15 Christmas Games for Kids and Families (At Home, Parties and Classrooms)

Quick guide: which game for which group?

Game	Best ages	Players	Prep
Christmas bingo	4+	2–24	Print boards, use buttons or cereal as markers
Charades	5+	4+	Write prompts on slips
Who Am I? headbands	5+	2+	Cards and sticky notes
Indoor scavenger hunt	3+	1+	A checklist
Word scramble / word search	6+	1+	Print pages
Christmas trivia	8+ and adults	2+ (teams)	Question list

Games for little ones (ages 3–6)

1. Picture bingo. A grown-up calls out pictures (tree, bell, snowman) and kids cover them. Use large markers such as paper squares; for under-3s, skip small cereal or buttons.
2. Indoor scavenger hunt. Find something green, something soft, something that jingles, a star, a sock. Kids check them off or bring them to a basket.
3. Freeze dance. Play a holiday song and pause it; everyone freezes like a snowman.
4. Pin the nose on the snowman. Draw a big snowman and use a paper “carrot” with tape. A blindfold is optional; many little ones prefer closing their eyes.
5. Reindeer, reindeer, Santa. The holiday version of duck, duck, goose, played sitting in a circle.

Games for school-age kids (ages 6–10)

6. Christmas charades. Act out “building a snowman,” “ice skating” or “a penguin waddling” with no talking.
7. Who Am I? Each player wears a card on their forehead (Santa, a reindeer, a snowman) and asks yes/no questions to guess it.
8. Emoji pictionary. Put two pictures together to guess a word: snow + ball = snowball.
9. Word scramble. Unscramble easy words (RTSA = STAR) and harder ones for older kids.
10. Would you rather? “Would you rather build a snowman or have a snowball fight?” Great for car rides and waiting at the table.
11. Fill-in Christmas story. Collect silly words first, then read the story aloud with them. Expect giggles.

Games for the whole family, including teens and adults

12. Christmas trivia in teams. Pair a child with an adult so everyone can play. Multiple-choice questions keep it fair for kids.
13. Holiday lights walk. Take a walk or drive with a checklist: a house with blue lights, an inflatable snowman, a wreath, a star on top.
14. Christmas word search race. Two teams, same puzzle; first team to find all the words wins.
15. Bingo with a prize table. Wrap a few small prizes (a candy cane, a pencil) and let each winner pick one.

Tips for a smooth game night

• Short rounds. Ten minutes per game keeps younger players engaged. Rotate games rather than playing one for an hour.
• Team up ages. A 9-year-old reading for a 5-year-old makes trivia and word games work for everyone.
• Cardstock for cards. Print card games on cardstock so they last for next year.
• Have answer keys handy for trivia, word searches and scrambles, so grown-ups can settle disputes quickly.
• Classroom parties: bingo is ideal for a whole class because everyone plays at once. Have different boards so not everyone wins at the same time.

Our printable Christmas games bundle

Our Family Christmas Games Bundle (61 pages) has 10 games for 2–24 players, from age 4 (picture games) to grown-ups (trivia): Christmas Bingo with 24 different boards and 30 calling cards, Emoji Pictionary (24 puzzles), Who Am I? (32 cards), a two-level Word Scramble, 40 multiple-choice trivia questions, 40 Would You Rather cards, an indoor scavenger hunt and holiday lights walk, 30 charades cards, two word searches and a fill-in Christmas story. Answer keys are included. The free sample below has the scavenger hunt and the lights walk checklist.