Wreaths & Centerpieces

Christmas Party Games for Adults

Ah, the search for the ultimate Christmas Party idea is on! Don't stress so much about figuring out the perfect Christmas party activity, because unless you are hosting a Snowball Fight or Igloo/Snow Figurine building contest, your guests will not be expecting "games" of touch football or physically demanding obstacle courses to run when they attend a Christmas party! Playing a game of Charades or running a whimsical relay may be as physical and complicated as Christmas party games get! That doesn't mean the games can't be great fun…and meaningful. Award lots of small prizes, as this is your chance to treat friends and loved ones to a fantastic Christmas party! Some of these Christmas Party Games are also fun ideas for office Christmas Party games as well.

THE COMMUNICATION CRAZE GAME - You will need 3 or 4 pairs of contestants to play this game. The rest of the guests will have a blast just watching the people desperately try to communicate with each other! One pair of contestants will compete at a time. The pair sits with their backs to each other, each person holding a Christmas tray on his lap. One person's tray contains 15 or 20 objects that have been arranged in a certain way. The other person's tray contains the same objects just piled in a heap in the middle of the tray. You can use any small Christmas related objects for this game, just as long as you have 2 of everything. Examples included ornaments, napkins, nativity characters, gift tags, and a string of lights. Once you have 2 of everything, arrange the items in a complicated way - circle the string of lights under one item and over the other. Of course, if you plan to have 4 pairs playing this game you will need to make up different trays for each group! The person with the prearranged objects has to describe the arrangement in such a way that his partner can duplicate it exactly on his own tray. When they feel they are done, they can face the guests! Nobody ever cares who wins, the fun is in watching them try!

EYE WITNESS YOU - Divide into two teams. The first team members leave the room and must switch various items of clothing or accessories with one another, then return to the game room. The object is for the other team's members to try to guess all of the switches that have been made. Add up how many items they guessed correctly. Then let the other team have a turn to switch and let the first team eye-witness what's different. The team with the most correct answers in 5 minutes wins!

PRESENT GAME - Materials:
     1 Pair of Gloves
     1 Elf Hat 
     1 Die (perhaps two dice if group is large)
     A Prize wrapped in several layers of newspaper and boxes.
The group stands in a circle. The gloves, hat, and wrapped box are placed in the center. Someone begins by rolling the dice. If they roll a 6, they hurry into the middle and put on the gloves and hat. They then start to unwrap the package. They must move fast because the next person to roll a 6 takes the hat off of the person in the center. The person in the center stops immediately and takes off the gloves, gives them to that person, and he/she goes back to the circle. The game continues like this until the package is completely unwrapped and the last person receives their prize. It's really noisy and incredibly fun!

BLOWING OUT THE CHRISTMAS CANDLE is a good old Christmas game that is amusing. A lighted Taper Candle is placed upon a table or chair and each player is, in turn, blindfolded and placed standing with his back to the candle, about two feet away. He is then told to take three steps forward, turn round three times, take four steps towards the candle and then blow it out. In the majority of cases, the blindfolded player will lose all idea of distance and position, and when he blows will be in quite another part of the room from that in which the candle stands. Of course, it is wise to have a player or two standing by the side of the candle to prevent any blindfolded person from getting too near.

SMELLS OF THE SEASON- Fill jars with items that relate to Christmas, like gingerbread, xmas tree twiglet, cinnamon or eggnog, blindfold participants and then see who can identify what's in the jar based on the smell

MUSICAL CHAIRS - play musical chairs using your favorite Christmas tunes!

FIND YOUR PARTNER GAME - Before the party, take Garland and cut it into pieces of various lengths. Be sure that you have two of every length! When the guests arrive, their objective is to find the other person at the party that has the same length piece of garland. When it comes time for a gift exchange, the pairs give their gifts to each other! This game can be played with candy canes and cookies too!

HO, HO, HOLD YOUR TONGUE! – Give each player a bag or stocking with 10 small treasures in it (candy, chocolates, little fun favors). Have bags labeled with players' names, so they don't get mixed up. Let players know at the start of the game exactly when the game will be ending—this game can be played throughout an entire party if you so choose. The object of the game is to catch fellow players saying one of the following words or phrases:

SANTA, REINDEER, SNOW, CHRISTMAS, ORNAMENT, PRESENTS

To help players, post the words prominently on a board where they can be seen often. If someone is caught saying one of the words on the list, that person has to give up a treasure from their stash. The player with the biggest haul of goodies at the end of the game is the winner! This game is always a big hit.

