Christmas Party Games: 30 Games Sorted by Crowd, With Real Rules

You're hosting Christmas this year, for friends, family, or both, and you'd like the evening to be more than people standing near the cheese. The short answer: pick three or four Christmas party games that match your crowd, put one gift exchange in the middle of the night, and keep one no-props game in your pocket for the moment the room goes quiet.

The crowd matters more than the game. A party of 30 friends with drinks needs different games from a living room with a six-year-old, two teenagers, and Grandpa. So the 30 games below are sorted by crowd: adults, mixed-age families, big groups, and small dinners. Each one lists player count, time, props, and the way it usually goes wrong.

After the games you'll find white elephant rules with three variants, two photo games, two sample run-sheets (a 12-person family evening and a 30-person friends party), and a shopping list. If you're planning the office party instead, our work Christmas party ideas post covers that, including the pay and alcohol questions HR will ask.

Pick games by crowd, then by effort

Most lists hand you 50 games in one pile. Start here instead. Find the row that sounds like your party and read that section first.

Your party	Best section	Games to start with	Prep needed
Friends, adults only, 8–20 people	Adults	Fishbowl, Name That Carol, Two Truths	30 minutes
Family, ages 5 to 85	Family	Present stacking, Musical parcel, Santa Says	1 hour
25 or more people, lots of mingling	Big groups	Bingo, Character on Your Back, stations	1–2 hours
Dinner for 4 to 8	Small dinner	Question jar, Who Am I, Gift Story Guess	15 minutes
Any crowd that brought gifts	White elephant section	White elephant, Left Right story	Rules card only
A crowd with phones out anyway	Photo games	Photo scavenger hunt, ugly sweater contest	20 minutes

Two rules hold for every crowd. First, nobody should have to drink to play. Second, every game needs a clear end, whether it's a timer, a point total, or a last card. Games without an end fizzle while people politely wait for someone to call it.

Check your date while you're at it. Christmas 2026 falls on a Friday, so the obvious party Saturdays are December 12 and December 19. If your family or friends include anyone who celebrates Hanukkah, Hebcal lists it as running from sundown on Friday, December 4 to nightfall on Saturday, December 12, 2026. A December 12 party overlaps the last day, so ask before you book it.

Christmas party games for adults

These assume a room of grown-ups who know each other at least a little. All of them work sober. Add drinks if you like, but don't make drinking the scoring system, because the person who skips alcohol then can't play.

1. Fishbowl, Christmas edition. Players: 6–20, in two teams. Time: 30–45 minutes. Props: slips of paper, pens, a bowl, a phone timer. Each guest writes five Christmas words or names on slips: Mariah Carey, fruitcake, the Grinch, a family in-joke. All slips go in the bowl. Round one, describe the word without saying it. Round two, one word only. Round three, act it out silently. Teams take 60-second turns, and the same slips are used every round, so the jokes build. How it fails: someone writes an obscure name nobody knows. Rule that any slip can be skipped once per turn.

2. Name That Carol. Players: any number, in teams. Time: 15 minutes. Props: none. One person hums a carol, with no words, and teams race to name it. Point to the first correct team, then a new hummer. How it fails: the same two confident singers do all the humming. Rotate by team so everyone takes a turn.

3. Draw That Christmas Song. Players: 6–16, in two teams. Time: 20 minutes. Props: a whiteboard or large paper pad, markers, song titles on cards. One player draws a song title for their team in 90 seconds, with no letters or numbers. "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" is harder than it sounds. How it fails: titles are too hard. Mix in easy ones like "Jingle Bells" so every team scores early.

4. Two Truths and a Christmas Lie. Players: 5–15. Time: 20 minutes. Props: none. Each person tells three Christmas stories from their life, one invented. The room votes on the lie. You get a point for guessing right and a point for each person you fool. How it fails: it drags past 15 people. Split into two circles.

5. Christmas Movie Quote Quiz. Players: any number, in teams of 3 or 4. Time: 20 minutes. Props: 20 quotes written in advance, answer sheets. Read a line, teams write the movie. Mix the classics with the ones your crowd actually watches every year. How it fails: one film nerd answers for the whole team. Give each team one answer sheet and a single pen.

6. Holiday ABCs. Players: teams of 2–4. Time: 10 minutes. Props: paper and pens. Teams get three minutes to write one Christmas word for each letter of the alphabet. Score one point per letter, and only words no other team wrote count. How it fails: X, Q, and Z cause arguments. Let teams skip three letters.

