches. Players: 4 to 20. Time: 30 min. Props: a filled-in questionnaire from each guest and a gift mailed to each.
  • Unwrap Together, Thanks in Ten Words 1. Gifts are mailed ahead and every guest brings theirs to the call still wrapped. 2. The host counts down, and everyone unwraps at the same moment. 3. Hold the gifts up to the camera for a screenshot. 4. Go around once. Each guest thanks their giver in exactly ten words, counted on their fingers by everyone else. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 10 min. Props: a gift mailed to each guest.

Breakout-room games for 12 or more 8

  • A Cookie by Committee 1. Each room has five minutes to invent a Christmas cookie: a name, five ingredients and a shape. 2. Every member of the room must add at least one of the ingredients. 3. Back together, one speaker presents each cookie in thirty seconds. 4. A poll decides which cookie the host has to bake before the next call. Players: 12 to 60. Time: 15 min. Props: the poll tool of the call.
  • A Feast on One Letter 1. The host gives each room a different letter, avoiding Q, X and Z. 2. In four minutes, the room writes a Christmas feast of five dishes, each one starting with that letter. 3. Every member must add one dish. 4. Back together, a speaker reads the menu. The call votes by show of hands on the feast it would sit down to. Players: 12 to 80. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Envoys Pool the Clues 1. The host sends each of four rooms one line of a riddle and nothing else: I have a nose but cannot smell. I own a scarf I did not choose. I am made in an afternoon. I am gone by spring. 2. Each room talks for two minutes about what its line could mean. 3. Each room sends one envoy back to the main room. The four envoys share their lines and agree on one answer. 4. The answer is a snowman. Write your own four lines for a second round. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 10 min. Props: a four-line riddle.
  • Four Rooms, One Tree on the Whiteboard 1. The host draws a bare tree on a shared whiteboard and divides it into four bands. 2. Each room gets one band and four minutes to decorate it with the drawing tools. 3. Rooms cannot see each other work if the host hands the board to one room at a time. 4. Back together, look at the whole tree. Each room explains one thing it drew. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 20 min. Props: the whiteboard of the call.
  • Last Line Only: A Story Passed Room to Room 1. Open four rooms. Room one writes the first three sentences of a Christmas story and sends the host only the last one. 2. The host passes that single sentence to room two, which writes the next three, and so on. 3. Meanwhile the waiting rooms each plan a title and a cover picture for a story they have not seen. 4. Back together, each room reads its part in order. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 20 min. Props: none.
  • Our Year Quiz, Written in the Rooms 1. Send guests to rooms of four for five minutes. 2. Each room writes two quiz questions about the group's own year: the month of the picnic, the name of the new printer. 3. Back together, rooms take turns asking. The other rooms confer in the chat by private message and answer. 4. A question no room can answer scores nothing for its writers. Players: 12 to 60. Time: 20 min. Props: none.
  • Room Against Room: Draw the Host's Tree 1. The host describes their own tree for one minute with the camera off: its height, its colors, what is on top. 2. In rooms, one member shares a whiteboard and the room draws the tree from memory in three minutes. 3. Back together, the host turns the camera on the real tree. 4. Rooms hold up their drawings. The host names the closest. Players: 12 to 40. Time: 15 min. Props: the whiteboard of the call.
  • Say It Formally: Guess the Carol From the Memo 1. Each room chooses a carol and rewrites its first line as a stiff office memo, with none of the original words. 2. Five minutes in the rooms. 3. Back together, a speaker reads each memo with a straight face. 4. The other rooms type the carol. A point to the first room right, and a point to the writers. Players: 12 to 60. Time: 15 min. Props: none.

Virtual holiday party games with no Christmas in them 8

  • Bundle Up and Sit Back Down 1. On go, everyone leaves their chair. 2. Come back wearing a hat, a scarf, gloves and a coat, fully fastened. 3. The first one seated and waving with both gloved hands wins. 4. For round two, take it all off again and fold it in view of the camera. Neatest pile wins. Players: 3 to 30. Time: 5 min. Props: a hat, a scarf, gloves and a coat each.
  • Coziest Corner in Fifteen Seconds 1. Each guest has two minutes to make one corner of the room as cozy as they can: a blanket, a lamp, a book. 2. In turn, show the corner to the camera for fifteen seconds. 3. The host gives every corner a title: best lamp, most blankets, the corner a cat would choose. 4. Everyone finishes the call sitting in their corner. Players: 3 to 12. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • How Cold Is It Outside the Window? 1. An hour before the call, the host puts a thermometer outside a window. 2. The host says which town they are in and what the sky looks like. 3. Everyone types a temperature and sends it only on go. 4. The host reads the thermometer to the camera. Closest wins. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: an outdoor thermometer.
  • Mittens On, Type the Greeting 1. Everyone puts on mittens, thick gloves or oven mitts. 2. The host types a greeting of six words in the chat. 3. On go, everyone types it back exactly and sends it. 4. First perfect copy wins. The host reads out the best of the others. Players: 3 to 40. Time: 5 min. Props: mittens or oven mitts each.
  • Sled Race on a Shared Grid 1. The host shares a whiteboard with a lane of twenty squares for each player and a dot at the start of each. 2. Every player has one real die at home. 3. In turn, roll it in view of the camera. The host moves your dot that many squares. 4. A roll of one means a snowdrift: stay where you are. First dot past twenty wins. Players: 2 to 8. Time: 10 min. Props: a die each and the whiteboard of the call.
  • Ten Paper Snowballs, Thrown Blind Behind You 1. Each guest crumples ten sheets of scrap paper into snowballs and stands a wastebasket behind their chair. 2. Facing the camera, throw the snowballs over your shoulder one at a time. 3. After the tenth, hold the basket up to the camera and count what went in. 4. Highest count wins. Ties throw three more. Players: 2 to 20. Time: 5 min. Props: ten sheets of scrap paper and a wastebasket each.
  • Ten-Second Weather Report From Your Window 1. Each guest takes the camera to a window, or simply looks out of one. 2. In turn, give a weather report of exactly ten seconds in a news anchor's voice. The host times it. 3. After each report the call gives a thumbs up for going out or a thumbs down for staying in. 4. The report that gets the most people to go out wins. Players: 3 to 20. Time: 10 min. Props: none.
  • Winter Bingo From the Screen 1. Send the link to our winter bingo cards a day ahead, and each guest prints one. 2. The host shares the call list and reads the squares: Shovel a path, Frozen pond, Cardinal. 3. Guests cross off squares on paper. 4. A full line held up to the camera wins. No square on the winter cards is about a holiday. Players: 4 to 60. Time: 20 min. Props: a printed bingo card and a pen each.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions for a Christmas party held on a video call, written for this site. The wording is ours, and the player counts and times are our estimates. Games marked for colleagues were screened against the harassment page of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, https://www.eeoc.gov/harassment, read on 2026-10-03: none asks about faith, family, age or health, votes on a person or shows a home that a guest has not chosen to show. The last set has no Christmas in it, for groups where not everyone keeps the day. It is a party list, not legal advice. No call product is named, and this page is tied to none. Licence: own work