TRIVIA & QUIZ GAMES--GREAT FOR HOME OR OFFICE PARTIES

CHRISTMAS BINGO-Make up Bingo cards before the guests arrive. Draw a grid, then fill in with things related to Christmas, mixing them up for each card. For example:
• "Never finishes shopping before Christmas Eve ."
• "Has a good chance to end up with some coal in that stocking ."
• "Hates eggnog."
• "Only pretended she/he couldn't find mother in-law's ornaments for the tree trimming."
• "Knows what he (or she) is getting for Christmas."
• "Returns at least one gift every Christmas."
• "Ate too much at the office party."
• "Bought a new outfit for tonight's party "
• "Has stepped foot in an actual manger ."
• "Knows the ingredients for figgy pudding."
• "Would be willing to sing 4 bars of a Christmas carol right now in front of this group." (then make them prove it!)

Etc. Using construction paper, colored carboards or notecards, design cards to match up with the items on the grid. Hand out the cards to your guests, along with a handful of small Christmas candies. Pick a card from the pile and read the statement on the card. If anyone can answer "yes" to the comment, they get to put a candy in the square. The first person to connect five in a row wins a prize.

CHARADES – Using the same categories as the trivia games, play charades in a specified category, using people, places and things from the entire century. As an alternative, make a list of historically significant events, and play charades to try to recreate images of the grand, silly, and world shaping events of history. For a more lighthearted game, use a Holiday related theme. Use titles of Christmas songs, Christmas movies (cartoon or real!), or Christmas traditions that everyone would be familiar with. A few ideas to get you started…"Chestnuts roasting on a open fire", "The Grinch who stole Christmas", "Miracle on 34th Street", "Jack Frost nipping at your nose", "Frosty the Snowman", "Turkey with all the trimmings", etc. A winner every time!

NAME GAME – Provide each guest with 5 small pieces of paper, and a pencil. Ask them to write down the names of 5 famous people from history…leaders, movie stars, authors, sports figures, politicians, artists, inventors, scientists, etc. Fold the papers, and put them into a hat. Seat guests in a large circle. Each round is limited to 30 seconds, so have a watch with a second hand available. The first player pulls out a name, and tries to get the person beside them to guess the name. After the name is guessed, the clue giver can continue pulling names out of the hat for the full 30 seconds. Here are the rules: They can talk, but can't point to items. They can't spell out the name, but can say the letter the name starts with. They can reference just about anything, but the person's name. As an example, if the name is "Sammy Sosa", the clue giver might say…"The guy who had almost as many homeruns as Mark McGuire in the 1998 baseball season." "He plays for the Chicago Cubs", etc. Both the clue "giver" and the clue "guesser" get points for as many names as they guess in the 30-second time frame. Have each participant track his/her own points. The turn then passes to the guesser, who now becomes the clue giver, and his/her neighbor becomes the new guesser. This game is a blast to play, and really is not as difficult as these instructions would make it seem! Give it a try!

JINGLE BELL RELAY – Before the party you will need to purchase some Jingle Bells. Divide your group into two teams. Players race around a specific course with a heaping pile of jingling bells (at least 15), before handing them off to a teammate. Dropped bells must be retrieved before the handoff. The first team to complete the course wins. Your guests will feel like kids again!

LIMBO – The young and the young at heart always enjoy the classic beach game of "limbo". Try using a string of twinkle lights, or a strand of sparkly garland for your limbo stick. For a fun variation on the game, make it a little more challenging by adding a Santa Stomach to guests as they take their turn. Have a couple of oversized shirts, and some fluffy pillows on hand. Get ready for some howling laughter!

BALLOON POPPING CONTEST – Divide guests into two equal groups. About 25 yards away place two bags of inflated balloons. These balloons should be overinflated to make popping easier. At the sound of a ringing bell, the first two relay contestants, one from each team, run to the bag, and remove one balloon. Each must sit on it until it pops. Once the balloon pops, the players run back to the starting line, and tag the next player in line. The first team to complete the course wins. Not a quiet game…but a guaranteed favorite!

"HULA" HOOPLA – Purchase or borrow a couple of hula-hoops. Let guests know that at a specified time there will be a "hula" contest or hula-hoop games, and encourage them to practice if the mood strikes. Then after the guests have gone, you can use the hula hoops yourself to work those ab muscles like crazy. You can lose an inch off your waist with just minutes of hoop action a day--it's awesome!!!

