Christmas Game Ideas for Kids
There are so many fun Christmas game ideas for kids, but no doubt, these are my favorites for breaking the ice and getting kids giggling!
Christmas may be technically over, but if your family is anything like mine, you’ve still got several get-togethers ahead.
There’s the extended family get-together, the far-away distant cousin get-together, the “oops, my kids were all sick over Christmas, want to get together now?” get-together. You get the idea!
Sometimes the conversation flows freely at these type of gatherings and other times… well, not so much.
Here’s a list of fun, quick, and easy crafts and games everyone can participate in to get things moving along!
My Personal Favorite: Minute to Win It Games for Christmas
We played a few games at a recent gathering and even though it took a few minutes for everyone to warm up, people ended up having a lot of fun (so much more fun than a boring old board game)! The games we played were:
- Cup Stacking
- Do You Hear What I Here
- Hung With Care.
We also played a version of Merry Fishmas during church last week and the kids loved it! It’s one of my favorite Christmas minute to win it games–so much so that I made an awesome set to take with us to events!
To do Merry Fishmas, you just have the player put a “fishing pole” down to try to hook large candy canes on the floor. It’s seriously one of the best Christmas party games and you can put it together in seconds.
Our Version of Merry Fishmas is so fun! And easy peasy! You can see in just that one picture that this is one of the easiest Christmas games for kids to put together.
We also made a too-cute “pond” with a display board for our candy cane fishing game using the Cricut if you’d like to do up some Merry Fishmas a little more fancy.
More Christmas Games for Children
There are so many ideas for holiday games, but some of my favorites include:
- Pin the nose on the Reindeer (with a red pom pom and a blindfold, you can do anything)
- Christmas ornament or jingle bell pass (a fun game of handing off the item from person to person, using their chin, below the mouth, using only their chin)
- Candy cane hunt (like an egg hunt but with peppermints)
- Cloud 8: Not So Silent Night (GREAT PICTURES!)
- Room Mom 101: Christmas Party Ideas
- Christmas Games for Sunday School (includes instruction videos)
Skills kids are using when playing these easy Christmas games include:
- Fine motor
- Team work
- Estimating
- Sorting
- Gross motor and more!
But more than that, these Christmas games for boys and girls help them bond and learn about spending time with family and friends over the holidays, which is so so important for social development.
Nativity and Christmas Puppets
Got a little downtime and some little ones to entertain? Come prepared with some nativity finger puppets or make a set as an activity together!
Here’s where you can find some simple paper puppets to use:
Find these at 2 Teaching Mommies
Find these at Making Friends
All you’ll need to make these Christmas puppets is a piece of paper, printer and about 10 minutes. Makes a great Christmas gift the kids can make, too.
Skills kids are using when playing with Christmas puppets include:
- Scissor skills
- Shape identification and manipulation
- Imagination
- Sequencing
- Story telling
Christmas Activity Bags for Kids
Rachel over at the Kids Activity Blog has ideas for 20 Simple activity bags. Make these up ahead of time so you’ll be ready to whip one (or ten) out as soon as you hear the dreaded “I’m bored!”
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Paper Plate Christmas Wreath Craft for Kids
Simple and quick, just a few steps, this easy Christmas craft for kids is definitely easy enough to turn it into a group craft idea for Christmas.
The steps are seriously easy:
- Rip up some construction paper
- Cut a paper plate
- Glue together a wreath
Anyone can do it! To add a little messiness (because kids love messy) you can have them use cotton balls to paint-on some red berries on their wreath while the glue dries.
You can even hold a little judging competition and pass out award to each kiddo for a variety of reasons why theirs is the best something, like “most green” or “most round”–anything to give them a winning “prize” of a candy cane.
Skills kids are using when making paper plate Christmas wreaths include:
- Fine motor
- Creativity
Christmas Tree Craft for Kids
Got some extra ripped up green paper?
Make a Christmas tree while you’re at it! Use up some of that discarded tissue paper too!
You could even make the whole tree out of old wrapping paper.
You know how you sometimes LOVE a paper but don’t exactly know how to save it? Make it into a tree!
Perfect.
Just like with the Christmas wreaths, anyone could make these and you can easily turn it into a whole group craft idea.
Finger Print Christmas Lights Craft for Kids
You may have spotted these around Pinterest recently. We did this project as part of the Truth in Tinsel Church Curriculum and the kids loved it.
Parents thought it was adorable too! And it’s definitely a project that they’ll be proud to put on the fridge.
All you need to do this easy kids’ fingerprint craft for Christmas is:
- Place out a piece of paper
- Hand a kiddo an ink pad
- Draw a line for them
- Tell them to put their little thumbprints or fingerprints on the line
Seriously, it’s that simple.
You could easily turn this into a really big group activity by using a very long sheet of butcher paper or kraft paper and make a big banner for the Church or community.
Non-Traditional Christmas Activities
If you’re looking for some ideas that are a little less game-like and traditional, these are some fun ideas that kids can make for Christmas.
More Fun Game Ideas:
What About You?
What do you do to keep family get togethers lively and fun? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!
