Saturday, November 23, 2013

Christmas Party Games

Every year my family and my sister's family comes together to decorate my mom's Christmas tree.  This has been a tradition of ours since the first year I moved away from home.  When our kids were little they loved it, but as they have gotten older their enthusiasm in it is not as great as it once was.  Last year we started a new tradition and turned the whole "Christmas Tree Trimming" night into a fun Christmas party and everyone loves it!!! We still have our usual party foods and decorate mam maw's tree, but now we have added fun Christmas games and end the night with Dirty Santa.  If you are not familiar with what Dirty Santa is, don't worry, it is nothing dirty.  Just a fun way to exchange Christmas gifts.  This does not take the place of the regular gifts we give to each other for Christmas, it's just an early fun gift giving game! 

Here are the games (and their descriptions) we played this year.

HUMDINGER

I love this game!  If you have ever played Cranium you know how much fun and laughter this game can bring.  A person hums and everyone else has to guess the song.  Of course for a Christmas party you need Christmas songs.  Here are the one's we used.  You can use your favorite holiday songs and make your own list!

Angels We Have Heard on High
Frosty the Snowman
Joy to the World
Grandma Got Ran Over by a Reindeer
Baby It's Cold Outside
Deck the Halls
Go Tell It on the Mountain
I'll be Home for Christmas
Silent Night
Carol of the Bells
Jingle Bell Rock
Winter Wonderland
The First Noel
O Come all ye Faithful
We Wish you a Merry Christmas
Feliz Navidad
Hark the Harold Angels Sing
Away in the Manger
The 12 Days of Christmas
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
O Little Town of Bethlehem
Here Comes Santa Claus
Mary Did You Know
Do You Hear What I Hear

CHRISTMAS CATCHPHRASE

If you are familiar with Heads Up, the super fun tablet app, then you will know how to play this game.  A person has a phrase and has to try to get the players to guess the phrase by either acting it out or giving clues.  For example, if your phrase is Three Wise Men your clue could be:  "more than two really smart dudes".  Here is the list of phrases that we used.

Three Wise Men
Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
The Grinch
Elf
Wrapping Presents
Caroling
Snow Angels
Mary and Joseph
Sleigh
Christmas Lights
Jingle Bells
Christmas Shopping
Little Drummer Boy
It's a Wonderful Life
Christmas with the Kranks
Frosty the Snowman
Ornaments
Partridge in a Pear Tree
Silver Bells
White Christmas
Gold, Myrrh and Frankincense
String Popcorn

CHRISTMAS ARTIST

See who is the most artistic in your family by giving them this fun drawing challenge.  I gave each person a sturdy piece of cardboard and a pen.  Each person then put the cardboard on top of their head and followed my directions.  

1.   Draw a line for the floor
2.  Draw a Christmas tree
3.  Add decorations
4.  Draw a star on top of the tree
5.  Draw a fireplace with a mantel next to the tree
6.  Draw a stocking hanging from the mantel
7.  Draw a present below the tree

Then we graded them

2 points if tree touches the floor
2 points if stocking is touching the mantel
1 point if star touches the tree
1 point if the star is above the tree
1 point for every ornament on the tree
1 point if your fireplace does not touch the tree because that would be a fire hazard. ;)
2 points if present is under the tree

There are several variations of this game as well and last year we played it a little differently.  We closed our eyes and did not do it on top of our head and we drew snowmen instead.  Just use your imagination!

HUMAN CHRISTMAS TREE

We got a lot of laughs out of this game.  We split up into two groups and each group was given a roll of green crepe paper, a package of red garland, candy canes, various colors of constructions paper, scissors and tape.  Each team had to choose one team member to be "the tree" and the other team members trimmed the tree!  Check out the pictures below to see how this turned out!


STOCKING SUPRISE

All you need for this one is a stocking and stocking stuffers.  After I put the objects in the stocking I pinned it closed and each person had to feel and try to guess what was in the stocking.  Here are the items I used, but you can use anything you have around the house.

ornament
coaster
pinecone
candy cane
jingle bell
pencil sharpener
spool of thread
yo-yo
Christmas bow
snowman figurine
bag of marbles

DIRTY SANTA

There are several variations of this game, but for our family we set a $5.00 price limit.  We all purchase and wrap our gift, but we do not include a name tag.  Then we put the gifts in the middle of the room and each person draws a number.  The first person picks a gift from the pile, the person with the second number can either pick a gift from the pile or take person #1's gift, and that goes on until every number has gone and we keep stealing until the last gift is finally chosen.   After that we go back to the person with number 1 and they open their gift and the person who purchased it lets them know it is from them....so forth and so on.  The only rules we have is that you cannot choose your own gift and you cannot have a tug of war with a gift. example - same two people taking back and forth from each other, you can however get the same gift back, but you can't take it back immediately.   I know some people choose to open the gifts and then steal them, but for our family we decided to wait until the end to open.  I have played it both ways and it is equally as fun!  


Here are a few pictures from our night of Christmas fun!



























3 comments:

  1. I really love your blog and your pictures too, they make me happy always, and as far as christmas party games are concerned i really hope that you guys enjoy a lotl.

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  2. I am in charge of our Church's Christmas Party. I got a lot of really great ideas here that will work with a large variety of ages. Thanks! Blessings & Merry Christmas!

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  3. Great ideas! I may have to use some this year.

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