What Christmas party games work for work?

Team games with general answers are the safest: name that intro, a blind mince pie tasting, the hat game with celebrity names, and a gentle set of superlatives. Skip drinking games and anything that asks people to reveal personal stories in front of colleagues.

How do you play the chocolate game?

Players sit in a circle and take turns rolling a die. Whoever rolls a six puts on a hat, scarf and gloves and eats a bar of chocolate with a knife and fork until somebody else rolls a six. The game ends when the chocolate is gone.

What are good Christmas party games with prizes?

Steal the present, where the prizes are the game, and pass the parcel, where the last layer holds the prize. For any other game, a cheap and silly prize like a chocolate orange or a charity shop trophy works better than something expensive.

What Christmas party games can adults play without drinking?

Every grown up game on this page works without a drop, and never have I ever is scored with fingers rather than sips. The hat game, blind tastings, superlatives and two Christmases and a lie rely on the people in the room, not on anyone's glass.

How many games should you plan for a Christmas party?

Three or four for an evening, with one spare. Each good game runs fifteen to thirty minutes, and a party needs gaps for food and conversation between them.

Is there a party game that is about the guests themselves?

Quizriella builds a game show from questions the guests write about each other in secret, with dares, hot seats and a podium between the questions. It runs in a browser and a full show is free.

Christmas Party Games for Families, Adults and Work

Most lists of Christmas party games are padded with things nobody has played since 1987 for good reason. These fifteen have been tested on real living rooms, real work dos and at least one Boxing Day where the heating broke. Each one comes with how many people it suits, how long it takes and what you need to dig out of a drawer.

They are split into two sittings: games for the whole family while everyone is awake, and games for the grown ups after the children are in bed. Most of the second list also works at a work Christmas party, with a note where it does not.

Pick three games, not ten. A party that plays three games properly beats one that tries ten and abandons each halfway through the rules.

Games for the whole family

All of these work with a four year old and a grandparent in the same round, and none needs anything you will not find in the house on Christmas Day.

The chocolate game

Players4 to 12Time15 to 20 minutesNeedsA die, a hat, a scarf, gloves, a knife and fork, a large bar of chocolate on a plate

Sit in a circle with the chocolate and the clothes in the middle. Take turns rolling the die. Anyone who rolls a six dashes in, puts on the hat, scarf and gloves, and starts eating the chocolate one square at a time with the knife and fork. They keep going until somebody else rolls a six, at which point everything comes off and passes to the new player. The game ends when the chocolate does.

Tip: Keep the bar in the fridge beforehand. Frozen chocolate and oven gloves makes it last twice as long and is twice as funny.

Pass the parcel with forfeits

Players5 to 20Time10 to 15 minutesNeedsA small prize, lots of layers of wrapping paper, music you can pause

Wrap a prize in as many layers as you have players, and tuck a slip of paper into every layer with a forfeit on it. Pass the parcel round while the music plays. When it stops, whoever is holding it unwraps one layer and does whatever the slip says before the music starts again.

Tip: Forfeits that work across ages: sing the first line of a carol, do your best reindeer impression, say something nice about the person to your left, tell the worst cracker joke you know.

Christmas Family Fortunes

Players6 to 30, in two teamsTime20 to 30 minutesNeedsA survey done in advance, a board or sheet to reveal answers, a buzzer or two pan lids

A week before, ask twenty or so people five questions, such as name something you find in a stocking, or name a Christmas film everyone has seen. Tally the answers. On the day, one player from each team faces off at the buzzer. The winner's team tries to find every answer on the board, and three wrong guesses hands the other team one chance to steal the lot.

Tip: Ask the family group chat to fill in the survey. Their answers are funnier than strangers', and you get to say "our survey said" with a straight face.

Christmas charades

Players4 to 20TimeAs long as it is funnyNeedsSlips of paper with Christmas films, songs and books written on them, a bowl, a timer

Split into two teams. One player draws a slip and acts it out silently for their own team, with one minute on the clock. The usual signals apply: fingers for the number of words, a pulled ear for sounds like. A point for every correct guess.

Tip: Children get their own slips with easy ones, like Frozen or Rudolph, so they can act without needing the grown ups to explain the Die Hard plot.

