In “Seven Easy Christmas Party Games (Part 1)“, we looked at the icebreaker game “All I Want For Christmas”, the children’s game “Christmas Stocking Story” and two active party games. In Part 2, we will look at two quieter games and a gift exchange game. These easy Christmas party games make it simple to organise the games for your next Christmas get-together.
Snowman is a Christmas twist on the classic party game of Beetle. About four to six players are seated at a table. (You can have multiple tables playing at any time.) One player at each table begins by throwing the die once. (The plural of die is dice.) Depending on the number shown on the die, the player can add a different part to their drawing of a snowman. Players need to throw a ‘one’ to start drawing the body. On each of the successive rounds, they throw the die again and can add to their drawing. Each player will need to throw a ‘2’ (head) before they can add the hat (by throwing a ‘3’), eyes (a ‘4’; two eyes required) or a carrot nose (a ‘5’). They will also need to throw a ‘6’ three times (once for each button). When you have drawn the rest of the diagram you will need to throw another ‘one’ before another ‘two’ and so forth up to ‘six’ to draw a scarf around the snowman’s neck. It is not necessary to throw them consecutively. For example, it would be okay to throw 1, 5, 3, 2, 6, 3, 1, 3, 4, 5, 4, 2, 6. If a player has already drawn one part of the snowman and throw that number again (except for the two eyes and three buttons), they forfeit their turn. The first player to complete their drawing shouts ‘Snowman!’ and wins the game.
Christmas Memory Game requires a little preparation by setting out various Christmas-related objects on a tray (for example, tinsel, star, manger, cookie, candle, little tree, wrapping paper, ribbon, etc.) Each player also needs a pencil and sheet of paper. Players sit in a circle, with the tray in the middle of the circle in view of all players. Give everyone about thirty seconds to look at all the items before covering the tray with the cloth. Players then have two minutes to write down as many items as they can remember from the tray, without looking at anyone else’s list. After two minutes, uncover the tray and allow each person to count how many items they had correct. The winner is the person with the most number of items.
Parcel Frenzy is a simple but fun Christmas party gift exchange game. Before the party, arrange for everyone to bring a gift to an agreed value (for example, $10), suitable for males or females of any age, if possible. The gifts should be wrapped neatly in an old shoe box (or similar) so all the gifts are identical. When the game commences, everyone chooses a present and then sits in a circle. Christmas music is played and everyone passes the gifts in a clockwise direction. When the music stops each person holds the gift they have at that time. Players can choose to keep the gift they have and retire from the circle, or they may choose to stay and continue passing the remaining gifts. Players can choose to retire at the end of any round or they can choose to continue playing until the fifth round. At the end of the fifth round everyone opens their gift. Once they are opened, players cannot exchange gifts (unless a gift is totally inappropriate).
For further details on these or a variety of other easy Christmas party games, see our website.