7. Most Likely To, holiday edition. Players: 6–20 who know each other well. Time: 15 minutes. Props: prompt cards. Read "Most likely to regift something they received last year" or "Most likely to still be wrapping at midnight on the 24th," count to three, and everyone points. How it fails: it turns mean. Write only prompts you'd say to the person's face, and skip anything about money, weight, or relationships.

Family Christmas party games that work from 5 to 85

Family games have to work for a small child, a teenager pretending not to care, and a grandparent who can't get off the floor easily. The trick is mixed-age teams and short rounds. A note on safety before you start: several games below use small items such as candy, cotton balls, and jingle bells. Keep those away from toddlers, and check for nut and food allergies before candy becomes a prize.

8. Present Stacking. Players: 2–4 at a time. Time: 1 minute per round. Props: 10–15 empty boxes, wrapped. Players have one minute to build the tallest tower that stands for five seconds. Wrap the boxes the week before, and you can reuse them under the tree. How it fails: adults win every round. Pair each adult with a child and let only the child touch the boxes.

9. Musical Parcel. Players: 6–20, seated in a circle. Time: 15 minutes. Props: one small prize wrapped in many layers, music. Pass the parcel while music plays. When it stops, whoever holds it removes one layer. Tuck a tiny treat or a forfeit ("sing one line of a carol") into some layers. The last layer holds the prize. How it fails: the youngest child never gets a layer and cries. Whoever runs the music can quietly make sure every child unwraps at least once.

10. Santa Says. Players: any number of kids, plus adults who'll play along. Time: 5–10 minutes. Props: none. Simon Says with a Santa hat. "Santa says pat your belly" counts. "Pat your belly" without "Santa says" puts you out. How it fails: the older kids get out last every time. Have the youngest kids lead a round as Santa.

11. Candy Cane Fishing. Players: kids 4 and up, one at a time or in pairs. Time: 1 minute per player. Props: a bowl of candy canes, one candy cane per player as the hook. Hook as many candy canes out of the bowl as you can in a minute, using only the one in your hand. How it fails: canes break. Buy a spare box.

12. Snowball Spoon Relay. Players: two teams of 4–8. Time: 10 minutes. Props: cotton balls, two spoons, two bowls. Each player carries a cotton-ball snowball across the room on a spoon, drops it in the bowl, and runs back to hand over the spoon. A dropped snowball goes back to the start. How it fails: it gets competitive between adult cousins. That's fine. Just move the breakables first.

13. Who's Santa? Players: 8–20. Time: 15 minutes. Props: none. One person leaves the room. Choose a secret Santa, who "gives gifts" by winking at people. Anyone winked at waits a few seconds, then says "Merry Christmas" and leaves the circle. The guesser comes back and has three guesses to find Santa before everyone's gone. Young kids who can't wink can blink both eyes. How it fails: Santa winks too fast and the round ends in 20 seconds. Tell Santa to wait between winks.

14. Stocking Guess. Players: any number. Time: 10 minutes. Props: 5 or 6 stockings, each holding one household object, tied shut. Guests feel each stocking and write down their guess. Use objects like a whisk, a tangerine, or a TV remote. How it fails: one object is too easy. Make one deliberately weird, such as a single hair roller.

15. Pin the Nose on Rudolph. Players: kids 3–8. Time: 10 minutes. Props: a drawn reindeer on poster board, red paper noses with tape, a scarf for a blindfold. Spin, walk, stick. How it fails: older kids peek. Let them, it's for the little ones, and give older kids the job of spinning.

Holiday party games for big groups of 25 or more

With a big group, games that need everyone's attention at once are hard, and they compete with conversation. Choose games that run in the background or let people drop in and out. Save at most one all-room game for the middle of the night.

16. Christmas Character on Your Back. Players: everyone, as they arrive. Time: runs during the first hour. Props: name tags with a Christmas character on each. Stick a character on each guest's back as they come in: Rudolph, Buddy the Elf, Cindy Lou Who, the Little Drummer Boy. They work out who they are by asking other guests yes-or-no questions. It forces strangers to talk, which is the whole point. How it fails: obscure characters. Stick to ones a 10-year-old would know.

17. Christmas Bingo. Players: up to 40 or so, each with a card. Time: 20–30 minutes. Props: printed cards with different layouts, a list to call from, small prizes. A caller reads holiday words. Play several games: a line, four corners, then full card. How it fails: everyone's cards are the same, so ten people shout at once. Use a free bingo card generator that shuffles each card.