Draw it on your head

Players3 to 15Time10 minutesNeedsA paper plate and a pen for everyone

Everyone holds a paper plate flat on top of their head and draws a Christmas scene while the host calls out each part: a fireplace, a tree next to it, a star on the tree, a stocking, a cat, snow outside the window. Then everyone lowers their plates and the room votes for the best one.

Tip: Nobody is good at this, which is why the youngest players win as often as anyone.

Snowball scoop

Players2 to 12, in relaysTime10 minutesNeedsCotton wool balls, a wooden spoon, two bowls, a scarf for a blindfold

Scatter cotton wool snowballs on a table. The blindfolded player has one minute to scoop as many as possible into a bowl using only the wooden spoon, while their team shouts directions. Most snowballs in the bowl wins.

Tip: Grown ups play with the spoon handle in their mouth. It levels the field and ruins their dignity.

Cracker joke poker face

Players4 to 20Time5 to 10 minutesNeedsThe jokes from your Christmas crackers

Everyone keeps their cracker joke. Going round the table, each player reads theirs out to the person opposite, who must not smile. Smile, snort or groan and you are out. The last straight face at the table wins.

Tip: Collect the jokes before dinner ends, before somebody uses them to light a candle.

Steal the present

Players6 to 40Time20 to 30 minutesNeedsOne wrapped gift per player, to an agreed budget, and numbered slips

Everyone brings one wrapped gift and draws a number. Player one opens a gift from the pile. Every player after that can either open a new gift or steal one already opened, and the person robbed chooses again. A gift can only be stolen twice before it is safe. Also known as a Yankee swap or white elephant.

Tip: This is the best game for Christmas party prizes, because the prizes are the game. Keep the budget low and silly and the stealing gets ruthless.

Who am I, Christmas edition

Players4 to 20Time15 minutesNeedsSticky notes and pens

Each player writes a Christmas character on a sticky note, Scrooge, the Grinch, Mrs Claus, a turkey, and sticks it to the forehead of the person on their left without them seeing. Going round, players ask yes or no questions about who they are. First to guess correctly wins, but everyone keeps playing until the last person gets there.

Games for the grown ups, after bedtime

Cheekier, louder and happier with a drink in hand, though none of them requires one. The first four transfer straight to a work party.

The hat game

Players6 to 30, in two teamsTime30 to 45 minutesNeedsSlips of paper, pens, a hat or bowl, a phone timer

Everyone writes five names on separate slips, famous people, characters, anyone the room will know, and they all go in the hat. Teams take turns sending one player to describe as many names as possible in a minute. Round one, describe with any words. Round two, the same names, but one word only. Round three, the same names again, acted in silence. By the third round the jokes from the first two carry the whole thing.

Tip: This is the single best game for large groups. It scales to thirty people without anyone standing idle.

Name that Christmas intro

Players4 to 50, in teamsTime15 minutesNeedsA phone and a speaker, a list of twenty Christmas songs

Play the first three seconds of a Christmas song. Teams write down the song and artist. If nobody gets it, play five seconds. A point for the title, a point for the artist.

Tip: Mix the obvious with the deep cuts. Everyone gets Wham in one second, nobody gets the Shakin' Stevens B side, and that gap is the game.

Blind mince pie tasting

Players4 to 30Time15 minutesNeedsFive different mince pies, cut into pieces, labelled underneath only

Buy five mince pies from cheapest to poshest. Cut them up, number the plates and hide the labels. Everyone tastes and ranks them from best to worst, then writes down which they think was the most expensive. Reveal the prices. Nobody ever picks the right one.

Tip: Works with Christmas puddings, crisps, or supermarket fizz for the adults.

Christmas superlatives

Players6 to 40Time15 to 20 minutesNeedsA list of awards, paper for voting, a terrible trophy

Read out a set of awards one at a time. Most likely to be asleep by nine, most likely to regift a present, most likely to still be wearing the paper hat on Boxing Day. Everyone votes secretly for someone in the room. Count the votes, announce the winner and present the trophy with a speech.

Tip: At work, keep the awards about habits everyone already jokes about. Nothing about looks, drinking or who fancies whom.

Never have I ever, Christmas edition

Players4 to 15Time15 minutesNeedsTen fingers each

Everyone holds up ten fingers. Going round, each player says something they have never done at Christmas: never have I ever opened a present early and rewrapped it, never have I ever eaten a whole selection box before lunch. Anyone who has done it puts a finger down. First to run out of fingers loses.

