Christmas Party Games

Christmas Party Games

If you're looking to liven up your Christmas party or holiday party this year with some games, here are some ideas that are sure to please both adults and children.

Gift wrapping game: you will need gift items (as inexpensive or as expensive as you want), wrapping paper, tape, music. Wrap some gifts several times in preparation for the game. Start the music and have everyone pass a gift around the party. When the music stops, that person must unwrap a layer of wrapping on the gift. If the gift is still wrapped, the game continues until the gift is completely unwrapped and it is awarded to the person who unwrapped its last layer.

Story game: everyone brings a wrapped gift to the party and sits in a circle. The host reads a story that has a lot of directions in it. This story can be fabricated by the guest (this could be a fun way to include family members or friends in the story for some laughs) or borrowed from a source online. For example, one line in the story may read, "Suzie LEFT for the party in such a rush that she forgot her mother asked her to take the trash RIGHT out." As the guests hear the words "right" and "left" they pass the gift in their hands in the appropriate direction. When the story is over, the guest keeps the gift in his or her hands.

Yankee Swap: each guest brings a gift (it is a good idea for the host to set a monetary limit on the gift such as an item that is under $20). The host creates scraps of paper with a number for each person at the party. For example, if there are 30 people at the party, she will drop numbers one through 30 into a hat. Everyone draws a number. Whoever draws lucky number one is the lucky one who gets to choose the best prize in the house at the end. The guests, in order of their number, choose a wrapped gift, open it and decide to keep it or trade it with a gift that has been opened before them. After number 30 has gone, number one gets to choose to trade his or her gift with any from the 30 gifts opened.