Christmas Games

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Christmas Youth Group GamesLast updated: December 2022

Most groups have a Christmas theme night at some stage towards the end of the year - here is a list of Christmas ideas for your Youth Group:

  1. Community Service - Christmas is a great time to do something for the community. Imagine the impact if you set up a free gift wrapping service at your local shopping mall. No catches, just a way to serve people and chance to interact with your local community.  

  2. Christmas Carolling - get the whole youth group together and go around the neighborhood singing Christmas carols to people. If you really want to make this night a highlight, go to a nursing home and sing some carols to some old people - they'd love it! :)

  3. Christmas trivia night - you'd be amazed about what people assume is fact in relation to Jesus's birth (for example, how many wise men were there?)

  4. Shoe boxes - Samaritan's purse have a fantastic program where you can prepare shoe boxes full of gifts for kids. They collect the boxes and distribute them to communities that don't have the luxury of being able to celebrate Christmas in this way.  

  5. End of year Formal - a great way to finish the year is to have a Formal Dinner

  6. Serve the leaders dinner - this is a fantastic way to recognize your volunteer leaders at the end of a long year.  

  7. Kris Kringle - everyone must bring along a gift up to a specific value (eg. $10). There's many variations of this:
    - you can assign people names so they buy for someone in particular
    - put them all under a tree and have Santa Claus randomly hand them out
    - you can introduce rules or games where people unwrap their gifts one at a time (in a particular order). Anyone who has opened their gift can elect to swap with someone else prior to them unwrapping.
    - have everyone choose a wrapped gift and then stand in a circle
    - Tell a story and every time you hear the word "Left" or "Right", everyone must pass their gift to the left or right. When the story is finished, unwrap your present. 

  8. Christmas Carol Charades - split your group into teams of 4 people. One person from each team member goes into the next room to receive the name of a Christmas Carol - they must then race back into the room and 'act it out' to their team. The first team to guess the carol is the winner.  Here are some carols which work well - 12 days of Christmas, Jingle Bells, I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus, Little Drummer Boy, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Silent Night).  

    Variations include humming the Christmas Carol until the group guesses, drawing it (aka Pictionary)

  9. Christmas Card Blow - line up a whole heap of Christmas cards. To complete the relay, each person using only their breath needs to blow over every card.  The next person quickly stands them up again and the following person goes until everyone has had a turn.  

    When the game finishes, an optional extra activity is to fill in the cards and send them to people who may appreciate it.  

  10. Pass the parcel - Christmas is a time of giving but instead of handing out gifts in the traditional sense, turn it into a game of Pass the parcel.  

  11. Make Christmas Cards - this requires a good supply of stationary, colored cardboard, cotton wool balls, etc.  Have your group spend 60 minutes making some Christmas cards.  You can then either sell these as a fundraiser, or write in them and send them to people who would appreciate a Christmas greeting!

  12. Unwrapping presents - Sounds simple right? Think Pass the Parcel with a twist. Each person has five seconds to unwrap as much as they can (with oven mitts on) - after five seconds they pass the mitts and the present to the person on their left. You can add variety to this game by handing out random Hershy Kisses to unwrap and eat (if people can!)
     
  13. Wrap up a Youth Leader - this can be very funny. Divide into two groups (or more depending on your group size).  Provide each group with wrapping paper, tape and a leader!  The goal is to wrap the youth group leader up in wrapping paper - you can leave their face exposed.  Whoever finishes first is the winner.  A tip for the leaders - you need to stay very still!

  14. Photos with Santa - if you have a charismatic Youth Leader, dress them up as Santa Claus, set up a camera, and let people sit on his knee and have photos. Won't work for all groups, but definitely gets a few laughs!

 

 


What does your group do at Christmas time? 

There's some fantastic ideas others have shared below in the comments.

Feel free to add your own ideas.  What's worked well for you?  

Have a Merry Christmas!

 

 




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Comments

also you could add caroling. fun to do with a good group of kids and also can spread joy, and show Gods love (if you sing christian songs)
- SM (25 Oct 2008)

Just like pin the tail on the donkey, but you use a star and tree instead. Using a real tree is not recommended...instead, make an outline of a tree on the wall and have them tape the star where they think the top of the tree is while blindfolded.
- Pin the Star on the Tree (7 Dec 2009)

Another fun one to do blindfolded. Provide the kids with a box, tape, and some wrapping paper that will go around the box. Blindfold them and have them try to wrap the box as nice as they can. You can even throw in a bow to top it off.
- Blindfold Gift-Wrapping (7 Dec 2009)

We've done the gift wrapping activity with two people. Each person has to put one hand behind their back. They can only use one had each. It's really awkward and lots of fun.
- Jimmy (4/27/10) (27 Apr 2010)

When I was in Jr. High, we would always do these two games.

The first was called "Shaving Santa's Beard." each kid was given a balloon, a can of shaving cream, and a disposable razor. Each kid blew up their balloon before hand and a youth leader would cover it with an entire can of shaving cream. (we always did it on a tarp or outside if it wasn't snowing.) then they had 60 seconds to "shave" Santa's beard off the balloon, without popping it. sometimes kids would get sooooo aggressive that they would pop the balloon right away and shaving cream would go EVERYWHERE! Now that I'm a youth leader FOR the Junior High, it's HILARIOUS watching them do it, and remembering how fun it was (and still is) when I did it.

The other game we played was "Vaseline Santa" There were three to four teams, depending on group size. Each kid got vaseline smeared on their face from the bottom of their nose down, thickly. There was a bowl of cotton bowls for every team, and it was kinda like a relay. The kids had to run all the way across the room, stick their sticky face in the cotton balls, trying to make the most stick, run BACK across the room without them falling off, and peel them off into another bowl, then, once done, tag the next person on their team in line and the process started all over again. First team to a set number of cotton balls (you pick) won. it was a TON of fun.


- Santa Games :) (2 Dec 2010)

My youth group ranges from Jr.High Students toUniversity students (We're youth and young adults) every year we play a game and it's ALWAYS a blast, everyone gets into it.

Materials: A gift wrapped in LAYERS of any kind of tape (Duct tape prefered but any can work) and onelayer of wrapping paper on top.
A Fork
A knife
A standard 6sided Dice
Oven mits

They would sit in circle with the rest of the items in the middle. The dice would be passed in a circle firt person to get a 6 has to put on the oven mits and try to open the gift with a fork and a knife. Meanwhile the rest are passing the dice next person to get a six yells "Stop" and take the place of the person cutting the gift.

This might sound dangerous with a fork and a knife and the fact that it does get intense and very excited and fast paced but we have never come close to an injury the members are all aware that they have a knife and are still careful with it. It is a lot of fun.
- (16 Dec 2010)

Samaritan's Purse is great. I'm from Slovakia and today we have distributed around 70 shoe-box gifts to girls in a Re-educational Centre for Girls. It's a government run place for teenage offenders, teenage mothers etc. They were delighted. Great way to show God's love to others
- Michal (20 Dec 2011)

our group does a christmas play and we invite parents to come and watch their kids !!!:D
- (3 Nov 2012)

By 'Charismatic leader', do you mean fat? :P
- Esdras García (13 Dec 2014)

Maybe don't do the 'sitting' on knees thing... just screaming for lawsuits to happen...
- jimmy (11 Dec 2018)

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