These Christmas minute to win it games are perfect for any holiday party! They’re all Christmas party games you can play with things you’ll likely find around the house and that everyone will love! No need to play all of them, pick the ones that fit your group the best and play just those!
As someone who has been hosting parties for years and coming up with new Christmas party games every year, I’m here to tell you that these fun Christmas games will make every holiday occasion more fun.
They’re perfect if you need games for a large group, games multiple ages can play together, or just games to play with your own family!
I created 30 Christmas minute to win it games to play but you could easily just pick out a handful! These work really well for classroom parties (I should know – I’ve been the room mom for years), family parties, and even office parties!
They’re guaranteed to make your next Christmas party one to remember! I know they always have been at our past Christmas parties!
How to play Christmas Minute to Win It
All of these games are Minute to Win It style games and depending on the number of people playing, there are different ways you can play them. Don’t know what minute to win it games are? Start with my minute to win it games page that’s full of instructions, scoring ideas, and more!
Or just pick and choose a couple of games from this list and play them as standalone games, don’t do a Christmas edition of minute to win it games at all! Just use them as short games – perfect for kids Christmas game stations.
You can play the games in one of three ways:
- Individual games – one player will be trying to beat the clock for each game.
- Group games – pick two players for each game who will be going head to head against each other playing a game rather than trying to beat the clock.
- Team version – you’ll split your group into two (or 3 or 10 depending on the number of guests) teams. For each game, teams must choose one player from each team to compete head to head in the game with the other teams.
Tip!
If any of these games seem too easy or too hard for the group you’re playing with, feel free to adjust slightly.
Minute to Win It Christmas Games
These festive games are perfect for playing before or after Christmas dinner, at parties throughout the holiday season, or any time you’re just looking for some holiday fun! They’re the best Christmas games we’ve tried and just so much fun!
#1 – Marshmallow Munch
Supplies Needed: Mini marshmallows
How to Play:
Eat an entire bowl of mini marshmallows and drink a cup of hot chocolate in a minute or race to be the first.
#2 – Candy Cane Catch
Supplies Needed: Christmas tinsel
How to Play:
Tie a piece of ribbon or twine from one post or chair to another. Players must stand on top of the chairs and try to be the first to drop a candy cane from the chair onto the ribbon and get it to stay there.
Play until the first player gets a candy cane to catch on the ribbon or see who can get the most in a minute.
This is one of the more difficult Christmas minute to win it games for kids but is one of my favorite games for adults because it’s actually challenging.
#3 – Toy Touchdown
Supplies Needed: Christmas figurines
How to Play:
Players must pass small toys or ornaments under their legs like they’re hiking a football and have a teammate catch them in a small Christmas basket that’s attached to the second player’s back.
Teams race to be the first team to catch five or see who can get the most in a minute. This one is great for the entire family – just pair older players with younger ones!
#4 – Candy Cane Pond
Supplies Needed: large mason jar, a plate with a rim around the edges, something to weigh down the plate, candy canes, and a plastic cup
How to Play:
Place your plate on top of the mason jar and add the weighted item in the middle. Hang six of the seven candy canes on the outside of the plate to create your fishing pond.
Place a plastic cup on the other side of the table, at least a few feet away.
Unwrap the final candy cane per person (at least the straight part of it, you can leave the curved part wrapped) and give it to the player.
When you say go, players must put their candy cane in their mouth and race to hook one of the candy canes from the plate onto their candy cane. Players have to get all the candy canes from the plate to their cup to win.
#5 – Snowman Shake
Supplies Needed: White ping pong balls
How to Play:
Fill an empty tissue box with the snowmen ping pong balls (or small ornaments) and tape the tissue box (or use a velcro belt glued to the box) to the panty hose and tape around their waist.
The player has to shake all of the snowmen out of the tissue box before the time runs out. Or if you’d rather not decorate like snowmen, use ornaments instead.
If you’re looking for family-friendly Christmas activities that are also hilarious, this one is always a good time! Try it at your next holiday party, office party, or even just for a little friendly competition for a Christmas family night!
#6 – North Pole Pop
Supplies Needed: Balloons (these holiday balloons would be fun!) and winter gloves
How to Play:
The player has to pop 10 balloons using just their hands with winter gloves on before the time runs out.
We did this in our Avengers party with hulk gloves, and it was absolutely hilarious! Definitely one of the most fun minute to win it Christmas games for adults!
