Christmas party games for adults, with things you already have at home

Good Christmas party games for adults need nothing from the shops, have rules that fit in two sentences and don't ask anyone to know a single fact. Each game below says what you need from around the house, how to play and roughly how long it takes. Pick two or three for one evening, from the sections that match the people coming.

An example: one year, Efua's Christmas quiz for twelve guests dies by the second round. Half the room are friends from her climbing gym, the other half are neighbors from her building, and nobody knows the answers. The next December she puts the questions away. At nine she hands out rolls of toilet paper and splits the room into teams of three. Ten minutes later Idris stands in front of the navy sofa with his arms stretched out, laughing so hard the paper keeps slipping. Efua winds a roll around his waist while Linnea kneels on the floor and wraps his legs. Somebody has already stuck a paper carrot nose on his face, and nobody cares who knows more about Christmas.

What to have ready before the first guest arrives

Almost every game here runs on the same short list, so put it all in one box before anyone arrives:

• scrap paper, old envelopes or the back of printer pages;
• a pen for every guest;
• a phone with a timer;
• a bowl or a hat for folded slips;
• tape and two pairs of scissors;
• a few rolls of toilet paper and a bag of cotton balls.

Games for a big Christmas party

With fifteen or more people, you want games that need no table and no setup, and that pull the whole room in at once.

• Rock paper scissors cheer train. You need nothing. Everyone pairs off and plays one round. The loser becomes the winner's fan and follows them, cheering, to the next match, so the last two players end up with half the room shouting behind each of them. About 10 minutes, and it works with fifteen people or eighty.
• The silent birthday line. You need nothing. The whole room lines up by birthday, January at one end and December at the other, without a single word. Pointing and counting on fingers are allowed. Then everyone says their date out loud to check. About 10 minutes, and two teams can race each other.
• Count to twenty. You need nothing. The group tries to count from one to twenty out loud, one voice at a time, with no set order. If two people speak at once, you start again from one. About 5 minutes, and it quiets a loud room faster than asking.

Games for a small group at home

Four to eight people around a living room can play games that would get lost in a crowd.

• Back-to-back drawing. You need paper, pens and a few simple winter pictures drawn before the party, like a snowman next to a house. Two people sit back to back. One describes a picture using only shapes and directions, such as "a big circle, then a smaller one on top," and the other draws what they hear. About 15 minutes for everyone to get a turn.
• The memory tray. You need a tray, a tea towel and fifteen odd things from your drawers, like a spoon, a button, a lemon and a sock. Everyone looks for thirty seconds, then you cover the tray and each player writes down all they remember. The longest correct list wins. About 10 minutes, with a second round where you take one thing away and ask what's gone.
• One letter, five categories. You need paper, pens and a timer. Pick a letter and five categories, such as a winter food, a city, something in a coat pocket, a first name and something cold. Everyone gets sixty seconds, and you only score for an answer nobody else wrote. About 5 minutes a round.

If the back-to-back drawing goes well, a list of words to draw has winter things for a full game of pictionary.

For a longer game of one letter and many categories, Scattergories lists has two Christmas lists of twelve categories.

Games for a work Christmas party

Colleagues know each other's work and very little else. The best games mix people from different desks and let everyone stay in normal clothes.

• Who had this first job? You need slips of paper, pens and a bowl. Everyone writes the first job they ever had, without a name, and drops it in the bowl. One person reads the jobs out one at a time while small teams guess who did each. It's the only quiz in this list, and every question in it is about the people in the room. About 20 minutes.
• Paper chain race. You need scrap paper from the recycling tray, tape and scissors for each team. Teams of four get five minutes to make the longest paper chain they can, then hold them up across the room to compare. About 10 minutes, and the chains can hang on the walls afterwards.
• Back-to-back drawing from the list above works well here too. Pair people who sit on different floors, and they'll have something to talk about in the hallway in January.

If you're planning the whole work party, office Christmas party ideas covers themes, remote teams and a longer list of team games.

Games for guests who don't know each other

When half the room are strangers, pick games that hand people something to say.

• Snowball fight. You need a sheet of paper and a pen for each guest. Everyone writes one easy question, like "What's the best snow day you remember?", and crumples the paper into a ball. After a thirty-second snowball fight, each person picks up the nearest ball and answers its question to whoever is standing next to them. About 15 minutes.
• Three things in common. You need nothing. Put guests who haven't met in pairs or threes and give them three minutes to find three things they share. "We both like Christmas" doesn't count. Each group tells the room its strangest find. About 10 minutes.
• A name and a winter word. You need nothing. Stand in a circle. The first person says their name and a winter word that starts with the same letter, like "Idris, icicle." Each next person repeats every name and word so far and adds their own. About 10 minutes, and by the end everyone knows every name.

