When the family are gathered round, and everyone’s recovered from the feast of the year, there’s nothing better than a few festive frolics to make the most of your time together. These games are easy to play, loads of fun and can probably be done using things you already have in the house. Enjoy!
Jingle Pong
A festive twist on a classic, and a lot more family-friendly! Arrange six plastic cups in a triangle on a flat surface and steal six bells from your tree. From a reasonable distance, each player has a go at tossing the bells into the cups. Whoever gets one bell in each cup is the winner.
The Penguin Waddle
You’ll need to clear some space for this one, and find a few balloons. You could limit this to 2-3 players per go, just to everyone enough room.
With the balloons blown up, each person taking part needs to hold their balloon between their knees and keep it there as they waddle, like a penguin, to the end of the room and back. Whoever returns first with their balloon still in place is the winner. You could even give it your own twist by adding extra challenges, like eating a mince pie before waddling back to the finish line!
Paper Plate Picture
A great one for kids, and actually quite funny for adults too. All you need to do is find enough pens/pencils/crayons and paper plates for everyone then take it turns to hold the plate on your head with one hand and draw a Christmas picture with the other.
It can be anything you want, a snowman, Santa, a tree. As each person has their turn, everyone else can give their scores out of five, the person with the highest overall score at the end is the winner. This is a perfect dinner table game, just be prepared for some very abstract works of art!
Pin The Red Nose On Rudolph
Obviously we don’t mean the real Rudolph – just a picture will do. You could even get the kids to draw and decorate a large reindeer’s face, just remember to leave out the nose. Then all you need is a blindfold, some double sided sticky tape for the noses and enough round, red circles for everyone to have a go. Whoever gets their nose the closest to where it should be is the winner (it might be a good idea to initial them, just to avoid any confusion).
Candy Cane Hunt
There’s nothing kids love more than a good treasure hunt. Candy canes will give the hunt a festive twist, you could also use chocolate coins, or even tokens that can be exchanged for a prize. It’s a good idea to take a picture of each hiding place, or you might still be finding candy canes in the new year!
Do You Wanna Build a Snowman?
Even if we don’t get a white Christmas, there’s still some fun to be had making a snowman. Split into teams, designate a ‘snowman’ and have your supplies at the ready.
You’ll lots of toilet roll (white, obviously), hats and scarves. If you’re feeling crafty you could even cut coal eyes and a carrot nose out of card. Start a timer and have each team wrap their designated ‘snowman’ head to toe in toilet roll and finish with a hat and scarf. The fastest team wins.
For an added bonus, you could also challenge the snowman to be the fastest out of their toilet roll snow!
What's In The Sock?
Grab your Christmas stockings and find a selection of objects from around the house. These should be different shapes, sizes and textures. The idea is that everyone should put their hand in, without looking, and guess what’s inside. Now, it’s entirely up to you whether or not you want to include something gruesome, but if there are any sprouts left over…
Festive Three In A Row
If you’ve enjoyed a few too many festiive tipples this Christmas, here’s a great way to use up any popped corks. You’ll need at least ten, then you can decorate half as one festive character and the other half as different festive character. Now you have a two player game that works in exactly the same way as noughts and crosses and can be played again and again.
Who Am I?
A classic dinner party game that you can play with a Christmas theme. Write out the sticky notes with various Christmas characters, then each player draws one and sticks it to their forehead without looking. You can now take it in turns to ask yes or no questions until someone figures out who they are.
Santa's Hat Game
The Christmas craze taking the internet by storm. For this you’ll need a Santa hat, a pair of oven gloves, two dice and a prize that’s been packaged in a few different boxes and finally wrapped in paper.
From the word go, the first player has to keep rolling the dice until they roll two of the same number. Then they can put on the gloves, then the hat, then start trying to unwrap the prize. However, as soon as that player has rolled their double, the dice go to the next player, who immediately starts to try and roll their own double. As soon as they do, they get the gloves, the hat and a chance to open the present – with the next player now trying to roll a double for their chance to have a go.
You could end up losing your turn straight away to the next player, or you could get long enough to break through one of the layers. It might take a while, but someone will eventually get to the middle, and you’ll all have a lot of laughs doing it.
