Christmas Games and Other Fun Activities

Maybe no other single activity really embraces camaraderie, playfulness and fierce but friendly competition as heartily participating in playing indoor games with friends and family. Christmas games do all those things but also serve the purpose of bringing friends and family together to interact directly with each other in a competitive and happy way.

Participating in Christmas games is another way of sharing, but it is also doing something tangible to get into the festive, jolly and relaxed mode for the holidays. Otherwise, its easy to get caught up in all the preparation and shopping and become ridden with anxiety. Here are some holiday and Christmas games that will cause fierce but friendly competition and leave everyone in a jolly mood.

For the 'Gift Wrap' game, items needed will be small gifts, wrapping paper, scotch tape and music that can be turned on and off at will. Each gift item is wrapped in several layers of paper. The number of layers used will depend on the duration you want the game to last. A gift is given to the group which should start passing around the gift when the music starts. Whenever the music stops, whoever has the gift should start to unwrap the gift until the music starts again. Who ever unwraps the last piece of paper gets to keep the gift. When I was I child we called this game 'Pass the Parcel'.

The items needed for the 'Sock Guessing' Christmas game are two or three thick new thermal socks, items used or seen during Christmas, pens, pencils and paper.Each sock is stuffed with 20-25 items that are used or seen during the Christmas season. These can be useful items such as scotch tape, ornaments, decorations etc. Each sock should have the same items and the opening should be tied with a ribbon so the contents inside aren't visible. The socks are then passed around for each person to try to feel and guess the items then write down what they think is in the sock. The person with the most correct guesses of objects is the winner and can be awarded a separate special gift or token.

The 'Gift Grab Card Game' needs two decks of cards and a few small Christmas gifts that are wrapped to look very interesting and enticing. One deck of cards is passed out one at a time to guests. Each should have an equal number of cards from the deck. The gifts are then placed in the centre of the group. Someone then calls out cards from the second deck. Whoever has an identical card gets to choose a gift. When all the gifts are taken, everyone can steal gifts from each other until the deck is finished and those with gifts get to open and keep them as prizes. The fun increases when the stealing begins because everyone will have different ideas about which gift looks interesting and try to hang onto it by stealing it over and over if it is stolen. Some people will also try to disguise the fact they have a gift, although they should be kept in sight.

A children's Christmas game is 'Pin the Nose on the Reindeer,' which is the Christmas game version of 'Pin the tail on the Donkey.' The items needed are a drawing of a reindeer's head with an incomplete drawing of the nose and several noses with the names on one side and tape on the other. The picture should be placed against a wall so that children can reach the nose. Each child then gets a nose. They take turns being blindfolded spun around a couple times to disorient them a little then told to walk to the reindeer and place the nose on the picture. The child who places the nose closes to the reindeer's nose wins.

A delightful Christmas game for work is the 'Match the Desk to the Item' game. A day or so before the Christmas party at work, someone needs to secretly take one item from each person's desk and assign a number to each item. At the party, all the items are displayed for everyone to guess whose desk the item belongs to. The game you play is really quite unimportant, it's the fun you have that counts.