18. Minute to Win It Stations. Players: teams of 4–6 rotating. Time: 30–40 minutes. Props: depends on the stations. Set up four tables around the room, each with a 60-second challenge: present stacking, candy cane fishing, ornament toss into a bucket, unwrap a gift wearing oven mitts. Each table has a helper and a scoresheet. Teams rotate on a whistle. How it fails: no helper at a station, and the scores get invented. Recruit four friends to staff the stations before the party.

19. Snowman Wrap. Players: teams of 3–4. Time: 5 minutes plus judging. Props: one roll of toilet paper per team. Each team wraps one member as a snowman in three minutes. The room votes on the best one by applause. How it fails: it eats too much time. One round only, and the photos are the real prize.

20. Reindeer Antlers. Players: teams of 3–4. Time: 5 minutes. Props: a pair of tights per team, plenty of balloons. Teams inflate balloons, stuff them into the legs of the tights, and put them on one player's head as antlers. Tallest antlers standing at the buzzer wins. How it fails: balloon allergies (latex) and kids scared of popping. Ask first, and buy latex-free balloons if needed.

Christmas games for a small dinner of 4 to 8

At a dinner table, nobody wants to get up and run a relay. These games fit between courses or over dessert and need almost nothing.

21. The Question Jar. Players: 4–8. Time: as long as you like. Props: a jar of 20 folded questions. "What's the best gift you ever got that cost under $10?" "Which Christmas tradition from your childhood would you bring back?" Each person draws one and answers, then can pass a question to someone else. How it fails: questions are too deep for the mood. Keep them light and specific.

22. Sticky-Note Who Am I. Players: 4–8. Time: 15 minutes. Props: sticky notes, a pen. Each person writes a famous Christmas character or celebrity on a sticky note and sticks it to their left neighbor's forehead. Go around the table asking yes-or-no questions. First to guess wins, but keep going until everyone gets there.

23. Gift Story Guess. Players: 4–8. Time: 15 minutes. Props: cards and a bowl. Everyone writes, anonymously, the best or worst gift they ever received. Read them aloud. Guess who wrote each one, and get the story from the writer. It works because the stories are better than the guesses.

24. One Shared Puzzle. Players: 2–8. Time: all evening. Props: a 500-piece Christmas jigsaw on a side table. Not a game so much as a place for quiet guests to sit. Anyone who needs a break from the conversation has something to do with their hands.

White elephant rules, Yankee swap, and two easier gift exchanges

Gift exchanges are the most-searched Christmas game for a reason: they bring a group together around one activity, and everyone leaves with something. They're also the game most likely to cause a family argument, so set the rules out loud before the first gift is opened.

25. White elephant, standard rules

Players: 6–20. Time: roughly 1 to 2 minutes per player. Props: one wrapped gift per player, numbered slips.

1. Set a price limit in the invitation. Elfster's guide suggests $15 to $30 as a typical range (checked November 2026). For a family with kids and teenagers, lower is kinder.
2. Everyone brings one wrapped gift with no name on it. Gifts go in a pile.
3. Players draw numbers for turn order.
4. Player 1 opens a gift and shows it to the room.
5. Each later player either opens a new gift or steals one that's already open.
6. Someone whose gift is stolen either opens a new gift or steals a different one. They can't steal back the gift just taken from them on the same turn.
7. Each gift can be stolen a limited number of times, then it's frozen with its current owner. Wikipedia's article says the limit is commonly two, and Elfster's rules use three. Pick one and say it before you start.
8. When the last gift is opened, Player 1 gets one final turn to keep their gift or steal any unfrozen one. Player 1 never got to choose with anything to steal, so this evens it out.

The game "white elephant" takes its name from the idea of an extravagant gift you can't easily get rid of. Wikipedia notes the popular story about a King of Siam giving white elephants to courtiers has no actual record behind it.

How it fails: it runs too long. Elfster says the game works best with 6 to 20 players. With 30, run two separate circles or use the dice version below. A phone timer of two minutes per turn keeps people from agonizing. Our rough math: at 90 seconds a turn, 20 players take 30 minutes before steals add more.

Yankee swap and Dirty Santa

The names overlap. Wikipedia lists Yankee swap and Dirty Santa as other names for the same game, and also notes that Yankee swap gifts tend to be practical things players actually want, while white elephant leans toward joke gifts. Before the party, tell guests which kind you mean. A blank stare at a singing fish when you brought a $25 gift card is how arguments start.

