Nothing livens up a holiday party like a fun game to get everyone laughing! When the conversation dies down, it’s a good idea to have a few of these party games up your sleeve to keep everyone entertained. Sometimes, however, holiday party games can get a little awkward or crazy. We’ve all seen the embarrassing games some people have come up with! Reindeer poop anyone? The good news is, even the most introverted guests at your party will enjoy this list of holiday games! I’ve put together the top 5 holiday party games everyone will love.
The 1st Game on this List is the: “Trendy” game:
Playing the Plastic Wrap Prize Ball game is one of my favorite games to play at a holiday party. It’s also super fun to make because you can include literally ANYTHING in the ball. If there will be a bunch of kids playing, I’ll include toys, candy, and stickers. If there will be mostly adults playing, I’ll include mini bottles of festive liquor, lottery tickets, and bottle openers.
Here’s how to make one:
Gather a bunch of small gifts and prizes. I typically like to have at least 10 prizes. The larger the crowd, the more prizes you should have! Try to keep them smaller than the size of your hand so they are easier to roll into the ball. Here’s my stash this year:
Here are the items I included in my plastic wrap prize ball this year:
- Lottery tickets
- Mini M&M’s
- Gummies
- Hand sanitizer
- Cash
- Car air fresheners
- Hot wheels car
- Play-doh
- Trail mix
- Pocket tissues
- Activity book
- Chocolate Santa’s
- Mints
- Lottery tickets
- Chocolate covered pretzels
- Punching balloon
- Nutella-to-go
Here are some other ideas for little prizes to include in your plastic wrap ball:
- Chapstick
- Mini liquor bottles
- Bouncy Balls
- Ear Buds
- USB Chargers
- Deck of cards
- Facial mask
- Wine or beer bottle opener
- Travel-sized lotions, soaps, perfume/cologne etc.
- For kids:
- Mini ornaments
- Temporary Tattoos
- Little box of crayons
- Mini bubbles
- Action Figures
- Stickers
When you’re ready to roll, start with your best prize. This is the one you want in the very center of the ball and will be the last gift revealed. Place it at the end of a small piece of plastic wrap and roll it up!
Then, place that center ball (although it probably doesn’t look much like a ball right now) at the end of another piece of plastic wrap that’s still attached to the roll. Begin rolling and pulling plastic wrap out of the box as needed. Rotate and turn your ball as you wrap so it will form a ball shape. Once you’ve wrapped it a few times, add another gift! Try to strategically place gifts to help create the ball shape. Roll your ball a few more times to secure the prize in place (I like to roll it at least 4 or 5 times). Then you can cut the plastic. It’s best to have a bunch of pieces of separated plastic wrap rolled up into your ball instead of one long piece. This increases the difficulty by making the new piece a challenge to find!
Complete these steps as many times as it takes to wrap up all of the gifts. It took me about 20 minutes to complete. Check out my YouTube video to see the whole process!
When it’s time to play, grab a game die, have all of the players sit in a circle, and decide who will try to unwrap the prize ball first. The person to the left of the un-wrapper will be the one with the die.
The un-wrapper and the die roller will simultaneously unwrap/roll the die until the die shows a 6. Meanwhile, the un-wrapper is trying to get as many prizes as possible! Once a 6 is rolled, the un-wrapper stops and the die and the ball move one player to the left. Now they get their turn! The process is repeated until the last prize is revealed.
It’s super important to make your plastic wrap prize ball filled with enough prizes so that each person gets at least one. I like to ensure the ball is large enough so that each person gets 2-3 turns with the ball. The more challenging it is to unwrap, the longer the game will last.
The possibilities are endless so I always try to keep my specific guests in mind when shopping for gifts! I know you’ll have a blast with this! Happy Rolling!
The next game on this list of Top 5 Holiday Party Games Everyone Will Love is the: “Twist on a Classic” game:
This next one takes the White Elephant game to a new level. Sometimes stealing gifts from others can get a little awkward, especially when some of your guests don’t know each other! This fun new version takes a lot of the pressure and decision-making off of the players so they can relax and enjoy the game!
You’ll only need 2 things:
- Gifts. Everyone should provide a gift just like the original white elephant game.
- A spinner. You can either make one at home using a piece of cardstock, a brad, and a paperclip, or you can get the Spin The Wheel App on your phone. It’s really cool and easy to set-up. This is what mine looked like:
The categories on your spinner should be general enough so that each person attending your party has roughly the same chance as others in getting selected.
To begin playing, each person will pick a gift from the gift pile and open it.
Once everyone has opened their gift, decide who will be the first to spin the spinner. When the spinner lands on a category, the person who spun will swap gifts with the person who falls into that category.
