Seven Easy Christmas Party Games (Part 2)

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, the player can add a different part to their drawing of a snowman. Players need to throw a 'one' to begin drawing the body. With each successive round, they throw the die again and can add to their drawing. Note that a player will need to throw a '2' (head) before they can draw the hat (by throwing a '3'), eyes (a '4'; two eyes required) or a carrot nose (a '5'). He or she must also throw a '6' three times (once for each button). When the rest of the diagram is drawn you will need to throw another 'one' before another 'two' and so on up to 'six' in order to draw a scarf around the snowman's neck. You do not need to throw them consecutively. For example, it would be okay to throw 1, 6, 3, 2, 5, 3, 2, 5, 4, 5, 3, 2, 6. If a player has already drawn one part of the snowman and then throws that number again (except for the two eyes and three buttons), they forfeit that turn. The first player who completes their drawing and shouts ‘Snowman!’ wins the game.

Christmas Memory Game requires some prior preparation by setting about ten to twelve Christmas-related objects on a tray (for example; manger, candle, tinsel, star, candle, cookie, tree, small gift, wrapping paper, ribbon, etc.) Players also need a sheet of paper and a pencil. Players are seated in a circle with the tray in the middle so that all players can see it clearly. They have about thirty seconds to look at all the items before the tray is covered with a cloth. Players attempt to write down as many items as they can remember from the tray in the next two minutes, without cheating by looking at other player’s lists. At the end of the two minutes, the tray is uncovered and each person counts how many items they had correct. The person with the most number of items is the winner.

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 various other easy Christmas party games, see our website.