Christmas party games for ages 5 to 85

A family Christmas party can have seventy or eighty years between the youngest and oldest players. Trivia favors the adults, running games favor the children, and teenagers may need a reason to join in. The games that suit everyone have one thing in common: luck or silliness decides the winner, and knowledge and speed don’t help much.

Choose games where everyone has a chance

• Picture bingo. Nobody needs to read, the caller can be six or sixty, and it suits a large group as long as every card is different.
• The left-right story. Put all the gifts in a pile and let everyone take one that isn’t their own. Someone reads a story aloud, and each time the word “left” or “right” comes up, all the gifts move one place in that direction. You keep what you are holding at the end. A short story to read is at the bottom of this page.
• The dice gift exchange. Players take turns rolling two dice. Doubles means swap gifts with anyone. A seven means everyone passes to the left, and a nine or an eleven means everyone passes to the right. Any other roll means keep what you have. Set a timer for ten minutes and stop when it rings.
• Charades in teams. Christmas words on slips in a bowl. Small children can act, and the guessing suits every age.
• This or that. “Snow or sunshine? Giving or getting?” No equipment and no winners, so it is a good choice for the dinner table.
• Guess how many. A sealed jar of candy or ornaments on a side table and paper slips for guesses. It needs no host.

Both gift games need one small wrapped gift per player, children included. Ask every guest to bring one that would suit any age, or have the host provide them. The same gifts serve whichever gift game you play.

Play them in this order

The order matters as much as the choice.

1. Start seated and simple. Bingo is ideal. Late arrivals can join in, and nobody has to perform.
2. Move to a team game. Charades or a drawing game in teams, once everyone has warmed up.
3. Put the gift game in the middle. It is the high point, so play it while the youngest are still awake.
4. Finish with a quiet one. This or that, or a drawing game, at the table while coffee is served.

Plan for four or five games in about an hour. Stop while people still want one more.

Mix the teams

If teams form by themselves, you tend to get the cousins against the grandparents. Count off around the room, or draw colored slips, so that every team has a child, a teenager and an older adult. Give the teenagers a role with some authority, such as scorekeeper, timekeeper or bingo caller. It keeps them involved.

Keep prizes small and shared

One box of chocolates for the winning team to open and pass around is easier than individual prizes. For bingo, a bowl of small things to choose from is enough: a chocolate coin, a candy cane, a pencil. Have a small prize ready for the youngest players whether or not they win.

If toddlers are around, let players cross off bingo squares with a pencil instead of using chips. Keep buttons, beans and bingo chips out of reach of children under three, and hard candy, including candy canes, away from children under four.

Make it easy on the host

• Print everything two days ahead, with spare copies
• Put one pen per person in a jar
• Keep each game’s sheets in its own folder or envelope
• Choose one person to explain the rules, and keep each explanation under a minute
• Have one extra game ready in case a round finishes early

For big and small groups

With more than a dozen players, choose games that don’t need turns. Bingo, the left-right story and “guess how many” suit thirty people as well as six. Turn-based games get slow with large groups, so split into two tables if you want to play them.

With four or five people, the dice exchange and charades are still fun. Bingo is more exciting with more players, so in a small group play to a full card to make each round last longer.

A left-right story to read aloud

Read slowly, and pause after each “left” and “right” so the gifts can move.

On Christmas Eve, Mr. Snow left the house to buy the one thing he had left off the list. “Turn right at the bakery,” said Mrs. Snow, “and come right back.” He turned left by mistake, then right, then left again, until he was right where he started. The store had only one box left, right at the back of the shelf. He paid, left a coin in the donation jar, and walked right home. “You left your hat,” said Mrs. Snow. “It’s all right,” he said. “I think I left it on the right shelf.” And nobody left the table until every present had been opened.