Not another boring work party where you’re forced to talk to people you only see at work! Not another family gathering where everyone simply watches TV! Get your holiday party moving with minimal preparation and little or no cost by setting up simple holiday games for your guests of all ages.

Gift Exchange Games

Instead of spending a fortune on each guest at your holiday party, ask each guest to bring one themselves!

White Elephant
The point of the game is for everyone to have a gift at the end.

Ask each guest to bring a wrapped gift to the party to be placed on a designated table.  Limit the amount a guest can spend on the gift, $10 for example.

Begin by gathering around the gift table with a bag with numbered slips of paper, one for each of your guests.  Each guest will draw a slip of paper determining what order they will choose a gift from the table.  The guest with the number 1 will pick a gift and unwrap it.  The guest who draws number 2 has the option of taking the gift of guest number 1 or choosing a new gift from the table.  If guest number 2 decides to take the gift from guest number 1, then guest number 1 will choose a new gift from the table and unwrap it.  The guest holding number 3 can take either of the unwrapped gifts or can choose a new gift from the table, and so on.

Secret Santa
The point of the game is for everyone to have a gift at the end.

Contact each guest beforehand and ask each guest to bring a wrapped gift to the party for one of your other guests.  It is recommended that you confirm your guests for the party before you ask them to bring a gift for someone.  Limit the amount a guest can spend on the gift, $10 for example.  Each gift should be clearly labelled for one of the guests and signed from their Secret Santa.  For other holidays, you can use other anonymous names, for example, a Secret Bunny for Easter.

Upon arriving at the party, each guest should put their gift on a designated table.  All gifts can be given out and unwrapped together later in the party.

Gift Exchange with a Twist
Are you short on Christmas gift ideas? Instead of asking your guests to buy presents, ask them to each wrap an item of clothing that they do not want.  Another option is to have your guests bring a wrapped item from their garage that they do not want.  Enjoy the laughter as your guests uncover their strange new gift!

Holiday Games

Just a handful of holiday activities can get your guests out of their chairs and make your party the memorable event of the season.

Celebrity Guessing Game
The point of the game is to guess what holiday celebrity or character you are. You will need small slips of paper, such as sticky notes, and pens for each participant.

This game is perfect while everyone is in the living room or around the table waiting for their meal.  Hand each guest a small piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write down the name of a celebrity or famous character that relates to the holiday.  Once this is done, each person will pass the paper face-down to the left.  No peeking! The guest cannot know what is written on the paper he or she receives.  The guest will then stick the paper on his or her forehead so that the other guests can see the name.

Each person will take turns asking yes-or-no questions in order to find out what name is stuck to their forehead.  If the answer received is a “yes,” the guest can ask another question.  If the answer is “no,” the next guest to the left gets to ask the next question.

The game continues until there is only one guest remaining who does not know their character.

Holiday ABC’s
The point of this game is for your group to complete the task the fastest. You will need a piece of paper and a pen for each group.

Break your guests into small groups of 2 to 5 people.  Each group will receive a piece of paper and a pen, and must list the alphabet on the page.  Once the host announces time has started, the group must come up with something relating to the holiday for each letter of the alphabet.  The first team to fill each letter with a holiday-appropriate answer wins!

Gift Wrap
The point of this game is to un-wrap a gift the fastest. You will need several boxes wrapped in several layers of paper and at least one set of oven mitts.

A guest is given a box with several layers of wrapping paper and told to un-wrap it as fast as possible wearing oven mitts.  You can time guests one at a time or line up 2 or more guests in a head-to-head race.  The guest who can get through all of the layers the fastest wins!