This one can be more difficult for younger children but makes a perfect game for a teen or adult type of party.
#7 – Jingle Bell Jam
Supplies Needed: Gift boxes
How to Play:
Before the party, fill ten boxes with different amounts of jingle bells then wrap like holiday presents.
The player has to shake wrapped presents filled with jingle bells to determine how many jingle bells are in each, putting them in order of the most jingle bells to the least.
When they think it’s correct, they can ask for a check and get told how many are correct then have to keep going until they get them all in order. Get it within the minute to win!
#8 – Naughty or Nice
Supplies Needed: Red and green candies
How to Play:
Set out bowls full of red and green candies, making sure to have the same amount in each one. Players must quickly go through a bowl of red and green candies and divide the candies (one candy at a time) into separate bowls across the room labeled naughty or nice. Red candies go into the naughty bowl and green candies go into the nice bowl.
First player to separate all of their candies wins.
#9 – Reindeer Wrap
Supplies Needed: Brown crepe paper
How to Play:
Players have to wrap a teammate from head to toe with brown crepe paper and top with reindeer headband to finish the challenge. If player breaks the crepe paper, they can continue wrapping to cover them completely.
You could also switch this up and use green streamers and wrap them up like a Christmas tree, bonus points for decorating them later!
#10 – Snowball Fight
Supplies Needed: White ping pong balls
How to Play:
The player has to bounce (or toss) white ping pong balls into an empty fish bowl at the other end of the table while other players are throwing cotton balls at the ping pong balls the player is bouncing, trying to knock their balls out of the way. Player has to bounce one ping pong ball into the bowl to win.
#11 – Rudolph Race
Supplies Needed: Red poms
How to Play:
This is one of my absolute favorite minute to win it Christmas games!
Give each player a red pom pom and a spoonful of vaseline. Players have to race to be the first person to put a red pom pom on Rudolph’s nose (make sure to put a bit of vaseline on his nose as well) on the other side of the room.
To play, players must dip their nose into the spoonful of vaseline then get the red pom pom to stick to the vaseline on their nose. Once the red pom is on their nose, they must move across the room and stick it to Rudolph’s nose.
The catch? They can’t use their hands at any time.
#12 – All Through the House
Supplies Needed: Mini Christmas figurines
How to Play:
Before the party, hide mini Santa or Christmas figurines like these little Christmas ducks all through the house.
To play, players must race to search the house to find a certain number of the mini Christmas figurines in the time limit, or the first team to find the number wins. You could even make this one a relay!
#13 – Ornament Roll
Supplies Needed: Ball ornaments
How to Play:
Give each player an ornament and a gift box and have them stand behind a lined taped on the ground with painter’s tape. Tape another line across the room (best done in a large empty room or gym).
To play, players must fan their gift box toward their ornament to get it to roll across the room and over the other line. Players can’t actually touch the ornament with the box, just use it to create wind to “blow” it.
#14 – Mistletoes
Supplies Needed: Christmas tinsel
How to Play:
Hang a thin Christmas ribbon or strand of garland across two chairs or posts, low enough to the ground that players can reach it with their feet if they’re sitting on the ground. Give each player plastic mistletoe, two for kids and three to five for teens and adults.
To play the game, players must race to be the first to hang the mistletoe on the ribbon using just their toes to hold it.
#15 – Trim the Tree
Supplies Needed: Christmas tree
How to Play:
Give each player a bucket full of plastic ornaments that have hooks on them and have them stand on a line of painter’s tape 10 feet away from the Christmas tree.
Players race to be the first to trim a tree by tossing ornaments from the line to try to get them to hang on the tree. First one to get five ornaments on the tree wins.
#16 – Mommy Kissing Santa
Supplies Needed: Hershey kisses, circle stickers, Sharpie
How to Play:
Before the party, put little stickers on some of the Hershey kisses with the word mom or Santa on it. Leave the rest of the Kisses blank. To play the game, set out the Hershey kisses in a grid (lined up) with the mom/Santa ones randomly mixed in.
To play, players must pick a Hershey kiss from the grid and look at the bottom. If they pick a kiss with nothing on it, they must eat the Hershey kiss before continuing. Players continue picking Hershey kisses until they find a kiss with a mom and a kiss with a Santa on the bottom.
