The 20 best adult Christmas party games to get everyone involved
There's so much fun to be had during the festive season. While it's hard to fit in all the Christmas baking, gift shopping and decorating your Christmas tree with the latest trends, you must make time for resting, relaxing and having a laugh with your loved ones. And what better way to do that than these adult Christmas games.
An easy way to take a Christmas party, office party or small get-together with family and friends to the next level with some friendly competition. Whether you use the 'fun gift exchange' game as your presents to each other, or fancy getting creative and doing a Christmas cookie decorating evening, you simply can't go wrong playing any of these Christmas party games for adults this season.
Victoria Kay, Head Buyer at Hamleys is the queen of Christmas games and gives us all the advice on when to play Christmas games and how you can even convince even the most stubborn family members to get involved with these games.
"Whether it’s a fast-paced trivia quiz, or a strategic board game, playing games fits perfectly with the mood of celebration, helping lift spirits. There can be times that need filling, for example, periods of downtime between meals, events or when waiting for New Year's Eve to strike, and these games will help to offer structure without being overly formal or demanding. They’re a great way to keep energy levels up and prevent the post-feast lull from turning into boredom."
"To get the scrooges involved, start with games that are simple, low-pressure, and don’t require too much performance or skill. Games like charades, which don’t have to be competitive, or Pictionary with casual drawing, are often fun without being too intense. Keep it light - it's more about having fun than winning!"
Read our top 20 adult Christmas games to play below:
Named That Scent
Nothing feels quite as cozy as when it's time to break out the Christmas candles with seasonal scents that smell like sugar cookies, evergreen trees and eggnog. Round up a bunch of your favourites with super unique names and scents and have a blind sniff test, where participants have to guess the scent of each candle. The quirkier the scent the harder it is to guess!
Wrap That Gifrt
Time to see who really has major wrapping skills. Your guests might be able to wrap presents that come in standard-sized boxes, but what about unusually shaped things, like a football or a lava lamp? Round up some odd-shaped items or buy some from the pound shop or charity shop and see how well your guests can wrap the gift. Judge on individual wrapping skills or split into teams and make it a group event.
Best Gift, Worst Gift Guessing Game
Everyone receives four slips of paper, and on them, participants write down two great Christmas gifts and two terrible ones. However, only one of each are things they've actually received. The other two are made up. Throw all the filled-out slips into a bowl, and take turns pulling them out and guessing which gifts are real and which are fake.
Christmas Cookie Decorating
Cookie decorating might seem like a pretty basic activity, but there's nothing wrong with a classic, especially since cookie decorating makes us feel nostalgic for celebrating the holidays when we were kids. Have participants all recreate the same design or let everyone do their own thing and have a panel of judges declare the winner.
Christmas Cocktail Competition
Who is the best bartender in the group? Time to find out. Have everyone bring ingredients for and be ready to make a holiday-themed cocktail (enough for all drinking participants to have at least one!) and have everyone vote on which is the best. Not only does the creator of the cocktail get bragging rights, but the hostess will be thankful for the drink contributions from the group. Want to make sure you win? Take some inspiration from one of our Christmas cocktail recipes at the link below.
Name That Tune
When you're stuffed from some delicious appetizers or a big Christmas meal and you want a game you can play while still lounging around, look no further than "Name That Tune." All you need is someone with a phone who has all the great Christmas classics queued up and ready to be played. Have someone be the DJ, and see who can guess the festive songs first after only hearing a few notes.
How Many Layers?
Colder weather means a lot more layers, but ever wonder how many layers you can actually get on? Grab a bunch of clothes and accessories, preferably stretchy and of various sizes, and a stopwatch. Give players one minute, or a time frame of your choice, to see how many layers they can get on their body before time runs out. The person with the most wins!
Ornament Guess
An easy and free game to play! When guests come through the door, have them guess how many ornaments are on your Christmas tree. At the end of the night, the person with the best guess wins a fun prize or gets to open the first present of the night.
Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest
A tried and true favorite. The premise is simple — whoever shows up in the ugliest Christmas sweater wins and receives a grand prize (maybe an extra-nice stocking stuffer?).
Who Am I?
Write up a stack of cards with characters from traditional Christmas movies and TV shows. Every guest must pick one (no peeking!) and attach it to an elastic headband. They then must spend the night asking other guests questions to try to figure out which character they currently have on their headband. The first one to figure theirs out wins!
Never Have I Ever
Once the kids are tucked in bed, it's time for the adults to have some fun. Make this classic game more holiday-themed by posing questions like, "Never have I ever regifted a gift" to see what things your friends and family are guilty of doing. You can play the traditional way by having anyone who has done the deed take a sip of their drink or simply use a point system and reward the winner with a gift.
The Caroling Challenge
This is an easy, no-setup game that you can play everywhere, from a home get-together to an office party. While everyone sits in a circle, one person starts by singing a line from a holiday song, and the person to the right has to sing the next line of this song, and so on, says Kaitlin Moss of The Every Hostess. Pick from the classics like "Jingle Bells" or try a more modern holiday hit like Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You." You might know the first few lines of all these songs, but it gets challenging really quickly!
"Favorite Things" Gift Exchange
A "Favorite Things" gift exchange is essentially a positive spin on a white elephant gift exchange, says Tara Berger, founder of One Stylish Party. Instead of a silly gag gift, each guest brings three, low-cost items they absolutely love. The gifts are placed on a table and everyone takes turns picking out three items to keep. "It is a great way to introduce your friends to some of your must-have items and it doesn't require you to tailor the gift to a specific person."
White Elephant Gift Exchange
The gist: Everyone brings a wrapped gift, an order is established and revelers take turns either choosing to open a wrapped gift or "stealing" one that's already been opened. Every family has its own rules about how to set the order, how many "steals" are allowed, and what happens once a present gets stolen.
Spoon-and-Ornament Race
You've heard of spoon-and-egg races for Easter games, but the winter version is even more festive: Racers have to balance an ornament on a spoon and race to the finish line without it falling off. To make it more challenging, find a difficult terrain or make the racers hold the spoon with two hands.
Memory Game
Gather an assortment of 30 or so fun Christmas items (try different types of ornaments, wrapping supplies, holiday candy or any other fun trinkets) then give players one minute to memorise everything on the tray, says Kertzner. The player with the most correct items written down gets to keep an item or two from the tray.
Charades
This classic game is truly fun no matter how old you are. Create a holiday-specific version by choosing popular holiday phrases, songs and movies to act out. Plus, when you're playing with just adults, you can make the prompts as difficult and obscure as you want!
Christmas Cook-Off
Since whipping up delicious treats is already a beloved holiday pastime, consider turning it into a cooking competition, says Blum. You can choose to bake cookies, or ask everyone to cook something off the cuff based on a surprise holiday ingredient. (Think peppermint, turkey, cranberries ... or, dare we suggest, fruitcake?) Anyone who doesn't want to put on an apron can be part of the judging panel.
Gingerbread House Competition
That's right, decorating gingerbread houses isn't a just-for-kids activity, says Berger. Pair guests up to form teams and start with pre-built houses to minimize hassle and mess. The decorating portion of the party should have a time limit, followed by an anonymous vote to pick the winners by the end of the party. To give it a grown-up twist, serve up alongside a boozy hot chocolate or a glass of Baileys!
Dress the Snowman
Split your friends into teams and have each team wrap one member in rolls of toilet paper to transform them into a snowman, says Moss. Then each team can jazz up their "snowman" with accessories and any other fun props they find hanging around. The most ridiculous one wins!
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