Fun Family Christmas Party Games to Try

Want to get everyone out of their chairs at your family Christmas party? We had a few Minute to Win It games after dinner this year and it was SO FUN to see everyone cheering, yelling, and jumping up and down. 

A key to our success is that we got all the adults to play, in addition to the kids. I recruited an older cousin to write everyone's name on a paper, and randomly divide the family up into four teams of 8. Two teams of adults and two teams of kids. For each game, each team selected a member to participate (without knowing what the game will be) and then we announced the game and rules.

We started with a challenge to hang an ornament on the Christmas tree without using your hands. People used their mouth ...

... and their forearms. If we do this game next year, I'll have them start with the ornaments in a bowl on the other side of the room, and then transport the ornaments to the tree without their hands as well. This game was a little too easy.

The next game was to stack as many plastic cups as you can with one hand in a minute.

Since we had four teams competing at once, and we only had about 80 cups, we ended up seeing which team finished stacking their cups first. They finished in about 30 seconds, so if you want this to last a minute plan on 40 cups per person. Also, we had to re-do the first round because we had an onlooker topple one of the contestants' stack of cups.  

The next game was to unwrap a present as quickly as possible with mittens on. I may or may not have intentionally given the mittens with the cute face to my manly cousin who used to work security at The Bellagio in Vegas.

My mom shocked everyone by finishing in lightning speed. She's the one at the end waving the box above her head. After the party, my mom said winning the present unwrapping game was her favorite part. OK, totally worth it all!

This game is to toss as many peppermint mini marshmallows into a Christmas pail in one minute. You can only throw one marshmallow at a time. We also lined people up according to their arm span ... so the kids got to be a little closer than the adults.

I didn't realize until after I downloaded the photos that my older son was lying on the floor in front of the table with his mouth wide open. Trying to catch stray marshmallows, it looks like!

Some teammates offered themselves up as a human backboard to increase their chances of winning!

Again, all the cheering made everything so much more fun, and was extremely contagious. I'm on the Winnie & Walter blog today showing how to make the peppermint Christmas tins if you want to stop by.
  

Our last game was perhaps the most fun, and the one we repeated until everyone on the team had participated. You put a cookie on your forehead and try to get it into your mouth without using your hands. If it falls you have to start over with the cookie on your forehead. 

This game was probably the most fun to watch, and resulted in the best pictures! Oh my gosh, I was laughing so hard!!

Everyone was either laughing, cheering or taking pictures.

These games were so much fun, we had to watch them again and again right afterwards. Somehow they were even funnier on the video!

  

Here's a summary of the games (which I got from this post on The Mason Family Blog you've likely seen floating around Pinterest). I've included the supplies needed after each game. It's also helpful to have a long table to line your contestants behind and set the game supplies on:

- hang ornaments on tree without hands (one ornament with a hanger for each team);
- stack cups with one hand (40 plastic cups per team);
- throw marshmallows in a tin (Christmas-themed marshmallows, Christmas tin for each team);
- get cookie from forehead to mouth without using hands (cookies); and
- unwrap present with mittens (a well-wrapped present with lots of tape and a pair of mittens per team).

Hope you're able to try some games this year! We honestly had a blast seeing everyone have so much fun. It was a highlight of the party.

Thanks for looking!

-Kelly