Tip: Family-only game, and the grown ups set the limits. It is not one for the office.

Two Christmases and a lie

Players4 to 20Time15 to 20 minutesNeedsNothing

Each player tells three stories about Christmases past. Two are true, one is invented. The room votes on the lie. Fool the majority and you score a point.

Tip: The winning move is making the true story the least believable one. Every family has one.

Choosing games for the room you have got

For a big group, anything over fifteen people, pick games that run in teams and keep everyone busy on every turn. The hat game, Christmas Family Fortunes, name that intro and steal the present all hold thirty people. Charades works if you run two rooms at once. Avoid anything where people wait in a circle for their go, because by the time it comes back round half of them have gone to the kitchen.

For a work Christmas party, the question to ask of every game is whether the newest person in the team would be comfortable playing it with their manager watching. Team games with general answers pass easily: name that intro, a blind tasting, the hat game with celebrity names. Superlatives work if the awards are gentle. Never have I ever, and anything built around drinking, does not belong at work however well the team gets on.

For a family, mix one physical game, one guessing game and one game with a prize, and play them in that order: the chocolate game while there is energy, Family Fortunes when everyone has sat down, steal the present to finish. Pair the children with adults on teams rather than making them compete against grown ups, and give the smallest ones a job, like working the music for pass the parcel, if they are too little to play.

On prizes, cheap is funnier than good. A chocolate orange, a paper crown with "champion" written on it, a trophy from a charity shop that has to be returned next year. A running trophy that passes from winner to winner every Christmas turns the whole thing into a family institution within two years.

Quizriella

A game show about your own party

If you would rather not run the games yourself, Quizriella turns the guests into the entertainment. Everyone gets an invite code and writes a few questions about each other on their own phone, in secret. The app builds them into a game show with hot seats, buzzer races, a wheel that hands out dares to whoever is losing, breaking news bulletins and a podium at the end.

It plays in any browser, so it goes on the telly or runs straight off the host's phone. Teams can be paired automatically for a bigger cast, and a full show is free with simple avatars.

The guests write the questions, so the host does no prep
Dares and hot seats built in between questions
Automatic teams for bigger groups

Play it as a game show

Hot seat

One player alone, the rest waiting to steal

Buzzers

Ten seconds, panic starts at three

Wheel of fate

Lands on a dare nobody volunteered for

Breaking news

A bulletin about whoever is losing

How to host games people remember

Explain each game in under a minute, then start. Anyone confused will understand by the second turn, and a long explanation loses the room faster than a bad game does.

Have everything ready before the party. A bowl of slips written the night before is the difference between playing the hat game and talking about playing it.

Play the loudest game early, while people still have energy, and save the sitting down games for after food.

Give out a prize for last place too. It keeps the people at the bottom trying and gets the biggest cheer of the night.

Stop each game while people are still enjoying it. The best moment to move on is the round before anyone asks how long is left.

Take a photo of the winners. Next year it becomes the proof that settles who really won.

Keep the festive games going

A Christmas family quiz, with the answers and a running order

A ready to run Christmas family quiz: 60 questions with answers, a kids round, films, food, carols and a round about your own family, plus a running order.

An office Christmas quiz your team will not dread

An office Christmas quiz with 53 questions and answers, a funny round, a colleagues round that is safe for HR, and a plan for running it in a room or on a call.

New Year's Eve party games that get you to midnight

14 New Year's Eve party games for adults, families and big groups at home, a 9pm to midnight running order, a year in review quiz and 15 NYE trivia questions.

103 most likely to questions for every kind of room

Most likely to questions for friends, family, kids, siblings, work, couples and girls night or hen do, with how to play and the questions to leave out.

The best party games for groups

Party games compared on setup, group size and how well they hold a room.

Party games for groups who know each other

Games that get better the more the players know about each other.

Questions people ask

The hat game, Christmas Family Fortunes, name that Christmas intro and steal the present all work with twenty to forty people because they run in teams. Everyone has something to do on every turn, which is what keeps a big room from splitting into small conversations.

Hot seatBuzzersWheel of fateBreaking news

Let the guests become the game

Send your party one invite code, let everyone write questions about each other, and host a Christmas game show with dares and a podium without writing a word of it yourself.