Christmas is a time of year when we all come together with family and friends to enjoy each other’s company. Whether that involves cooking together, watching films, playing board games or even hiking often comes down to a mixture of personal preference and tradition. For many, quizzes and games can be a great way to spend your Christmas holiday and enjoy your time, as they encourage everyone to get involved and compete.
Here are some popular games to enjoy during your Christmas celebration, as well as instructions on how to play. If you are looking for more details, many will be easy to find.
Who Am I?
This game is great fun to played with a large group of people. Each player has the name of a celebrity or character written on a sticker on their forehead. In order to guess who they are, they must ask questions of the other players. Everyone playing takes turns asking questions and answering until they guess correctly who their character is.
To make things more interesting you can use Christmas themed characters from films and books, rather than more general names.
Spoons
Spoons is a fast-paced card game that is fantastic for a bit of fun after a meal. Only requiring a deck of cards and some spoons, this is a great way to liven up your evening.
The game involves each person passing around the cards in their hands, taking one from the right and offering one to the left. Once anyone has four of a kind they must take a spoon (think musical chairs); the last will be left without a spoon and will lose that round.
Name that tune
A jar with many slips of paper with the names of tunes written on them is passed around the table. Each person must take it in turns to hum or whistle the tune or song without using the words. If one of the others manages to guess correctly, they take the slip of paper. The winner is the guest with the most slips at the end of the round.
To create a more festive atmosphere, using carols and Christmas songs can keep the atmosphere light. Christmas songs are mostly very recognisable, so most people should be able to guess a few correctly.
Irish Snap
Irish snap is great fun. After dealing out all the cards in the pack each person must take turns to add a card to the pile face up. If two the same are placed down everyone must slam their hand down on the pile of cards. The last to place their hands down loses that round and must pick up the cards on the table before starting again. The first to lose all their cards wins the game of snap.
Many families or groups of friends will have additional rules such as slamming your hands down on picture cards as well as pairs to make things more interesting. If you want to add a new spin on the game, come up with a new rule of your own.
Charades
Charades is a classic Christmas game that is often played in teams. A team member from each team must take a slip of paper from the jar and act out whatever is written on the slip, with topics as wide-ranging as mopping, Spiderman and London coming up on the pieces of paper, depending on the choices of whoever filled the jar.
To up the ante, creating a Christmas themed round can be a great way to add a bit of flair to the game.
Gift wrap game
For a more involved game, setting up a gift wrapping race where the fastest to wrap their gift successfully wins a prize is a great way to kick off the evening. Holding separate rounds with ribbon and other factors can make the event more interesting and competitive, and adding prizes for best presentation and shoddiest workmanship can add another level of fun to the game.
Another great game to play is asking people to guess the contents of different wrapped gifts, with the winner guessing correctly the most often.
Alphabet game
After starting off the game with a word, the first letter of the next word must be the same as the last letter of the previous word. This can be surprisingly difficult, especially if you are banned from re-using previously used words. If you want to specify a Christmas theme for all words, then it can become even more difficult to continue the string of words.
Another way to make to make the alphabet game more interesting is to start a quick-fire round where each person gets a letter and has to list down as many words as possible with their letter as the first letter of the word.
Two Truths and a Lie
Two truths and a lie is a great Christmas party game for friends and colleagues who are still getting to know one another, especially after so much time spent apart during lockdown. The premise of the game is that each player will state two truths and one lie, the others then have to guess which are true and which are false.
This is a great game for when you are encouraging co-workers to get to know one another, especially employees joining during lockdown who will have been introduced to the company mainly online. The different scenarios brought up can also act as great conversation starters after a meal.
Pass the Parcel
While pass the parcel is in truth a children’s game, by including a prize that anyone would enjoy at the centre of the parcel (a chess set or a box of chocolates, for example) this game can be great fun to play for all ages. Pass the parcel is relatively easy to set up and is a good way to get some use out of the wrapping paper that you were unable to find a use for this Christmas.
There are many ways to include other games with pass the parcel, such as including a small prize and a charades slip in each layer – if the other players are able to guess the charade then the person who opened the gift can keep the prize.
If you are considering visiting One Warwick Park this Christmas, then please contact us here. Our staff will be delighted to hear from you.
