Festive Family Fun: My Ultimate Christmas Games & Movie Night

🕒 Reading Time: 14 minutes

If you’re looking for Christmas games night ideas to make the run up to Christmas feel a bit more exciting, this is exactly what I planned for my friends and their children. What started as a festive evening at home turned into one of those nights that felt like a Christmas film in real life. There was laughter, plenty of noise, a bit of chaos, and a few faces absolutely covered in whipped cream.

I planned the evening for my two friends, Tasha and Jess, and their children, Thea, Bella, Noah and Tommy. To keep everyone excited, and to avoid being asked what was happening next every five minutes, I sent out a proper itinerary in advance.

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Our Christmas Games Night Itinerary

Here’s what we had planned for the night:

• Five rounds of games: Snowstorm Showdown, Antler Antics, Gift Grab, C is for Christmas, and Santa’s Smarty Pants
• Secret Santa
• Decorate your own yule log
• Christmas movie night
• Jingle Jams karaoke

I also made both a printable poster and a digital version of the itinerary, which really helped the night feel organised from the start.

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Round 1: Snowstorm Showdown

We kicked things off with a burst of energy and three snowball themed games.

Snowball Scoop

This was basically an egg and spoon race with a festive twist. Each team had a bucket of “snowballs” and had to move as many as possible into another bucket using only a spoon, and I used cotton balls, but ping pong balls or scrunched up paper work just as well. I set a timer for 60 seconds, and every snowball in the bucket at the end scored a point.

The kids dashed back and forth with their spoons wobbling everywhere, and the adults quickly got far too invested. There was a lot of shouting every time someone dropped a snowball halfway across the room. Thea was especially determined, and when Jess shouted, “I thought you’d be better at this!”, Thea shot straight back with, “So did I!” That one still makes me laugh.

Because we had a mix of ages, I made a few little tweaks as we went. The younger children used tablespoons, while the older ones had teaspoons, which made it feel fairer without making a big thing of it.

Snowball Smash

For this one, I stacked 20 red plastic cups into a pyramid and gave each player three snowballs to throw. The aim was to knock down as many cups as possible, but only the cups that landed on their side or upside down counted. Everyone had a practice throw first so I could set the right distance for their age.

The kids loved rebuilding the tower almost as much as knocking it down. I had to keep reminding them to stack it the same way every time. Tasha and Jess ended up being surprisingly good at this one and nearly wiped the whole tower out in one shot. At one point it turned into a full on snowball fight, which felt inevitable really. One of the snowballs even had a suspicious tomato stain on it thanks to Noah.

Lost in the Snow

This one was just for the kids, and it was one of the funniest games of the night. I put four white toffee bon bons onto a saucer for each child, then covered them with a huge pile of whipped cream. The challenge was to find all their “snowballs” using only their mouths, with their hands tied behind their backs.

Tommy wasn’t too sure about getting messy at first, but Noah went fully into it and practically licked his plate clean. Thea was the fastest by far and found all of hers in seconds. If you ever try this one, take photos. Cream covered faces are half the fun.

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Round 2: Antler Antics

The second round was all about reindeer games.

Reindeer Dash

I printed and cut out pairs of reindeer pictures, one for each of Santa’s reindeer, but with only one Rudolph. Then I hid them all around the house. Some were obvious, while others were tucked into places like slippers, the Christmas tree and the spoon drawer. The aim was to find as many as possible, with one point for each reindeer.

The kids absolutely loved this. They ran around the house searching everywhere, and Bella ended up finding the winning reindeer hidden behind a picture frame. She was so proud of herself.

Antler Antics

Each team got a pair of tights and a pile of balloons. They had to blow up the balloons and stuff them into the legs of the tights to make antlers. Once the antlers were done, the chosen “reindeer” had to put them on and do a silly dance. Fastest team to finish and perform won.

This was complete madness in the best way. Balloons were pinging across the room, people were laughing too much to blow them up properly, and the finished antlers looked ridiculous. The reindeer dances were probably the highlight of the whole round.

