A playlist of the best Christmas songs ever, ones that need to be on every single Christmas party playlist! This also makes a perfect playlist for any Christmas music games you might want to play!
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Christmas Music Games
Two of my favorite party games are musical ones. In How Do You Doo, players have to sing “Doos” to get other players to guess a song. And in Name that Tune, players have to guess the song title and artist to win points for their team. I posted about How Do You Doo here and Name that Tune here, so I won’t go into the full instructions now. Or if you’d rather skip the playlist and see how well people know their Christmas music, this Christmas carol chaos printable game is awesome!
The Best Christmas Songs
For now, here’s a list of the best Christmas songs that would be perfect for any of these games. I only included songs that I personally recognize and ones that you’d find on the “best Christmas songs” lists. I do know quite a bit of Christmas music though so feel free to just use the ones that work best for your group if you think some of them are a bit obscure or not going to be guessed.
Since so many people sing the same Christmas songs, I didn’t put artists with these ones for Name That Tune. You can either just use whatever version of the song you already have (and add the artist yourself) or you can play without artists. I linked to either my favorite or a popular version of the song below, helpful especially if you don’t know all of these songs yourself!
It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
Jingle Bell Rock
You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch
Feliz Navidad
A Holly Jolly Christmas
Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
The Chipmunk Song
The Christmas Song
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
Santa Baby
Do You Want to Build a Snowman?
Where Are You Christmas?
The Xmas Song
Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas
All I Want For Christmas is You
12 Days of Christmas
The Chanukah Song
The Dreidel Song
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear
Frosty the Snowman
Angels We Have Heard on High
Mary, Did You Know?
Last Christmas
Wonderful Christmas Time
Happy Xmas
Blue Christmas
The Christmas Shoes
Linus and Lucy
Little Saint Nick
Silent Night
We Three Kings
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
We Wish You A Merry Christmas
Jingle Bells
Away in a Manger
Sleigh Ride
Carol of the Bells
Little Drummer Boy
O Come, All Ye Faithful
O Holy Night
Let It Snow
Silver Bells
Deck the Halls
Ave Maria
Joy to the World
White Christmas
The First Noel
What Child is This
Here Comes Santa Claus
All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth
I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
Do You Hear What I Hear?
God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
Winter Wonderland
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Up On the Housetop
O, Little Town of Bethlehem
Go Tell It On the Mountain
Oh and I’ve created three downloadable versions for you below to play the games – one that is for music lovers, meaning it’s the harder version without any hints/artists, one that should be used for How Do You Doo that has hints (to help people who may not know which song Sleigh Ride for instance is), and then one that’s just in a list (not for cutting out) for Name That Tune. Enjoy!
<< Download the Music Lover “hard” version for How Do You Doo >>
Cindy says
11/09/2017 at 6:31 amLove love love your ideas and games!!
Joy says
12/02/2017 at 12:55 pmThis is the best game! Please don’t ever delete your link to it. The links to the songs are the PERFECT sampling of the songs!! FYI- frosty and rudolf are links to books, not the song and joy to the world is the oldies version, not the Christmas carol. But, I love, love, love your list and post. Great job And thank you sooo much! Merry Christmas!
BritniV says
12/03/2017 at 12:08 pmThanks so much Joy, just fixed those links!
Lisa Brennan says
11/08/2018 at 12:58 amThanks for creative party games.
Amanda says
11/28/2018 at 8:49 amHi- I am clicking the links (I tried safari and chrome) and the first two links for the game are not working.
BritniV says
12/03/2018 at 1:23 pmIf you go to the bottom of the page it says download and gives you a couple of options (3). Click on those links depending on the game you want. If it still doesn’t work. Email me and let me know what you need and I will get you a copy. Sorry.
Naomi says
12/10/2018 at 11:00 pmI cannot figure out how to email you (find your email address) to get the links for the music downloads I need. Unfortunately the links on your site are not working. ☹️
BritniV says
12/11/2018 at 10:49 amThe links are fixed now (sorry about that – a plugin update broke them and I had to find the original files), and I’ve emailed you a copy of the PDF lists!
Danielle Kessler says
12/04/2018 at 4:37 pmHello! I am trying to click the link to download the song list for the How do you doo game and it is not working. Says 404 error. Can you please email to me?
BritniV says
12/11/2018 at 10:56 amEmailed!
Kristine says
12/07/2018 at 1:09 amThank you so much for all the ideas! Like Amanda, I’m having trouble with the downloads for both versions of “How Do You Doo?” I get a “404” page not found error for both of them.
BritniV says
12/11/2018 at 10:54 amEmailed you a copy!
Kristine Krohn says
12/13/2018 at 1:48 pmThank you!
BritniV says
12/14/2018 at 11:21 amYour welcome!
Sue says
12/07/2018 at 8:37 amWould any ideas for large groups of adults to play. I belong to an emergency services group this is for the Xmas party
BritniV says
12/07/2018 at 9:20 amHere is a list of our most recent Christmas party games –> https://www.playpartyplan.com/christmas-games/
Julie says
12/11/2018 at 1:22 pmIs there an actual link to download the music snippets of these songs? All I get on the 3 links is a written copy of the songs. Thanks,
Julie
BritniV says
12/12/2018 at 2:22 pmNo, unfortunately that would be a copyright violation for me to provide the songs themselves. I just have the lists and you can decide which ones you want to use them download them on your own.