Christmas is the time that we gather together with friends and family to trim the tree, sing songs and play games! Games are our specialty so we created this list of the best Christmas games to make family game night festive and blissful.
You’ll find the best Christmas card games, Christmas dice games, Christmas board games and even find several Family Game Shelf original games that are sure to be new family favorites. So grab some hot chocolate, out on a cozy sweater and get ready to laugh, play and have a merry good time.
Christmas Games – The Card Games
You need to play attention to your cards AND the candy canes in the middle of the game. Don’t be the player who doesn’t get a cane! There’s a similar game called Christmas Rush that uses holiday themed cards.
Put a festive spin on the classic kid favorite card game, Crazy 8s. With new actions and rules it’s a crowd-pleaser and a new holiday tradition. Learn how to play Christmas Crazy 8s here.
This is the most outrageous Christmas game with actions and card collecting. Kids adore this game as it’s full of laughs and craziness.
Put a festive spin on the classic game of Uno. This is sure to be a new family Christmas tradition.
This Christmas card game features stained glass artwork of the 12 Days of Christmas. It has a unique style of playing.
Okay, this one isn’t a Christmas card game, but Christmas is a time to gather with large amounts of people and this simple, easy game is perfect for players of all ages in a medium to large sized group. We love playing this one when the extended family gets together.
Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman
This is the festive twist on the kid favorite Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. School aged kids love this simple, action packed game and the holiday edition is sure to be crowd pleaser. You can read the review of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza here.
Christmas Games – The Dice Games
This Christmas dice game will have you collecting a Santa, an elf and a sleigh before rolling for the more present points. We love this game so much, we play it all year long.
This mini golf dice game has a Christmas twist. It’s all the fun of mini golf with cute characters, silly actions and festive roll goals. We’re especially proud of this game. You can get your copy in our Family Game Shelf Shop.
Who doesn’t love The Grinch? I’ve loved the classic tale since I was little and it has now inspired the easy to play Christmas dice game Grinch Dice. It also inspired us to create a whole family game night Grinch Party.
12 Days of Christmas Dice Game
Can you collect the most presents form the 12 Days of Christmas song? Simple and fast game that will have you singing.
You know in the song where is says they wouldn’t let Rudolph play any reindeer games? I think they were talking about our Reindeer Dice games. There are 11 games to play all with a reindeer theme. All the reindeer, including Rudolph, and you will love paling these fun, easy games. You can get your copy of these fun games in the Family Game Shelf Shop.
This is a fun, interactive advent calendar full of…what else…Dice Games! The festive tree has 12 click-able ornaments that will take you to a dice game to be played on that day. When you’re all done, click on back to the tree and you’re ready for the next day and the next game. All the games are holiday themed and are easy to play. You can see the 12 Dice Games of Christmas here.
In Turkey Run, players are all turkey’s and are rolling dice trying their hardest not to be the slowest turkey of the flock. This one is fun and silly and great for a group.
Christmas Games – The Board Games
Test our knowledge in this Christmas board game. There are four categories to choose from—traditions, entertainment, carols and North Pole. You might even learn something.
Christmas Taboo
We took all the fun of the classic game Taboo and gave it a festive twist in our fun Christmas No-No word game.
Spot It is one of our most favorite games of all time. We love racing to find the match. The Christmas edition is sure to be another favorite. I mean who wouldn’t want to be the first to spot the snowman or the gingerbread man? You can read the full review for Spot It here.
Don’t Smack Santa!
This fun, fast game is meant to be for younger kids but even the teens laugh out loud while flipping the card and trying not to be the one who smack Santa! Learn how to play Don’t Smack Santa here and get your copy of this game that will have bubbling over with giggles.
Get your thinking cap on for our Christmas Explosion game. Based on the game Outburst, this Christmas game will have you racing to say all the items on the Christmas list.
Can you name three cookie flavors in just five seconds? Family game night will be full of laughs as you try to spit out the answers in Christmas 5 Seconds. If you want to learn how to play the original 5 Second Rule game, read this.
This Christmas game is based on the holiday movie of the same name. We were surprised by this game but its now on our must play Christmas family game list.
Christmas Scattergories
No game list would be complete without Scattergories and a list of the best Christmas games is no different. You can get our Christmas Scattergories in our free Fun Library. You can get your password by signing up in the black box below.
Similar to Scattergories, Categories has you listing items that match the holiday category but with letters that spell festive fun words. If you’d like to see how the game is played, read this.
Is there anything more festive than a Hallmark movie? The twinkling lights, decorated store windows and show covered towns—all of it makes you warm inside and hunt for items on your Bingo card. It’s a holiday tradition in our house—we even have a Hallmark Christmas Movie Party post.
Clue: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
This is now a bucket list game for us. Clue and The Grinch? A Christmas wish come true! Find out who stopped The Grinch, what item he was trying to steal and in what place. You can get your copy here. Canadians can get theirs here.
Monopoly
For Monopoly lovers, there is a Christmas-oploy game and an Codenames is another family favorite. It inspired us to make our popular Word hunter game – it has twists that make it a completely different game. All the Word Hunter card are seasonal and we have a whole game just for Christmas! To learn all about Word Hunter, read the post here. You can get your Christmas Word Hunter in the shop here.
Active Games
Elf on the Shelf Training Games
Kids love the little elf who hides all over the house. With these fun, active games kids get a chance to show off their skills that would make them a great elf. If you have kids and want to keep them busy for a while, these games hit the spot.
12 Days of Christmas Gift Swap Game
Is there anything more fun than a group gift swap? If you want to mix things up this year, try our 12 Days of Christmas cards that makes gift swaps even more fun as you follow along with the cards. Read all about this fun twist on a classic activity.
Festive Fun For All
With this list of festive Christmas Games, there’s sure to be something for everyone. There are so many games on the list, an epic family game night is sure to be just one card, dice roll or move away.
And if that wasn’t enough fun for you, try adding holiday themed playing cards to the game, We think the Charlie Brown ones are cute as a button. Let’s not forget the dice—red, green and white dice add the festive flare to any dice game to make it even more Christmassy. Canadians can shop all things Christmas games here.
Did I miss a favorite family Christmas games? Please let me know in the comments. I’d also love to hear about which Christmas game you’re looking the most forward to playing this year.
I made a purchase for $4.50 as nd have not received any notice to download the game.
That is very strange. You should have been available for download right away. Please look for an email with it.