Holiday Party Game Ideas

Holiday Party Game Ideas add fun and frolic to your kids Christmas or Winter party.

Choose from the Gift Giving Game, Santa’s Beard Relay, Find Santa’s Reindeer, Christmas Carol Chaos, Santa’s Socks Guessing Game, and more...

***Elfish Fun Holiday Party Game Ideas***

Find Santa's Reindeer - The premise of this game is that Santa’s reindeer had a big party last night and now Santa can’t find them. Enlist the aid of party guests to find all 9 reindeer, including Rudolph. Hide toy reindeer throughout the party area, some in easy-to-find places, others more difficult. Each child to find a reindeer gets a prize, or gets to keep the reindeer.

Santa Suit Relay - This holiday party idea involves "dress-up" with a twist! Children line up into two teams behind the starting line. Across the room are two chairs with a Santa suit laid out on each. (If you don’t have a full Santa suit, use a Santa hat winter gloves, and a pair of big boots)

At the starting signal, the first child on each team runs to the chair, puts on the Santa suit and says "HoHoHo!" They then take all the items off and run back to tag the next person in line. Each person repeats these actions until all have had a turn. The team who finishes first is the winner.

Christmas Card Toss - You will need 6 Christmas cards and a plastic laundry basket. Position the first player about 6 feet from the basket. Direct him or her to throw the cards one by one into the basket. Each guests takes a turn. The player to get the most cards in the basket wins the game. This game is more difficult than it seems.
Variation: Add another basket and cards if you have a lot of guests. Plus, having two people playing at once adds to the excitement. For a longer game, give players 10 cards.

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***The "Right" Holiday Party Game***

Gift Giving Game -Everyone brings an inexpensive gift to the party, say, valued $5 or under. Guests stand in a circle holding their gifts while an adult leader reads the story below. Each time the word RIGHT is read, players passe their gift to the right. Every time the word LEFT is read, gifts are passed to the left. The gift that each person is holding at the end of the story is the gift he or she keeps.

"The Right Family" Christmas Story

Christmas was almost here and Mother RIGHT was finishing the Christmas baking. Father RIGHT, Susie RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT returned from their last minute Christmas errands.

"There's not much LEFT to be done," said Father RIGHT as he came into the kitchen. "Did you leave the basket of food at Church?" asked Mother RIGHT. "I LEFT it RIGHT where you told me to," said Billy RIGHT." "I don't have any money LEFT."

The hall telephone rang, and Susie RIGHT LEFT to answer it. She rushed back and told the family, "Aunt Tillie RIGHT LEFT a package for us RIGHT on Grandma RIGHT's porch. I'll go over there RIGHT now and get it," she said as she LEFT in a rush.

Father RIGHT LEFT the kitchen and brought in the Christmas Tree. By the time Susie RIGHT returned, Mother RIGHT, Father RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT had begun trimming the tree.

The entire RIGHT family sang carols as they finished the decorating. Then they LEFT all the presents arranged under the tree and went to bed, hoping they had selected the RIGHT gifts for their family.

Now I hope you have the RIGHT present for yourself, because that's all that's LEFT of our story, except to wish you a Merry Christmas, isn't that RIGHT?

~ Holiday Party Game ~

***Kooky Holiday Party Game Ideas***

Santa’s Socks Guessing Game - Start with a pair of thick thermal socks. Fill each one with 20-25 Christmas objects such as an ornament, pine cone, sprig of holly, bell, etc. Tie a piece of ribbon to seal the sock opening so nobody can peek in.

Next, have guests sit in a circle with a piece of paper and a pencil. Pass the socks around and have guests write the names of the objects in the sock that they can feel. The guest who guesses the most correct objects is the winner.

Christmas Carol Chaos - Divide guests into two teams. At a signal, each team sends its first player up to the adult leader who gives them the name of a Christmas carol. Players return to their respective groups and try to get their team to guess the name of the carol by drawing only.

As soon as the group guesses the song, they must sing it as loud as they can. After finishing the song, they send a new person up for another song. The game continues until one team completes five songs.

Santa’s Beard Relay - Divide guests into two teams. Place a table across the room with two big bowls of cotton balls on it. Next, have players line up while you apply Vaseline to each one’s chin and cheeks. Try to use approximately the same amount of Vaseline for each player to keep it fair.

At a given signal, the first player on each team runs to the other side of the room and sticks his or her face in the bowl of cotton balls to make a beard. They then run back and tag the next player on their team. The winning team is the one with the most cotton balls stuck to their faces in the least amount of time. Tally up each team by awarding 3 points for the team that finishes first, and one point for each cotton ball stuck to faces.

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***Active Holiday Party Game Ideas***

Wrap the Snowman - Split the party guests into teams of three and give each team a toilet paper roll. Two persons then wrap the third in toilet paper so that they look like an Snowman. The winning team is the one who in a set time (about 2 minutes) have the neatest and most covered Snowman. Great Photo Op!

Christmas Balloon Battle - Divide guests into two teams. Tie balloons to everyone’s ankles; red for one team, green for the other. At a signal, each team tries to burst the other team’s balloons. The team with the last intact balloon wins.
Note: This game is best played barefoot or in stocking feet to avoid players getting stomped on by heavy shoes.

Freeze Dancing - An adult leader plays Christmas music while party guests dance around the room. Players must freeze when the music stops. Whoever moves after the music stops is eliminated from the game. The last player left is the winner.

~ Holiday Party Game ~

***Classic Holiday Party Game Ideas***

Pin the Nose on Rudolph - This variation of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" requires a poster-sized picture of Rudolph. Have the local copy shop enlarge a picture from a child's book. Make the round red noses from posterboard and number them for each guest. Each guest is spun around 3 times and pointed at the poster to try to pin the nose on Rudolph.

Pass the Candy Cane - This is played like Hot Potato. Guests sit in a circle and pass a candy cane while an adult plays music When the music stops, the person holding the candy cane gets to keep it. He or she sits out and the game continues until everyone has a candy cane. Everyone is a winner in this game.

Gift Wrap Pass - Prepare for this game by wrapping a small gift in several layers of Christmas wrap. Place a piece of wrapped candy in each layer. When it’s time to play, children sit in a circle and pass the wrapped gift around while an adult leader plays music.

When the music stops, the child holding the gift is instructed to unwrap just one layer. They get to keep the piece of candy they find. The child who unwraps the final layer gets to keep the gift.
Note: The adult leader can stop the music at the proper time to make sure each child gets a piece of candy.

***Share YOUR Holiday Party Game Ideas!***

~ Holiday Party Game ~

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