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Round 3: Gift Grab

By this point everyone was fully in the mood, so we moved on to games that tested their brains and their sense of touch.

Mystery Stocking

I filled a Christmas stocking with ten random objects in different shapes and textures, things like a hairbrush, sponge, toy car, spoon, pop-it and soft doll. One team member was blindfolded and had to reach in, feel each item and describe it without saying what it was. The rest of their team sat back to back with them and tried to guess. If the person describing accidentally said the item name, that one was forfeited. I gave each team three minutes, and they scored one point for each correct answer.

The older girls, Thea and Bella, were best at this because they were less likely to blurt the answer out by accident. Some of the descriptions were brilliant. Bella describing a soft doll as “tall” had everyone in hysterics. To keep it fair, I made two separate bags with different items in each and labelled them A and B, then the teams played rock, paper, scissors to choose.

Sorting Santa’s Sack

For this game, I filled a sack with baubles and tree decorations in four colours: blue, silver, gold and red. The aim was to sort them into neat colour groups as quickly as possible. Any item in the wrong pile added a five second penalty.

Jess absolutely flew through this one, even with a sneaky silver bauble mixed in with the blue ones. After that, everyone else became a lot more careful.

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Round 4: C is for Christmas

This round was based around three silly challenges that all started with the letter C.

Christmas Candle

I set up a row of tealight candles and each player had to try to blow out as many as possible just by saying “Merry Christmas!” They weren’t allowed to blow normally, only use the force of their voice. Each candle blown out scored a point.

This was much harder than it sounded. Noah tried to cheat immediately by actually blowing, so I had to tighten the rules before we’d even properly started. Tasha’s turn was easily the funniest. She held onto her elf ears, leaned in dramatically and whispered “Merry… Christ… massss” in a way that had everyone in stitches. Bella didn’t manage to blow any out, but she gave it a proper go. This was the only one I had a go of and I only managed two.

Candy Cane Catch

Each player put a candy cane in their mouth with the hook sticking upwards. They then had to hook as many other candy canes as possible from a pile and drop them into a bowl without using their hands. I set the timer for two minutes and gave one point for each candy cane caught.

This was far trickier than it sounds. I laid the candy canes out on the floor, although in hindsight a table might have worked better. At one point all you could see was a row of heads bobbing up and down. Nobody managed the mini candy canes at all, but it was funny watching them try.

Cups

For the final game in this round, players had to stack plastic cups using only candy canes, no hands allowed. They had to hook the cup rims and build a tower as quickly as possible.

I reused the same cups and candy canes from the previous game, which made it easy to set up and kept the pace moving. It was quick, silly and surprisingly competitive.

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Round 5: Santa’s Smarty Pants

For the final round, I switched things up with two quiz style games.

Wrong ‘Uns

This was probably my personal favourite. I asked quick fire festive questions like “What colour is Santa’s suit?” or “What do you open on the 1st of December?”, and players had to answer with as many wrong but sensible answers as possible in 60 seconds. No repeats, and definitely no correct answers. One point was given for each wrong answer.

The children’s answers very quickly descended into anything involving “poop” or “bum”, which was entirely predictable. I’ve actually made a printable sheet with 150 festive questions for this game because it was such a hit.

Christmas Movie Quiz

This was a family Christmas quiz with four rounds: general knowledge, emojis, anagrams and close up film covers. The close up covers were especially fun because people kept arguing over whether they knew the film or were just guessing.

One of the funniest moments was everyone debating whether The Grinch and How the Grinch Stole Christmas should count as the same answer. In the end, I allowed both.

If you’re not splitting people into surname teams like we did, letting the children choose their own team names is an easy way to make it feel more fun.

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Kids’ Secret Santa

After the games, the children were desperate to do Secret Santa. We set a £10 budget and each child secretly picked and bought something for another. Because they don’t usually shop for one another, the whole thing felt really exciting to them. They kept asking all night when it was happening, so next time I’d probably move this earlier in the evening.

