Fun Christmas Party Games using Christmas Cards

Every year I try to come up with fun Christmas party games and this year I decided it would be fun to use a traditional element – Christmas cards – to create three new Christmas party games. Enjoy!

I’ve included some games that are really interactive and others that are more passive, meaning your guests can just play on their own throughout the party. If you’re looking more active games, try these Minute to Win it Christmas games! 

Christmas Card Matching

In this game, guests will be challenged to match the front of Christmas cards to the captions inside. 

Supplies Needed: 

1. Christmas cards – I recommend getting ones that the inside caption isn’t extremely obvious (i.e., not ones that rhyme or are specific to the image on the front). The inexpensive, generic cards are actually great for this because the words inside are typically pretty generic.
2. Large poster board
3. Pens and paper for your guests

Prep:

1. Cut each of the cards in half. Make sure that you know which front goes to which inside.
2. Create a poster board with the fronts of cards on one side and the insides of cards on the other side, making sure to mix up the order of the cards (i.e., don’t put a front and inside that go together next to each other).
3. Give each of the fronts of the cards a number and each of the insides of the cards a letter.

Play: 

1. Have guests guess which card front goes with which card inside by writing down the letter that matches each number.
2. At the end of the party, reveal which cards match. Whoever matches the most cards correctly wins a prize!

Christmas Card Captions (aka Christmas Card Balderdash)

In this game, guests will be challenged to create Christmas card captions that sound real enough that the other guests will be bluffed into guessing that it is the actual caption, kind of like a Christmas card Balderdash! And if you don’t know what Balderdash is, you can check out the original game here. 

Supplies Needed: 

• Christmas cards – get ones that will be tough to guess or are funny/not obvious
• Pens for guests
• Small slips of paper (pre-cut)
• Pad of paper for keeping score
• Bowl
• Coins, poker chips, or playing pieces for each player

Play: 

1. Whoever is first picks a random card from a pile of Christmas cards. That person shows all of the other players the front of the card and then writes down what is actually on the inside of the card on a slip of paper, folds it, and puts it into the bowl.
2. Each of the other players writes down their own “caption” for that particular Christmas card on a slip of paper, folds it, and puts it into the bowl. Players should be writing captions that might fool others into guessing their caption as the correct one.
3. After all players have put captions into the bowl, the person whose turn it is (from #1) reads all of the captions out loud to the group then puts the captions in a line on the table.
4. On the count of three, all players (other than the player whose turn it is) must put their playing piece next to the caption they think is the real one.
5. Players score points for their guesses and captions:
   • 1 point goes to any player that guesses the correct caption
   • 1 point per guess to any player who has other people guess their caption as the real one (so if player X wrote caption A and three people thought that caption A was correct, player X would get three points)
   • 3 points to the player whose turn it is if no one guesses the correct caption
6. Record scores for that round on the pad of paper.
7. First person to score 10 (or another designated number) wins.

Dear Santa

In this game, players are split into teams and challenged to write the most creative letter to Santa using Christmas cards provided. 

Supplies: 

• Christmas Cards -I  recommend ones that have some sort of funny or unique phrase on the inside
• Pen and paper for each group

Prep: 

• Divide your guests into teams of three or four depending on the number of people are playing
• Pick an unbiased judge (will not be playing)

Play: 

1. Give each team 5-10 Christmas cards and tell them that they must use the words/phrases in their Christmas cards to write a letter to Santa. They can use as many or as little of the word as they want, but they must use at least one word from each of the cards.
2. Explain that prizes will be given for the best letters in various categories but don’t tell them the categories.
3. Set a timer and tell each team to write their letter.
4. Once letters are all written, have one representative from each team read the letters out loud.
5. After all letters have been read, turn over to your judge to choose the winner(s). Some categories for “winners” can include things like – favorite overall, most words from the cards used, most clever use of cards, Santa’s Choice, etc.

Looking for more Christmas party games? These posts have over 25 party games and gift exchange ideas!