#17 – Jingle Bell Rock & Roll
Supplies Needed: Ball ornaments
How to Play:
Place ten ball ornaments lined up on the end of a table and give the player 10 jingle bells and have them stand on the opposite end of the rectangle table.
To play, players must roll their jingle bells from one end of the table and attempt to knock off all ten ornaments from the opposite end of the table. If they run out of bells, they can go retrieve them and keep going, they just have a minute to get them all off.
#18 – Let It Snow
Supplies Needed: Plastic spoons
How to Play:
Give each player a plastic spoon and a cup full of cotton balls. On the other side of the room, place an empty bowl for each player.
Players must race to get 10 cotton balls from the cup to the bowl on the other side of the room, using just the plastic spoon. The plastic spoon must be held in the player’s mouth. If they drop a cotton ball, they should leave it and go back and get another one.
First player to get all 10 cotton balls in their bowl wins.
#19 – White Christmas
Supplies Needed: White streamers
How to Play:
Give each player two large rolls of white streamers. Players must hold one roll of streamers in one hand and one in the other. When the timer starts, players have to try to unroll both rolls of streamers, however they can. The only rule is that they cannot use their hands other than to hold the streamers.
#20 – Wreath Toss
Supplies Needed: Green or red poster board
How to Play:
Get cheap wreaths from Amazon or the dollar store and have players try to toss them onto empty paper towel rolls glued onto Christmas colored poster board. To win, players must land two wreaths on their paper towel roll.
#21 – Fill the Stockings
Supplies Needed: Stockings
How to Play:
Hang stockings (1 for each player) from a ribbon or rope tied tightly across from two posts or chairs. Give each player a bucket full of ping pong balls, preferably of different colors then send them across the room from the stockings.
Players race to be the first to bounce the ping pong balls into the stockings from across the room. If you have multiple colored ping pong balls, players can shoot for any of the stockings. If you’re using all white ping pong balls, I recommend assigning everyone to one stocking to make it easier.
#22 – I Want a Hula Hoop
Supplies Needed: Hula hoops
How to Play:
Give each player a hula hoop and set up one gift bag per person on the other side of the room. Players must roll their hula hoop down the hall and try to get it to land around the gift bag (make sure they’re heavy!).
First player to get their hula hoop to land successfully around the gift bag wins.
If they miss the gift bag, they must run down and get their hula hoop and run back. Or make it more difficult and make them hula back.
#23 – Sugar Plums Dancing
Supplies Needed: List of Christmas songs
How to Play:
Give each team a list of Christmas songs that everyone other than one person on the team can see. Teams must race to be the first to get their “guesser” to guess the title of all of the Christmas song titles on their list.
Teams can work together like in reverse charades to act out the song title but no words, no singing, and no sign language. It’s speed charades.
You can either do the first person to get through the entire list or first team to guess like five of the songs on the list.
#24 – Twelve Drummers Drumming
Supplies Needed: Plastic cup and chopstick
How to Play:
Give each player a plastic cup and chopstick. When you say go, players must place the cup face up (like if you were going to pour liquid into it) on the table or floor (their choice) then use the chopstick like a drumstick to get the cup to flip over and land upside down.
First player to flip their cup over and get it to land upside down wins.
#25 – Unwrap Race
Supplies Needed: gift boxes wrapped in a bunch of layers, oven mitts
How to Play:
Before the party, wrap up some gift boxes with a bunch of layers of wrapping paper.
To play, players have to put on oven mitts and unwrap all of the layers of the wrapped gift with the oven mitts on. First person to unwrap their gift wins.
#26 – Christmas Light Blow Out
Supplies Needed: chocolate chips, balloons, plastic cups, and milkshake straws
How to Play:
Place balloons upside down on top of cups (so they look like ornaments) on one side of the room. On the other side of the room, give the player a thick milkshake straw and a cup full of mini chocolate chips.
When you say go, the person has to shoot the chocolate chips across the room through the straw to try and knock the balloons off the cups. Time them and the person who knocks them all off the fastest wins.
#27 – Package Puzzle
Supplies Needed: boxes wrapped like gifts, a large box that fits all the others in it
How to Play:
Wrap up empty boxes and fit them as tight as possible into a larger shipping box so that you can still close it but so they really have to be put in there in a certain way to fit. Once you know they fit, remove them.
To complete the game, the team has to fit the packages into the box and close the lid like a puzzle!
