Ho-Ho-Ho and Merry Christmas! 'Tis the season to have a party and play some festive Christmas party games.
Christmas Party Games
By: Sharon Mehl and Alecia Dixon
Decorations are easy when you have the children make snowflakes (no two are alike, just as each child is unique and special) and hang them from the ceiling.
Candy Cane Pass (relay race)
Supplies:
4 candy canes per team (have a few extras due to breakage)
How To Play: Player holds 4 candy canes between fingers and passes them down the line, teammate to teammate, without dropping.
Pass the Ornament
Supplies:
Straw for each child
Ornaments cut out of tissue paper (tree, bell, star, etc.)
How To Play: Pass the ornaments down the line, teammate to teammate, by inhaling and exhaling on the straw to hang on to or release the ornament. No hands!
Rudolph Dash
Supplies:
Vaseline
Cut circles out of red construction paper
How To Play: Have child put Vaseline on their nose and then put the red circles on their nose. Relay race to the finish with each new person adding their red nose. If nose falls, go back to bowl and add more Vaseline and reapply nose.
Santa Says
How To Play: Played similar to Simon Says. The player up is "Santa". Player will say "Santa says hop on one foot". The children will hop on one foot. Player will say "Stop". The children are to keep hopping on one foot until player says "Santa says stop". Repeat for additional activities such as take one baby step forward, step backwards, turn around, sit down. Sometimes Santa will say "Santa says" and sometimes he won't. It's a fun game to play with young children.
Book Exchange
Supplies:
Inexpensive book gift wrapped for each child
Book- The Gingerbread Man
How To Play: Children set in a circle, each one holding a wrapped book. A Room Mother reads The Gingerbread Man story. Every time the word "ran" is spoken you pass the book to the person on your right. Continue doing until the story is over. Whoever has the book on their lap at the end of the story is theirs to keep and open.
Fill the Christmas Stocking
Supplies:
Stocking, spoon and bowl for each team.
Wrapped candy.
How To Play: Divide into teams. Have children line up at one end of the room. At the other end, hang a Christmas stocking for each team. Place a bowl of candy and a spoon in front of each team. Each child takes a turn taking a candy from the bowl with the spoon. They then carry the candy on the spoon to the stocking and drop the candy in the stocking. Race back to the next person in line, give them the spoon. First team to fill the stocking wins!
Santa Santa
Supplies:
Santa sleigh
How To Play: Have children sit in a large circle and blindfold one child. Another child will be given the sleigh and must say:
Santa Santa, where's your sleigh
Someone's come and taken it away
Guess who Guess who?
The blindfolded child gets three guesses. The child who has the sleigh is next to be blindfolded.
Christmas Memory Game
Supplies:
18 items in box
How To Play: Show the items in the box to the children. Remove one or more items out of the box (without children seeing you). Have the children guess what items are missing. For older children put items on large tray or cookie sheet. Cover. Remove cover for 20-30 seconds and then remove tray from room. On your mark, the children are to write down as many items that they can remember from the tray before you yell, "STOP". Most correct answers wins.
Gift Unwrap Relay
Supplies:
Empty boxes wrapped in Christmas wrapping paper
How To Play: Divide the class into teams. Put a stack of presents at the end of each team's course. The first child in each team runs to the presents, unwraps one, and races back to the next person in line. First team finished unwrapping wins! Note: To make cleaning a little easier, parents may wish to adapt this game to where the child unwraps, throws away the paper, then runs back!
Word Find
Take a Christmas related word such as: Christmas, Poinsettia, Candy cane, etc. and find as many smaller words from it as possible before the timer runs out.
Example: Christmas
Words: sit, is, his, miss, rat, tar, this, math, chair, rim...
Example: Candy cane
Words: candy, cane, and, dance, day, nay, can, dye, an, any...
Christmas Twenty Questions
Teacher starts by choosing a Christmas related person, place, or thing. The teacher says, "I'm thinking of something". The children try to guess what it is by asking no more than twenty questions that can be answered "YES", "NO", or I DON'T KNOW". The student who guesses correctly is next up.
Clue
Teacher thinks of person, place, or thing. Teacher gives a clue. Begin at one end of the room and work your way around allowing each student to take a turn guessing until one student solves the case. The student who solves the case goes next.
Example: Frosty
Clue: I'm thinking of someone who wears a hat
Clue: He loves snow
Clue: He'll melt if it gets too warm outside
Clues should be age appropriate for the children playing.
Freeze
Supplies:
Christmas music
How To Play: Begin playing music. Everyone moves and dances until the music stops then they must "freeze" in whatever position they happen to be in.
Littlest Angel or Good Elf
How To Play: Challenge the children to do random acts of kindness for others for one day. Tell them that they are not to reveal that they have done these nice things and if someone should ask them, "did you make sisters bed"? they can reply, "Must have been a good elf".
