Every great Christmas party needs holiday-themed games and activities. While many of the Holiday party guides online focus on work parties, you need a different set of games for parties with kids and teens. That’s why we set out to put together a large list of Christmas party games and activities for teens and kids. These activities focus on maximizing fun while still being age appropriate. Without fun activities, kids might isolate themselves or stare at their phones the whole time. Whether you’re hosting a dinner party or a sleepover, good planning is the best way to keep your party guests engaged and having a good time. Look through our list to inspire your Christmas party this year!
Christmas Party Games and Activities for Teens and Kids
1. Paper Snowflake Station
Making DIY snowflakes is a fun and inexpensive Christmas party activity. Best of all, it leaves people with something to take home! To do this, set up a table with scissors and white printer paper. You make the snowflakes by folding the paper and cutting the edges. Follow a YouTube tutorial if needed.
2. White Elephant Gift Exchange
White Elephant is a gift-exchange game where everyone brings a wrapped present and puts it in a pile. Alternatively, as the host, you can provide all of the gifts so the teens don’t have to go shopping. Players draw numbers to decide the order. On your turn, you can either pick a new wrapped gift or “steal” a gift that someone has already opened. If your gift gets stolen, you get to choose another unopened one.
3. Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Create a Christmas scavenger hunt by hiding Christmas items around your house. You can hide things like candy canes, or even objects like snow globes.
4. Christmas Trivia Showdown
Create trivia questions based on Christmas movies, music, traditions, and pop culture moments. Split teens into teams and see who knows the most. If you don’t want people buzzing in to answer, you can also use paper of whiteboards.
5. Candy Cane Limbo
Turn limbo into a holiday challenge by using a decorated pole or a giant candy cane prop. Teens line up and see how low they can go while Christmas music plays. Lower the bar each round until only one limbo champion is left standing.
6. Christmas Karaoke Battle
Karaoke is one of the most iconic party activities. You can go on YouTube and fine karaoke versions of Christmas songs so your guests can sing along!
7. Christmas Cookie Decorating Contest
Give every teen a plain cookie and lots of decorating supplies like icing, sprinkles, and candy bits. After decorating, have people judge the cookies and pick which is the best, or give out other awards. Best of all, everyone can eat their cookies at the end!
8. Guess the Christmas Scent
Blindfold teens and have them smell holiday scents like cinnamon, pine, peppermint, or gingerbread. They make guesses, and the player with the most correct answers wins. It’s simple but surprisingly fun.
9. Ornament Guessing Game
Fill a clear jar with mini ornaments and have teens guess how many are inside. If you don’t have mini ornaments, you can also use candy. The closest guess wins a prize.
10. Holiday Lip Sync Battle
Choose a Christmas song and have the teens and kids perform lip-sync routines. It doesn’t have to be competitive, you can just all have fun or even make your own music video out of it.
11. Holiday Charades
Write Christmas-related words and phrases such as “wrapping gifts,” “melting snowman,” or “Santa stuck in a chimney.” Teens act out the clue without speaking while their team tries to guess. The sillier the prompts, the better.
12. Christmas Pictionary
Pictionary is one of the most popular family game night games of all time! Start by creating a stack of cards with holiday items or scenes to draw. Everyone takes turns sketching on a whiteboard while their team guesses as fast as possible. It’s fast-paced, funny, and great for groups that like friendly competition.
13. Candy Cane Fishing Game
Put a pile of candy canes on a table and give each teen another candy cane turned upside down to use as a “hook.” Without using their hands, they try to fish up as many candy canes as they can.
14. Gingerbread House Building
Building gingerbread houses is a great holiday season activity. You can go buy a couple of ginger bread house kits and have everyone help out in decorating them. Additionally, you can split the group into teams and have a competition to see who builds the best gingerbread home!
15. Name That Christmas Tune
Start by splitting the group into teams. Then, play just a few seconds of a Christmas song and let teens guess the title or artist. Whichever team guesses correctly first, gets a point!
16. Indoor Snowball Toss
Use ping-pong balls or soft white “snowballs” and set up buckets with different point values. Have guests take turns throwing the “snowballs” into the targets and whoever makes the most wins. You can make it harder by setting buckets farther away as the game goes on.
17. Christmas Would You Rather?
Ask funny or thought-provoking holiday questions like “Would you rather only listen to Christmas music for a year or never again?” This creates a ton of laughter as people try to explain their answers.
18. Christmas Costume Contest
Encourage guests to show up dressed as elves, reindeer, snowmen, or their favorite Christmas movie characters. Give out awards like Most Creative, Best DIY Costume, and Funniest Look. This works great for group photos too.
19. Christmas Bingo
Give each teen a bingo card filled with Christmas objects or movie characters. You call out items, and they mark their cards. Add prizes to make it more exciting and encourage teens to play multiple rounds.
20. Hot Cocoa Bar
Set up a table with hot chocolate, whipped cream, sprinkles, marshmallows, peppermint sticks, and candy toppings. Teens and kids build their own perfect cup of cocoa. You might want to get an adult to help with the serving of the hot cocoa to avoid spills.
21. Christmas Photo Booth
Create a festive backdrop with holiday decorations and set out props like Santa hats, elf ears, big bows, and fake snow. You can set up an iPad on a tripod to take pictures. You can later send the pictures to everyone, or print them out on the spot.
22. Holiday Saran Wrap Ball Game
Make a giant ball by wrapping small prizes and candy in layers of plastic wrap. Have people take turns trying to unwrap it while the next person rolls dice to stop the round. It’s a mix of luck with the dice, but also quick unwrapping skills.
23. Christmas Gift Wrap Relay
Teams race to wrap a box as neatly and quickly as possible. Each teammate has a different job: wrapping, taping, ribbon tying, and tagging. The fastest team wins! You can also play with multiple rounds and different shape boxes.
24. Minute-to-Win-It Christmas Challenges
Minute to win it games are great for parties because they’re fast-paced and fun in groups. To play, set up quick 60-second challenges like stacking marshmallows, tossing ornaments into buckets, or balancing a candy cane on your nose. Teens compete in rounds to see who can complete the most challenges successfully.
25. Decorate the Tree Relay
Assign teams a mini tree and a box of ornaments. After the timer starts, they rush to decorate as quickly as possible. When time is up, whoever got the most decorations up on the tree wins.