#28 – Rudolph’s Inner Circle
Supplies Needed: fake Rudolph noses (or just use their regular nose but not as fun), red candies, and a paper with a circle drawn on it.
How to Play:
Give each player a paper and the same number of candies at a table, making sure the candies are by the circle but outside of it.
When the game starts, players use their noses to push those candies into the center of the circle. The game finishes when the first person has all of their candies in the circle without any on the line. The first person to get all of the reindeer treats into the circle wins!
#29 – Ping Pong Plunge
Supplies Needed: muffin tins, ping pong balls, water
How to Play:
Fill muffin tins halfway with ice cold water and place it on one side of a table or a room. Place a bucket of ping pong balls on the other side.
To play, players must bounce ping pong balls into the muffin tins and land one in each of the cups to win. If you want to make it harder, you can move the players back or get rid of the water!
#30 – Christmas Tree Tower
Supplies Needed: 21 green plastic cups, blindfold
How to Play:
Blindfold the player and give them a stack of the 21 green plastic cups. When you say go, they have to build a tower of the green plastic cups with six cups in the base, five next, and so on until they have a tower of 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Once the tower is built and approved, they have to carefully take it back down and stack the cups all together again – all blindfolded.
More Christmas Game Sets
If you want even more games that would work either as Christmas minute to win it games or Christmas games for families, try the ones from these sets!
- 12 days of Christmas games – games inspired by each of the 12 days of Christmas
- Reindeer games – all sorts of reindeer themed games including ones inspired by each of Santa’s reindeer!
- Candy cane games – an entire Olympics full of candy cane themed games!
- Nutcracker games – all sorts of nutty games inspired by nutcrackers!
- Grinch games – things like making a 39 1/2 foot pole and more!
Christmas Game Prize Ideas
Let’s be honest, most people want to win a gift card or cash. But if you want to make it more fun, do Christmas inspired prizes like one of the ideas below. Or create a Christmas punch game like this one and fill it with surprise prizes (that also include cash and gift cards).
- One of these hilarious white elephant gifts
- An awesome Christmas sweater
- Christmas game like Christmas-opoly
- Your favorite Christmas cookies (I suggest candy cane cookies) wrapped up with one of these Christmas gift tags
Tip!
You can choose either one winner (and 2nd and 3rd place) or you can have one winner per game! If you do one winner per game, I’d go with smaller prizes!
Christmas Games fAQs
How many people can play these games?
The beauty of these Christmas games is that you can use them with large groups, small groups, or even just your own family! If you’re playing with a large group, you’ll want to split into teams and have one player per team play each event. If you’re playing with small groups, you can have individuals compete against each other or just have one person do each event to win a prize!
Do you have any printable Christmas games?
If you’re looking more for printable Christmas games instead of active ones, try this Christmas trivia game, this Christmas music bingo, this guess the Christmas carol game, or even this Christmas movie trivia game.
Can I print the instructions for these games?
You can download a PDF version of the 30 games by clicking on the button at the bottom of this post. It will have all of these games in a printer friendly version that’s ready to go! If you want the additional games like reindeer games and candy cane games, you’ll have to go to those individual posts for all the details!
What are good Christmas games for the whole family?
The best Christmas games for a family gathering where you want everyone to be able to play together are simple games that everyone can play like these Christmas minute to win it games! All of the games are easy enough that kids, teens, adults, and even grandparents can play, which is what makes them so fun! Plus, you don’t have to worry about trying to buy gifts or figure out questions that work for all ages and genders.
More Great Christmas Games
I have an entire collection of awesome Christmas games – so many you’re guaranteed to find something for the party you’re looking for no matter the holiday theme!
- Saran wrap game – a holiday classic that always has people laughing!
- Dice gift exchange game – the best gift exchange game ever and all you need are dice!
- Christmas gift games – fun and unique gift exchange ideas for any event including ones that use Christmas cards, poems and more! They’re way more fun than traditional white elephant gift exchanges!
- Christmas emoji game – how many Christmas movies can you guess when they’re described just using emojis?
- Left Right Christmas game – two poems (one for adults, one for kids) for gift swapping!
- Christmas Jeopardy – this one is great for teens and adults and is so easy to play!
want more fun Christmas Games?
Print These Games
Want a printable list of all of these games? Click the button below or click here to be able to print all of these games at the click of a button! All of the best Christmas party games in one place!
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