Quiet Christmas games for people who would rather talk

Some guests would happily skip the noise and sit with a few people. These games give them a reason to tell a story.

• Draw a winter memory. You need paper and pens. Everyone gets three minutes to draw one winter memory, as badly as they like. Then each person holds up the picture and tells the story behind it, and every listener can ask one question. About 20 minutes for six people.
• The proudest holiday letter. You need paper and pens. Everyone writes a three-line holiday letter about their own year in the grandest words they can find, about something tiny: "This year I finally learned which bin takes the pizza boxes." Writers read theirs aloud, and the room picks a winner by applause. About 15 minutes.

The after-dinner games in Friendsgiving work in December too, if your group already met in November.

When a game ends early, someone can read out a few groan-worthy lines from Christmas jokes.

Team games for a Christmas party

Teams of three or four make shy guests braver, because nobody has to perform alone.

• Toilet paper snowman. You need a roll of toilet paper for each team, plus paper and tape for a nose. Each team picks one person to be the snowman, and the other two have two minutes to wrap them from the chest down. Then they add a paper carrot nose and paper buttons, and the room votes. About 10 minutes, and it's the game that saved Efua's party.
• Three things, one scene. You need a paper bag for each team with three random things from around the house inside, like a wooden spoon, a sock and a phone charger. Teams get five minutes to make up a one-minute Christmas scene that uses all three, then act it out. About 20 minutes for four teams.

If your group wants a sweater contest with its games, National Ugly Sweater Day has the categories and the runway.

Minute to win it games with things from your kitchen

Each of these runs for exactly one minute on a phone timer while the rest of the room watches and roots for the player. A round with four players takes about five minutes.

• Cookie face. You need one cookie per player. Tip your head back, put the cookie on your forehead and move it into your mouth using only your face, hands behind your back.
• Snowy nose. You need cotton balls, two bowls and a little petroleum jelly. Dab the jelly on the tip of your nose and move as many cotton balls as you can from one bowl to the other with your nose alone.
• Snowball spoon. You need a teaspoon, cotton balls and a bowl at the far end of the room. Hold the spoon in your teeth and carry one cotton ball at a time to the bowl. Most snowballs wins.
• One-handed snowflake. You need paper and scissors. Two players stand side by side, each with one hand behind their back, and fold and cut one paper snowflake together. The room votes for the prettiest.

Which game each type reaches for

At every party, one guest wants points and a winner, and another wants a game where people talk and guess about each other. Typeza sees personality type as part of that split. Eight of the 16 types:

• Vitalizer loves a loud game for the whole room, like the cheer train, and is happy to run it.
• Analyst likes clear rules and a fair score, so the memory tray and the five categories go down well.
• Mentor enjoys drawing a winter memory, where every picture comes with a story.
• Commander wants points on paper and a winner at the end. Give them the paper chain race.
• Diplomat gets strangers playing and shines in the snowball fight.
• Entrepreneur likes a timed challenge with a clear result, so the minute games are a hit, and they'll ask for a rematch.
• Counselor prefers the quiet games in a small circle, and a round where someone gets teased spoils it for them.
• Craftsman reaches for the hands-on games: the snowman, the snowflake and the back-to-back drawing.

These are patterns the theory behind the types describes, and they aren't advice about who to invite or how anyone will play. They do help with the plan. Mix the two kinds of game, one round with a score and then one where people talk, and both guests stay at the table. How each friend settles into a role in a group is the subject of friend group dynamics.

Putting the evening in order

The same games land differently at different times of the night.

1. As people arrive: a name and a winter word, or three things in common.
2. When everyone is there: one big game, like the cheer train or the silent birthday line.
3. Before food: a team game, while the energy is high.
4. After food: the minute games, then the quiet ones for whoever stays late.

For a theme to go with the games, party themes for adults picks one by the guests on your list. A week later the same friends may want to play again, and New Year's Eve ideas has games for the last hour of the year. If one game goes really well, play it again next December. Plenty of holiday traditions started with nothing more than that.

For the party around the games, Christmas party ideas has themes from your own closet, a plan and names for the invitation.

See what you and one friend bring to a game night

Typeza shows you and one friend the relationship type you share. Type is often part of why one of you counts points while the other would rather talk. Take the free personality test first. Then share your result with the friend who always wants a rematch.

Questions people ask

What are good Christmas party games for adults?

The toilet paper snowman, the snowball fight, the cheer train and the minute games are easy wins. None of them needs anything you'd have to go out for, and the rules fit in two sentences.

What are fun Christmas party activities for adults?

Pick things guests can do while they keep talking. Set up a table for threading popcorn and cranberries into a garland, or hold a tree-trimming hour where each guest hangs one ornament from home and tells its story. Before they leave, everyone can write a wish for next December on a paper tag and hang it on the tree.

Written by Virko Kask, founder of Typeza
Written with the help of AI tools.