One of the standout gifts was a jellybean game where you spin the wheel and have to eat whichever flavour it lands on. Some were nice. Some were absolutely not. Tommy’s face when he realised he’d just eaten a dog food jellybean was priceless. There was a lot of shrieking, laughing and very suspicious sniffing before anyone agreed to try another.

Watching them give their presents was one of my favourite parts of the night. They were so proud of what they’d chosen.

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Prizes, Costumes and Our Festive Winners

Before we handed out prizes, we had to decide on our best dressed winner.

The children had gone all out. Noah came as a red and green elf, Tommy wore a Christmas jumper and Santa hat, Bella was a plush reindeer complete with antlers and a painted red nose, and Thea wore a striped reindeer onesie. Tasha dressed as an elf, Jess put together a sort of Mario inspired Christmas look with a homemade tree headband and festive apron, and I was the ice fairy games master in fluffy pyjamas with a light-up icicle crown.

There wasn’t an obvious winner, so we used our regular Dress to Impress game to decide it. The children raided the wardrobe and created themed costumes, and Bella ended up winning with her Buddy the Elf look, then somehow impressing us all again as the doll from Squid Game. Tommy had been poorly all week but still stayed cheerful and helped everyone else, so he got the Spirit of Christmas award.

The winning team, Jess, Thea and Noah, took home a festive hamper filled with colouring books, sweets, chocolate, Christmas tree glasses, plush elves and a Santa shaped biscuit tin.

The runners up got striped gift bags labelled “Jolly Good Try!” with colouring books, lollipops, selection boxes and plush elves inside, which worked really well as children’s party prizes.

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Decorate Your Own Yule Log

If you want to break up a games heavy evening with something calmer, decorating a yule log works really well.

I set out boards wrapped in candy cane paper and baskets full of decorations including holly, pine needles, berries, mini baubles and festive picks. Everyone got stuck in and, as expected, things got a little messy. If you want the chocolate log to look more like wood, dragging a fork through the melted chocolate makes a big difference and only takes a few seconds.

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Christmas Movie Night

A cosy film always feels like the right way to end a busy evening, especially once everyone’s calmed down a bit after the games.

I set up a simple movie night area with a chalkboard sign, a wooden sleigh filled with snacks, glass milk bottles tied with gingham ribbon and red and white popcorn tubs. We watched National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, which the adults already loved and the kids enjoyed far more than I expected.

It was a simple ending, but it worked. By that point everyone was happy, tired and ready to sit still for a bit.

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Free Christmas Printables

These printables make it much easier to plan your own Christmas games night, with everything ready for you to download below.

Games & Activities

• Snowstorm Showdown: Snowball Scoop – How to Play Instructions | Snowball Scoop – What You Need Checklist | Snowball Smash – How to Play Instructions | Snowball Smash – What You Need Checklist |Lost in the Snow – How to Play Instructions | Lost in the Snow – What You Need Checklist
• Antler Antics: Reindeer Dash – How to Play Instructions | Reindeer Dash – What You Need Checklist | Reindeer Dash – Printable Reindeer Pictures | Antlers – How to Play Instructions | Antlers – What You Need Checklist
• Gift Grab: Mystery Stocking – How to Play Instructions | Mystery Stocking – What You Need Checklist | Sorting Santa’s Sack – How to Play Instructions | Sorting Santa’s Sack – What You Need Checklist
• C is for Christmas: Christmas Candle – How to Play Instructions | Christmas Candle – What You Need Checklist | Candy Cane Catch – How to Play Instructions | Candy Cane Catch – What You Need Checklist | Cups – How to Play Instructions | Cups – What You Need Checklist
• Santa’s Smarty Pants: Wrong ‘Uns – How to Play Instructions | Wrong ‘Uns Questions | Christmas Movie Quiz Questions | Christmas Movie Quiz Answers | Christmas Movie Covers

Extras

• Itinerary Poster (editable)
• Game Rounds Poster (editable)
• Score Sheet (editable)
• Prize & Gift Labels
• Decorate Your Own Yule Log Poster

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