This game helps children realize we don't always have to be recognized when we do something for someone else. If playing with preschoolers or kindergarteners, you may want to send a note home with them explaining how parents can help.
Feliz Navidad Party Ideas
Craft Activity/Supplies:
Write Feliz Navidad on miniature sombreros with green paint pens.
Make tiny chile peppers to hang on them for memento shelf.
Food and Decor: Cactus juice- Any green punch
Nachos- Chips & salsa
Layered Mexican dip
Flour tortillas rolled with cream cheese & salsa
Sapodillas (bought from local Mexican restaurant)
Burritos cut in half
Mexican blanket for tablecloth
Pinata for decoration
Lots of balloons
Tissue flowers
Poinsettias big holiday flower in Mexico
Three-Legged Stocking Race
Supplies:
Oversized stocking that will fit two feet
Tie
Tape to mark finish line
How To Play: Pair up kids. Have each pair put a leg in the oversized stocking and tie it at top so that it won't fall off. Make sure you have plenty of space. Put all the pairs at one end and mark a finish line at the other. On your mark the kids race to be the first pair over the line.
Pin The Nose On Frosty or Rudolph
Supplies:
Big Picture of Frosty or Rudolph
Red circle or orange carrot shape for each child, with adhesive on back and their name on the front
A blindfold
How To Play: Blindfold the player, spin 'em around and let them try to stick the nose where it's supposed to go. Give a prize for the player that gets the closest.
Christmas Scramble
Supplies:
Index cards
Paper bags.
How To Play: Choose a Christmas word such as: Christmas, Candy Cane, Santa Claus, Reindeer.... Write the letters of the word on individual index cards. Do this two times, making two sets. Put each set in a brown paper bag.
Divide children into teams. Give each team a bag. The first team to decipher what the word in the bag is wins. A variation of the game would be to divide into teams with the same number of children as there are letters in the word. Each child gets a letter and they must hold onto the card and stand in the proper order to spell the word for all to see.
Frosty Snowball Toss
Supplies:
Large cardboard with Frosty drawn on one side with a good size hole cut-out in belly or a few small holes for older kids
Marshmallows wrapped in plastic wrap and tied
Bucket to hold snowballs
Tape to mark distance line
How To Play: Place cardboard Frosty a little distance from a wall with a paper box lid on floor to catch snowballs. Mark your distance line according to age and skill of children. Line children up behind the line and place a bucket of marshmallows beside them. Give each child three tries to get their marshmallow snowball through the hole. Get all three snowballs in and earn a snowball reward.
Christmas Concentration
Supplies:
Colored butcher paper
Marker
Adhesive
Christmas trivia questions
Stocking
How To Play: On a large piece of colored butcher paper write out a message using words and symbols. Example: Have "ewe"rself a very "Mary" "Christ"mas ("pictures"). Cut into several odd shapes, turn over so words face the chalkboard.
In a stocking have Christmas trivia questions. Pull out a question. Read. Player that answers correctly may turn any piece of the puzzle over. First player or team to guess what's written wins. Guess incorrectly, lose a turn. Play over and over; it's lots of fun!
Blind Snowman Game
Supplies:
8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper
Pencil.
How To Play: Give everyone a piece of paper and a pencil. Explain to them that they will close their eyes and you will tell them what to draw. DON'T tell them they're drawing a snowman!
Draw 3 circles on top of each other. Each circle gets smaller from bottom to top. In the middle circle draw three buttons going vertically down the center. In the top circle draw two eyes, a carrot nose, and a mouth. Draw a hat on top of the smallest circle. Draw stick arms on both sides of the middle circle. Draw a broom in one stick hand. Open your eyes!
If playing with older children you might want to devise a point system, such as: 5 points for each circle that touches the other. Points for the hat touching the head, the eyes being in the top circle, etc.
Tongue Twisters
Supplies:
Silly Christmas Phrases
How To Play: Say each phrase three times as fast as you can. Let kids practice on their own or take volunteers to come up and try their best for all to hear. A candy can prize for anyone who tries.
Chocolate cocoa cravings cure colds
Santa sings shining star songs
Sally skis super slow
Big bright bells banish boredom
Grumpy Grinch goes grizzly gus
Pretty packages perfectly packed
Tip-top tiny tot toys
Sally's striped stocking's stuffed slightly
Santa's super souped sleigh swiftly slides sideways
Cheery cute caroling Christmas critters
Candy cane cookies keep kids coming
Snowball Dance
How to Play: Middle School dance or higher. All the girls stand on one side, the boys on the other. One girl and one boy are chosen to dance for a minute (or two), a signal is given and the girl and the boy choose new partners. This continues until everyone is dancing.
