39 Classic Christmas Party Games (From a Game Designer)

By Jim Markus · Published September 28, 2026 · Updated October 26, 2026

My favorite Christmas party games are charades, Snap Apple, Quiplash, and trivia. Each of them contributes to the atmosphere of the party, and I’ve played all of them with guests of all ages.

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Christmas Party Games: My Top Four

My top four choices for holiday party games are charades, Snap Apple, Quiplash, and trivia.

Charades

Charades is an all-ages game. You really just need a minimum of four people, but you can commonly play this with up to 20 people. And like a lot of party games, it just gets more wild and absurd as you add more people to it.

Snap Apple

When it comes to holiday party games, we may think of Snap Apple and bobbing for apples as traditionally Halloween games, but they are also very traditional in the winter holidays. So you can play a Christmas version of Snap Apple. You can play a Christmas version of bobbing for apples.

Snap Apple is common around Halloween. It can be played during the holiday season, too.

Quiplash

Some of my favorite Jackbox games include Quiplash, all versions of these, and Fibbage, all versions of these. Those are up to eight players of people actively participating in the games, but there is no limit to the number of people watching and engaging with those on their phones, including voting for their favorites and then jumping in to the next round.

Holiday trivia

I’ve seen Halloween trivia go very well at Halloween parties. It’s very easy to imagine a holiday party where you have specific holiday trivia as well.

You could do movie trivia with specific themes. Personal favorites would be Hallmark movie trivia, where you might talk about the most well-known Hallmark movies, or you might do 1970s bands and just do music from the 1970s if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s going to depend on the group that you’re hosting for.

With a trivia game, you’ll want a moderator, someone to host and ask the questions and determine whether an answer is valid or not.

Christmas Games for Adults

When I’m playing a game during the holidays, I’m looking for something simple and fun I can play with my friends and family. That rules out just about anything with a rulebook.

That doesn’t mean I can’t play it with kids around. It just means it’s complex enough to keep me entertained. Some of my favorite Christmas games for adults are also kid-friendly games. Charades comes to mind as a good example.

I’ve brought For The Queen to holiday parties. It’s not Christmas themed by design, but it could easily fit a seasonal event. That’s one of the reasons there are so many homebrew versions of it.

I’ve played with family members who don’t consider themselves gamers. The rules are built into the deck, and it doesn’t require any setup or explanation beyond what’s on the cards.

Snap Dragon is the other obvious choice for grown ups only. It involves snatching raisins out of burning liquor, so I wouldn’t play it with kids around.

Snap Dragon: A Christmas Game at Heart (Adults Only)

There’s even a game that I associate with Halloween that began as a holiday game. The party game Snap Dragon is where you put raisins in a bowl of flammable liquid, then light the liquid on fire, and people try to snap the raisins out of that liquid without getting burned. It is fun to watch. It is dangerous, and it’s really a game that I would recommend only for the exceptionally vigilant and for adults.

But Snap Dragon began as a winter holiday game and has been brought over in some part to Halloween parties now. So it’s a Christmas game at its heart, and I think that probably comes from the fact that you’re playing with a warm liquid. It’s got spirits. It’s something that you can play in a parlor.

So Snap Dragon is a parlor game, but it’s also dangerous and not one that I would recommend most people play in their parlors.

Christmas Movie Sipping Games and Trope Bingo

Another popular option around the holidays could politely be called, “sipping games.” Those involve recognizing tropes and taking a sip of a drink anytime you see one on screen. The holiday version might be turning on a Christmas movie and drinking anytime a successful business woman finds herself in an unlikely situation involving an old flame in a small town or when the protagonist falls in love with a secret prince. This can also be done (in a more family-friendly way) with a bingo card. Just write out your favorite tropes and hand them out at the start of the movie.

Christmas Games for Families and All Ages

When I’m planning holiday games for an all-ages group, I’m looking for something that creates a spectacle. Bonus points if it doesn’t require reading at all. My top choices there are usually snap apple or a homemade game that involves some sort of light physical challenge.

Classic Christmas Party Games

I’m also a fan of classic parlor games around the holiday season. That includes Blind Man’s Bluff, which is kind of like Marco Polo played in a living room instead of a pool.

I’ve also played some version of the Dickensian ‘forfeits’ game during the holidays. That’s where a player transgresses some rule of another game and must perform some sort of funny task for the amusement of everyone else.

The fun here is coming up with good forfeits. My favorite example comes from the movie, Amadeus. The titular Mozart is challenged with a forfeit that challenges him to play something on the piano blindfolded and upside down. It works well in the film because he succeeds. And that’s one of the fun things about a well-designed forfeit, it can show off someone’s talents (including their wit) in a surprising or pleasant way.

Gift Exchange Games

Gift exchange games require some planning, because people need to think about what they’re bringing before the event. There are some classics like White Elephant. That one is always interesting, even if it’s not the most fun.

There are plenty of variants on these, but none of them hold up to a good parlor game.

Christmas Murder Mystery Games

A murder mystery works well as a Christmas party game only if the people coming enjoy these types of games. I only set games like these up for people who are excited to play in them. They’re rarely my default choices for an office party or family gathering.

Christmas Party Games for the Office

The holiday games I’m recommending should all be the right size for an office setting. I’ve played plenty of them in professional environments. The most popular ones are usually trivia based or baking contests like cookie contests or gingerbread house decorating competitions.

Most of the games that I’ve mentioned for large groups also apply to office parties. I wouldn’t play Cards Against Humanity at the office. That seems like it might be a little bit too risqué. But when we think of games like Werewolf or Mafia, Werewolf can be an exceptional office party game.

Anything with social deception can be really interesting to see at an office party. Games like Jackbox can also go over very well at office parties. So if you’re playing Fibbage or you’re playing Quiplash, both of those work very well as office party games.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they’re trying to host a party game is getting it confused with an icebreaker. So games like Two Truths and a Lie get a bad reputation because they tend to be office games where people get to know each other in kind of a forced social interaction, and those are usually not as good of a choice for a party game as something where people can come in and out as they choose.

What Christmas Party Games Cost

Some of my favorite party games are free. It doesn’t cost anything to play charades. It doesn’t cost anything to do Snap Dragon.

Find a Christmas Party Game

And so these are some of the best games I’ve seen for Christmas.

One surprisingly successful game we played after Thanksgiving one year was For The Queen. It’s such a beautifully-designed storytelling game. I enjoyed it!

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More from Autumnal Games

• Party games for large groups, with full rules for Mao and Werewolf
• The best party games by group size
• Parlor games, including Snap Dragon and other Victorian classics
• Halloween party games
• Christmas murder mystery games
• Browse all our games, or warm up with a free puzzle

Jim Markus

Jim makes games and events that invite people to embrace a shared fiction.