For example: If the category says “Person to Left”, the person who spun will need to swap gifts with the person to their left. Pretty simple. If more than one person falls into a category, however, the person who spun gets to choose which one of those people they will swap with! Once they’ve swapped gifts, the spinner goes to the next person and the process is repeated. You can choose how long this goes on for but I like to give everyone at least 2 turns to ramp up the suspense and competition!
The 3rd Game on the List is the: “Christmas Edition” game:
So, we’ve all heard of Pictionary, right? It’s one of my favorite games of all time.
This next game is a Holiday version! You can customize this by making cards to go with whichever holiday you celebrate! I’ve included some Christmas edition cards for you to download if you’d like! Just print them on cardstock and cut the cards apart.
Here’s what else you’ll need:
- A quick game board. Simply draw a path around a sheet of paper and create little landing blocks for each teams game pieces. Alternative: play until a team reaches 10-15 correct answers.
- One die
- Timer (you can always use your phone)
- Pieces to move around the board with (action figures, toy cars, candy etc.)
- Paper and pens for everyone
Now, you’ll choose your teams. There should be between two and four teams and the teams should each have at least two people. Lastly, place the drawing game cards in a pile in the center.
Designate which member on each team will draw/sketch first. The person who will draw from the first team will select a card and choose one item from the card to try to illustrate. They will then secretly share which item to draw with the sketchers on each team. Once the timer begins, each team will quickly begin attempting to draw the secret item from the card for their other team members to guess. It can get pretty loud! Whomever guesses it first gets to roll the die and move ahead that number of spaces on the game board. If time runs out before anyone guesses correctly, no one gets to move.
For the next round, illustrators swap and a new person on each team draws. The winning team from the last round gets to choose the next card/item to draw. If there wasn’t a winning team from the last round, the team to the right of the last card picking team gets to pick.
Rounds keep progressing and illustrators keep swapping until one team makes it to the end of the game board path or the predetermined number of rounds is won! Unless each person playing is an expert sketch artist, you’re pretty much guaranteed to laugh A LOT throughout this game!
The Next Game on This List of Top 5 Holiday Party Games Everyone Will Love is: The “Christmas Smell Guessing Game”
This game was created by Melissa over at Kid Friendly Things To Do and it’s super fun because you can get really creative with the scents you place in the jars! Plus, the entire game can be made with things you probably already have on hand.
Visit her site for a complete list of instructions and supplies!
The last game on this list was created by us!
This game was developed by my husband and I while we were brainstorming funny holiday party games. It’s a nail-biting twist on the classic game of hot potato!
Here’s what you’ll need:
- An item to be the “hot potato”. This can be a ball, stuffed animal, small pillow, etc. I highly recommend choosing something soft!
- Opaque (a.k.a. non-see-through) cups with little paper circles to cover the tops
- A volunteer to make the drinks and be in charge of starting/stopping the music
- A prize for the winner
- A yummy beverage and a not-so-yummy beverage that look very similar.
Some examples of kid-friendly beverage combo’s include:
- Eggnog vs. Milk with ranch
- Apple juice vs. chicken broth
If you’re playing with adults only, you can use:
- Champagne vs. Ginger ale mixed with olive juice
- Bloody Mary vs. Marinara sauce
Here’s how to play:
First, whip up your batches of yummy and not-so-yummy drinks. Then, take the number of people playing and subtract 1. This will be how many little drinks you need to pour. Half of them should be yummy and the other half should be not-so-yummy.
For example if you have 9 people playing, then you’ll want to pour 8 little drinks and have 4 of them be yummy and 4 of them be not-so-yummy.
Place the drinks on a central table (mixing up where you put the yummy ones) and place a small square of paper on top so players can’t see in!
Have everyone make a circle and start the music. Players will begin to toss the “hot potato” around to each other. When the fancy strikes, the music volunteer should stop the music and determine who had possession of the “hot potato” at the time.
That player in now “out” and must select a drink from the table. Will they get a yummy drink or will it be gross?! No peeking!
The music will start back up again and the process will repeat until one player wins and all of the drinks are gone. The winner gets the benefit of not having to drink a drink and wins the prize!
Another fun way to play this game is to prep and use filled snacks instead of beverages. Half of them would be filled with something yummy while the other half would be filled with something no-so-yummy.
Examples include:
- Chocolate covered cherries vs. chocolate covered banana peppers
- Mini cream filled cupcakes vs. mini blue cheese filled cupcakes
- Mini jelly filled muffins vs. mini ketchup filled muffins
This game is sure to get a reaction out of even the most stoic of players!
And there you have it! The Top 5 Holiday Party Games Everyone Will Love! Feel free to comment below and let me know if you gave one of these a try! Also, please remember to share/pin this post for others to enjoy! Wishing you a safe, healthy, and happy holiday season!
