5 Great Christmas Party Games for Ministry
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It’s Christmastime and that means there will be a lot of parties. Whether you’re holding one for your whole church, during a service, for your volunteers, or for some friends, you’re going to want to play some games.
But what kind of games can you play that are fun for everyone? There are a mountain of great games out there and none of the ones I’ll share today are unique to me. Rather, these are all games I’ve played in my own church with kids and adults. Everyone loves them. Some of them take a little work to put together while others can be thrown together quickly. I’ll start with the easiest and get more complicated as we go.
1. Merry Masterpiece
This game is a ton of fun to play no matter what your age, and it's super easy to deploy. All you need is a list of Christmas themed images, crayons, and paper plates.
Have everyone take the paper plate and hold it on top of their head. Then take a crayon and draw a Christmas themed image. Things like a candy cane, a Christmas tree, a star, keep it simple. You don’t want the game to go too long.
Give everyone 30-60 seconds to draw the image. If your group is sitting at tables, have them pick the best picture and bring it to the front. Then let the whole room vote on which they think is the best. The loudest cheering is my favorite voting method.
You can play several rounds based on how much time you have and how much the crowd is enjoying the game.
Kids, teens, and adults loved playing this game!
2. Act out the 12 Days of Christmas
Nothing can get more chaotic than a bunch of people trying to act out a scene quickly. The 12 Days of Christmas is perfect for this. You can have one representative from each group act it out, but it’s much better if the whole group participates.
Assign each group a particular day of Christmas and challenge them to come up with a way to act out the gift. You can find a list of the 12 days here.
After about 5 minutes, play the song. My preferred version is Reliant K’s, but I use Amber Sky’s cover, which you can buy here.
As each gift is named, have the groups perform. It’ll start easy but by the time you get to day 8 or 9, it gets intense. There isn’t a winner for this one. It’s just fun.
3. Reindeer Antlers
This is a classic kidmin game that works with adults as well. Get some panty hose and small balloons. The larger the hose and the smaller the balloons the better. You can start with the balloons inflated or make it a part of the game. It depends on how much time you have and the age of the people playing.
Once you say go, players will take their inflated balloons and stuff them into the legs of the hose. This is much harder than it would seem, especially if your balloons are big. Once the legs are filled (about 5 for each leg) stick the hose upside down on a runner’s head. The hose will look like antlers!
Then have the runner run to the other side of the room. The first team there wins.
4. Family Feud
Everyone loves trivia. Some of the biggest and longest running game shows are trivia games. Family Feud is one of them. It’s based on survey questions where contestants guess how the responses. Players get points based on how many answers they get correct. Three incorrect responses and they lose. You can see a list of full rules here.
My favorite scoreboard from crowdcontrolgames.com is discontinued, but this is a good alternative from the same company. For only $25 it’s super functional and has all the things you need to run an authentic game.
Choose two teams of four players to play against each other. My church participated in Junior Bible Quiz, so we had an 8 pad quiz box that made it easy for players to buzz in. If you don’t have one you can just have them raise their hand.
When I didn't use the quiz box, I had my kids run to the center of the room place a bean bag in a hoola hoop. It made the game more dynamic and easier to judge who gets to answer.
You can find a lot of Christmas themed feud questions here. The winner gets a big prize. This game takes while to play. I played it several times as the center piece of entertainment for my all church Christmas party. It could also work with a small gathering. You just need a host and two teams.
5. Kahoot
In the same vein as Family Feud, Kahoot is a quiz game that everyone with a cell phone can play. It has a free app that doesn’t require a sign in. There are many trivia games already created on their site with every theme under the sun. You can also set up an account and create your own.
I suggest before you begin the game, have a link or a QR code on your screens where people can download the app. This will make the game start much faster and smoother. Once you begin, put the game code on the screen and everyone punches it into the app. Then they’re in!
As the games progresses, players get instant feedback. The host screen shows a leaderboard after each question. At the end, all the scores and tallied and a winner is declared.
All these games are easy and fun. And for any Christmas get together, that’s all you really want. Make sure that you keep the night moving and don’t linger too long on anyone game. Kahoot and Feud tend to drag if you have too many questions. Keep an eye on the crowd and don’t be afraid to call an audible and shorten the activity.
Have fun and Merry Christmas!
