This Christmas light scavenger hunt is such a fun activities for families to do while driving around looking at holiday lights! Or switch it up and turn it into a competition and see who can find all the items on this printable Christmas light hunt first as one of the best Christmas party games!
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Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt Idea
This year we’ve been doing something different for the holidays. We’ve been doing one of these Christmas activities for families every day as part of our Christmas countdown.
The theme for yesterday’s activities was “Sleigh Ride,” and for our activity we chose to go on a car ride looking for holiday lights.
Instead of just going on a car ride, I thought it’d be fun to put together a Christmas light scavenger hunt (since you know we love scavenger hunts) to look for as we drove around!
I shared it on Instagram and everyone asked me to share the printable Christmas light hunt, so here you go! And don’t think this is like a typical clue based Christmas scavenger hunt, this is more of a how many things can you find hunt instead!
How to Do a Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt
As I mentioned, we just looked for the things on this list while we were driving around looking at Christmas lights, but you could totally make this a more festive thing or even do it as one of the Christmas games at your holiday party!
Here are my recommendations for setting up a Christmas light scavenger hunt!
Have a Small Family Light Hunt
If you want to do what I did and just look for lights while you’re driving around your neighborhood, it’s really simple.
Simply print out the PDF you can download at the bottom of this post (in the pink form!). You can either do one for the entire car or one per person if you want to make it more of a competition to see who can find things first in the car.
Make sure everyone also has a pen to mark off things as you find them.
Oh and don’t forget the snacks! I picked up this tray and these buffalo plaid snack containers at Oriental Trading Company, and they sure came in handy last night.
We filled up each of the snack containers with our favorite snacks then put the tray with snacks in the middle of the car to share on the drive! It made this Christmas light scavenger hunt all that more fun!
For the hunt, simply drive around your neighborhood (or another neighborhood known for Christmas lights) and mark things off as you see them. Feel free to use your best judgement if you think something might fit a category.
Like the “Star Wars” carolers we saw last night. Pretty sure this Star Wars Christmas decoration we saw isn’t technically carolers, but we called it good.
Have a Big Group Christmas Light Hunt
Okay so you want to turn this into a party game? Here’s how I’d do it.
Split your group into teams of 4-6 players and make sure that everyone is dressed warmly. You can either make a rule that everyone has to go by foot or if your teams are old enough, they could go by car as well.
Give each team one of the Christmas lights hunt cards and a pen. Tell them they have 30 minutes to find as many of the items on the scavenger hunt as they can. As they find items, they must take a picture with a phone (make sure each group has a phone) and mark it off on their list.
If people are driving, I recommend upping the time limit to an hour since they’ll likely go further away from the starting spot.
Once they’ve found all of the items on the list or when the time is up, everyone comes back to the starting place to see who found the most items. The team that found the most items in the 30 minutes or that finished the list first (with all of their pictures verified) wins.
Need some fun prize ideas? These are some of my personal favorite Christmas prizes!
And p.s., make sure to have some of this homemade hot chocolate and these warm chewy molasses cookies waiting for when they get back. They’ll appreciate a warm drink and treat!
I also recommend doing this toward the end of the party, after you’ve done any of these other Christmas party games, because people will likely be ready to just relax after going all over the neighborhood in search of lights!
Other Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt Ideas
Not into the items on my Christmas light hunt? Luckily there are a ton of different options out there, so feel free to try one of these instead! Or you could skip the lights part and just play this Christmas hunt game instead.
- Editable Light Scavenger Hunt (you could customize it with things you know are in your neighborhood)
- Light Scavenger Hunt with Photos (the pictures make this a great option if you have kids who can’t read)
- Christmas lights bingo
- Individual Christmas light hunt (individual ones that fit on a Hershey bar)
- Elf sized Christmas light hunt (kids do this with their Elf on the Shelf)
Download the Christmas Light Hunt PDF
If you would like a copy of the Christmas light scavenger hunt, enter your first name and email address in the PINK form below. If you do not see the form, click here to get to it.
You will immediately receive a copy of the PDF hunt and receive a copy to your email as well. This is the only way to get the form.
I recommend printing on white card stock so the scavenger hunt is sturdier and if you want to use it year after year, laminating is a great option as well!
Other Printable Christmas Games
- Christmas charades game
- Roll a Christmas tree game
- Saran wrap ball game
- Christmas emoji game
- Christmas Never Have I Ever
- Christmas Family Feud
- Christmas movie bingo
- Christmas carol mix-up game
Don’t forget to pin this Christmas light scavenger hunt for later.
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