The 10 Games of Christmas

The 10 Games of Christmas

We’ve made our list and checked it twice! Here are our top 10 Christmas games to keep you entertained over the holidays. Some Christmas games are fantastic for Christmas parties and other Christmas games are just great fun to keep children entertained at home. In true Christmas spirit, make sure you have plenty of prizes for all involved!

10. Making Snowflakes

This can get quite addictive! Making snowflakes is a great way to make decorations for your walls, windows or to stick on coloured paper to make wrapping paper! Here are 6 simple steps to show you how:

1. Cut an A4 size sheet into a square by folding a corner into a triangle and cutting off the excess rectangle. You can use the leftover strip to make smaller snowflakes.
2. Fold the triangle in half to make a smaller triangle.
3. Keep the ‘open’ end of the triangle to the left and the main fold on your right. Then visually divide the triangle into thirds. Fold the right-hand side down so the bottom right corner is poking down below the bottom of the triangle.
4. Fold the left hand side over on top of the other side so it resembles an arrow head.
5. Turn over to reveal a straight line across the top of the smaller triangles. Cut along this line to even it off.
6. Cut shapes into both sides of the triangle and unfold to reveal your shape!

9. Mystery Stocking

Fill a stocking or sock with some small mystery items – preferably ones that the children can keep afterwards such as crayons, toy cars or sweets etc. Pass the stocking around the circle letting the children shake it, smell it and feel it to guess what it is. If they guess it then they can keep it!

8. Christmas ABC’s

Give each child a piece of paper with the alphabet written vertically from A to Z. They must come up with a word associated with Christmas for each letter. If you have a few children then you may want to set the children up to work in teams. The first team to complete their list wins a prize. Some of the words they come up with may seem like a bit of a stretch, but that just adds to the fun!

7. Santa Doesn’t Say

Get a collection of Santa hats and on each one pin the name of a Christmas Character to the top of each hat i.e. Santa, Rudolph, The Grinch, Snowman etc. Get the children to walk around the room and ask each other questions to try to work out who their character is. Prizes for those that guess first!

6. Style a Santa Claus

For this game you need lots of material, masking tape, cotton balls, streamers… anything creative you can think of! Put the children into two groups and give them 10 minutes to use all the materials to dress up a member of their team as Santa Claus. You can then get the two Santas to “Walk the runway” to decide which one looks most impressive. This game can be tailored depending on what spare materials you have, i.e. style a Snowman, a Christmas tree, etc.

5. Finish the Christmas lyrics

Put the children into two teams. Have a Christmas playlist already set up on your chosen device and press play to let the children hear the start of the song. They then have to either guess the Christmas song or the lyrics that follow so make sure you stop the music before you give it away!

4. Gift Unwrap Relay

You will need plenty of boxes and Christmas wrapping paper! Place some Christmas treats into one box (enough for all the children playing) and wrap the box. Place that box into another box and wrap that one. Continue until you run out of boxes or if you have a box shortage just use different wrapping paper for each layer around one box. Play Christmas music and let the children pass the present around and open a layer every time the music stops.

Top 3 Jigsaw Christmas Games

Our last three Christmas games are chosen from some of our favourite drama exercises and have been given a festive spin! If you’ve worked hard all term at Jigsaw then you may expect to play one of these in drama as a treat on the last day of term!

3. Christmas Corners

Name the four corners of the room after something festive such as Tinsel, Robin, Snow or Christmas pudding. Choose one child to stand in the middle of the room and close their eyes whilst counting from 10 down to 0. On 0 all of the children should have chosen a corner to run to and the person in the centre shouts out the name of one of the four corners. If your corner is chosen then you’re out! Keep going until one lucky child is still in the game!

2. Pass the Present

The children should all sit in a circle and in turn one child passes an ‘invisible present’ to someone else in the circle. That person uses their imagination to ‘open’ the present, decide what it is and mime the present to the other children in the circle. They can use sound effects to help demonstrate what the present is and the first child to guess is the winner and gets to receive the next ‘invisible’ present. Keep going around the circle encouraging the children to use their imaginations!

1. Santa, Santa, Snowman

This game is usually known as “Duck Duck Goose” and is quite the favourite among most young children! Get the children sitting in a huge circle and make sure they’re quite spread out. Choose one child to stand up (We shall call this child the ‘leader’) and walk around the circle whilst tapping each child on the head and saying the word “Santa”. However, at some point the child will tap someone on the head and say the word “Snowman” instead of “Santa” and that child should stand up and chase the leader around the circle. The leader has to run back to their position in the children without being caught and then the person chasing becomes the leader. This game is a lot of fun and requires a lot of energy!

Jigsaw Performing Arts is dedicated to developing performance skills, promoting self-expression and building confidence. We offer performing arts classes for children aged between 3 – 18. Find your nearest school by entering your postcode into the search on our home page.