PINATA FUN– Our piñatas can do double duty—They'll hang as decorations until you are ready to use them. A universal favorite!

NAME THAT TUNE – You'll need a CD player and some compact discs with compilations of Christmas songs. Play the first few bars, and see which guest can name that tune the fastest. Keep track of points and award the winner a Christmas music CD. If your group is large, play a variation on this game. Using famous Christmas and holiday songs, list song titles on one side of a page, and the original Artists or songwriters on the other side. Make enough copies for all guests. Challenge guests to match as many as possible. A challenging but fun adventure!

CHRISTMAS TREASURE HUNT- Divide guests into teams or couples, and give them a list of Christmas-related items to locate, either in the house or around the neighborhood. Include items like: a candle, a religious Christmas card, some mistletoe, a Christmas cookie, a broken ornament, a burned-out tree light, a Christmas stamp, some tinsel, and a few pine needles.

Or if you want to keep everyone in one room, make this into CHRISTMAS CONCENTRATION instead.

Gather these types of items yourself onto a large tray. (the more items you can fit on the tray, the better!) Hand out pencil and paper to your guests. Then give your guests 1 minute to look at everything on the tray. then take the tray out of view. Next, have your guests write down every item they remember seeing on the tray. The person who can remember the most items wins a prize.

GIFT GIVING GAMES: BEYOND THE SECRET SANTA

great ideas for office parties!

PUT THE GIFT UNDER THE TREE! – Wrap two boxes to look like beautiful gifts (approximately shoe box size). Divide guests into two teams and have them form two lines. At the signal to "go", the gift is to be passed from person to person. The catch is that they can use any part of their bodies except their hands. If the gift touches the ground at any time, it must go back to the beginning of the line again. Whichever team manages to get the gift to the end of the line first wins the game. You may want to fill each box with little prizes or candy (enough for all), so that both teams can open the gift and be rewarded for their efforts. We have several very inexpensive prizes in our Christmas Store.

GIFT-GIVING GAME - Great for Christmas Parties and Exchanges! Everyone brings a gift to the party, this is fun for gift exchanges during the holidays. TO BEGIN: Everyone stands in a circle holding the gift he/she brought to the party. Someone reads the story, every time the word RIGHT is read, everybody passes his gift to the right. Every time the word LEFT is read, gifts are passed to the left. The gift that each person is holding at the end of the story is the gift he keeps.

Story Example:
The Right Family Christmas Story Christmas was almost here and Mother RIGHT was finishing the Christmas baking. Father RIGHT, Susie RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT returned from their last minute Christmas errands. "There's not much LEFT to be done," said Father RIGHT as he came into the kitchen. "Did you leave the basket of food at Church?" asked Mother RIGHT? "I LEFT it RIGHT where you told me to," said Billy RIGHT." "I don't have any money LEFT." The hall telephone rang, and Susie RIGHT LEFT to answer it. She rushed back and told the family, "Aunt Tillie RIGHT LEFT a package for us RIGHT on Grandma RIGHT's porch. I'll go over there RIGHT now and get it," she said as she LEFT in a rush. Father RIGHT LEFT the kitchen and brought in the Christmas Tree. By the time Susie RIGHT returned, Mother RIGHT, Father RIGHT, and Billy RIGHT had begun trimming the tree. The entire RIGHT family sang carols as they finished the decorating. Then they LEFT all the presents arranged under the tree and went to bed, hoping they had selected the RIGHT gifts for their family. Now I hope you have the RIGHT present for yourself, because that's all that's LEFT of our story, except to wish you a Merry Christmas, isn't that RIGHT?

WHITE ELEPHANT-CHINESE GIFT EXCHANGE (well, no real elephants or Chinese anything involved, but you'll get the drift--read on...)

Ask your guests to bring an inexpensive wrapped gift (appropriate for both a man or woman, and preferably with a set limit on allowed cost), with no gift tag on it. Have the guests draw numbers and choose a gift in numerical order. For added fun, let the next player have the choice of choosing a new gift, or stealing a gift from someone who has already opened it. For even more fun, make this a White Elephant gift exchange where everyone brings a wrapped present that is humorously tacky. Good for many laughs! Confused about how this works? Click here for the complete rules.