26. The Left Right story

Players: 5–30. Time: 5–10 minutes. Props: one wrapped gift per player, a printed story. Everyone sits in a circle holding a gift. One person reads a story packed with the words "left" and "right," and every time they hear one, players pass their gift that way. When the story ends, you keep what you're holding. Free stories are easy to find, or write your own with family in-jokes.

How it fails: people end up with their own gift. The guide at whiteelephantrules.com suggests counting the lefts and rights against your number of players, and adding a closing line if you're unsure of the headcount. This is the easiest swap for kids, since nobody gets anything stolen.

27. The Dice Game

Players: 8–30. Time: 15–20 minutes. Props: one wrapped gift per player, two or three pairs of dice, a timer. Gifts start in the middle. Pass the dice around the circle. Roll doubles and take a gift from the pile. When the pile's empty, set a timer for five minutes: now doubles let you steal any gift from anyone. When the timer ends, everyone opens what they hold. Use several pairs of dice at once in a big group.

How it fails: with one pair of dice and 25 people, the first phase takes forever. Add dice.

Two photo games: a Christmas photo scavenger hunt and an ugly sweater contest

Photo games suit a Christmas party because the phones are already out. They give people a job, which helps anyone who doesn't know many guests, and you get pictures of the night as a side effect.

28. Christmas photo scavenger hunt

Players: teams of 3–4. Time: 30–45 minutes. Props: one printed card per team. Hand each team a list of shots to take before a deadline, such as dessert. Prompts that work at a Christmas party: the oldest and youngest guests together, a recreation of a Christmas card pose, someone wearing three Christmas items at once, the host caught off guard, a "Twelve Days of Christmas" lineup with as many people as you can find, and the best fake candid by the tree. Most completed shots wins, and the host breaks ties.

Our free photo scavenger hunt generator makes a printable card sized to your guest count. There's no Christmas setting yet, so choose "Any party," then swap in the prompts above. For a full family version with clues, find lists and a light tour, see our Christmas scavenger hunt guide. How it fails: nobody sees the photos, so the hunt has no finish. Show them before you name a winner.

29. Ugly sweater photo contest

Players: anyone who wears one. Time: 10 minutes for photos, 10 for judging. Props: a plain wall or the tree as a backdrop, paper ballots. Put "ugly sweater encouraged" on the invitation. Partway through the party, everyone in a sweater gets a portrait in front of the backdrop. Award three categories rather than one: ugliest, most handmade, and best group look. Separate categories mean the person in a homemade masterpiece doesn't lose to the one who bought a light-up sweater. Show the photos on a TV and vote with paper ballots.

How it fails: guests who didn't get the memo feel left out. Keep a box of cheap Santa hats and tinsel at the door so anyone can join the "best last-minute look" category.

30. Recreate the old Christmas photo

Players: families. Time: 20 minutes. Props: one old family Christmas photo, printed or on a phone. Find a photo of your family from decades ago, gather the same people, and copy the poses, clothes, and expressions as closely as you can. Show both photos side by side. How it fails: one person refuses to sit on Dad's lap again. Respect it.

Where the party photos end up

Photo games produce pictures on twenty phones. The usual result is that a handful get posted to a group chat and the rest stay where they were taken. Decide in advance where they'll go.

This is where we'd suggest Revel, the shared event camera app we make. You create a Moment for the party with an end time, a guest cap, and a shot limit per guest. Tape the QR code to the fridge or the front door. Guests scan it and start shooting in their phone's browser, with no app and no account. Every shot lands in one gallery.

A few settings fit a Christmas party. You can hide the photos until the Moment ends, or until 12 or 24 hours after, so the family sees the whole gallery together on Christmas morning, like film back from the lab. Or show them live: the slideshow casts an approved feed to any TV, which is handy for judging the ugly sweater contest. You can review and approve every photo before the gallery goes live, which matters when the kids have the phones. You pick one of 50+ film-style filters for the whole party, and the originals are kept. If the signal is poor at Grandma's, guests can keep shooting and the photos sync later, though the first scan needs a connection. More on our holiday parties page.

Pricing is one-time per event in the US: free for up to 10 guests, $2.99 for up to 25, and $5.99 for up to 50 (checked November 2026; prices vary by country and can change).

It's the wrong tool in a few cases. It can't collect old photos: camera-roll uploads are only allowed for photos taken during the Moment, so the 1994 picture for game 30 has to come from somewhere else. It doesn't do video, so film the kids' nativity play on your own phone. If your family has a no-phones rule at Christmas, keep it. And if half the guests are grandparents without smartphones, a couple of disposable cameras on the table may suit them better.

Two sample run-sheets: 12-person family evening and 30-person friends party

These are hypothetical plans built from the games above. Shift the times to fit your meal, and cut any game that isn't landing. Nothing kills a party faster than a host pushing through a schedule.

12-person family Christmas evening, 4:00 to 8:30pm

Say four grandparents and parents, three teenagers, and five kids aged 4 to 11. Dinner is the main event, so games sit around it.

Time	What happens	Game
4:00	Arrivals, snacks	Stocking Guess on a side table
4:30	Everyone in one room	Santa Says (kids lead), then Pin the Nose
4:50	Teams of mixed ages	Present Stacking, Snowball Spoon Relay
5:20	Free time, kitchen help	Photo scavenger hunt cards to the teenagers
6:00	Dinner	Question Jar between courses
7:00	Dessert	Musical Parcel for the kids
7:20	Gift exchange, everyone	Left Right story
7:40	Old photo recreation	Game 30, one photo only
8:00	Wind down, little kids home	Shared puzzle, show the hunt photos

30-person friends party, 7:30pm to midnight

Say 30 adults from a few different friend groups, drinks and grazing food, ugly sweaters on the invitation.

Time	What happens	Game
7:30	Arrivals	Character on Your Back, as people come in
8:15	Food out	Photo scavenger hunt teams formed, deadline 10:00
8:45	Room is full	Name That Carol, 15 minutes
9:15	Background	Holiday bingo cards handed out
9:45	Ugly sweater portraits	Photos in front of the tree
10:00	Hunt deadline	Scavenger photos on the TV, winner named
10:15	The main event	Dice Game gift exchange, 3 pairs of dice
10:45	Sweater voting	Paper ballots, three categories
11:00	Second wind	Fishbowl for whoever wants it
12:00	Last call	None

Note that the friends party uses the dice game rather than white elephant. At 30 players, a standard white elephant would likely eat an hour on its own. If your friends insist on stealing, split into two circles of 15 and run both at once.

If you're also hosting the week after, our NYE party ideas post has an hour-by-hour plan and 16 more games that don't repeat these.

The shopping list, one page

Everything for the games above costs little, and most of it you already own. Print this or copy it to your phone.

Item	For games	How many
Paper slips, pens, a bowl	1, 4, 6, 21, 23	50 slips, one pen per guest
Sticky notes or name tags	16, 22	One per guest
Empty boxes, wrapped	8, 18	10–15
Candy canes	11, 18	2 boxes
Cotton balls and 2 spoons	12	1 bag
Toilet paper	19	1 roll per team
Tights and balloons (latex-free)	20	1 pair and 15 balloons per team
Bingo cards	17	One per guest, all different
Stockings and odd household objects	14	5–6
Dice	27	2–3 pairs
Small prizes	Most	6–10
Printed scavenger hunt cards	28	One per team, plus spares
Santa hats and tinsel	29	A box for the door
Phone timer and a speaker	Most	One each

Christmas party games FAQ

What are good Christmas party games for adults?

Fishbowl, Name That Carol, Two Truths and a Christmas Lie, and a white elephant exchange suit most adult groups. They need few props, work in teams, and don't depend on drinking. Choose two or three, not ten.

What games can you play at a family Christmas party?

Pick games with short rounds and mixed-age teams: Present Stacking, Musical Parcel, Santa Says, and the Left Right gift story. Pair each adult with a child so the adults don't win everything. Keep small candies and cotton balls away from toddlers.

What is the difference between white elephant and Yankee swap?

They are mostly the same game: open a gift or steal one already opened. Wikipedia notes that Yankee swap gifts tend to be practical, while white elephant gifts are often jokes. Tell guests which kind you mean so the gifts match.

How many times can a gift be stolen in white elephant?

There's no single official rule. Wikipedia says the limit is commonly two, and Elfster's rules use three, after which the gift is frozen. Pick a number and announce it before the first gift is opened.

What Christmas games need no supplies?

Name That Carol, Two Truths and a Christmas Lie, Santa Says, Who's Santa?, and Most Likely To need nothing but people. They're good to keep in reserve for when a planned game falls flat.

Try it at dinner before the party

If you'd like the photo games to land in one place, set up a free Moment for up to 10 people this week. Test it with two or three family members at dinner: scan the QR code, take a few shots, try a filter, and watch the reveal. You'll know in five minutes whether it suits your party. Get Revel on the App Store or Google Play. Larger parties are a one-time purchase in the app, with no subscription.