The Best Christmas Games To Play With Your Friends & Fam

Looking for ideas to jazz up your Christmas party? Take a read of our guide on the best Christmas games to play this festive season.

Whether you’re gathering with friends within your student accommodation or getting together with family for the holidays, these are real crowd pleasers with something for everyone to enjoy.

From quiz games to reindeer pong to card games to many more, these will totally level up your games night.

Don’t forget to get some holiday-themed prizes for the winners – in it to win it, right?!

1. Reindeer Pong

You’ve heard of Beer Pong, the much-loved game that is an absolute must for any get together.

But, we bet you haven’t heard of… Reindeer Pong!

If you’re on the hunt for Christmas games this one is SO much fun.

All you need is some beer, a pack of cups, balls to throw and of course, reindeer antlers to wear.

If you don’t fancy drinking, you can swap the beer for a non-alcoholic alternative instead.

First, you’ll need to place a good amount of cups on an empty table, we’re talking a whole pack to play this game properly.

Then, pour your beer of choice into each cup making sure each cup has the same amount, not too much though, although it’s up to you how much you want in there!

Now, align your cups into a triangle shape and divide your group into two teams who will be taking it in turn to throw the ball into the cups.

Take it in turns for each team to aim the ball into a cup, if they get it in, the other team has to drink the beer – you know how it goes!

You can get a regular beer pong set off the likes of Amazon, or if you’re feeling super festive swap it for prosecco pong instead.

2. Heads Up!

Let’s face it, we’ve all just spent tons of Christmas presents and we don’t want to splash the cash on games.

That’s the great part about Heads Up! you can download it on your phone for just £1.79.

It’s a fun twist on Charades, the aim of the game is to guess the word that’s on your head within 60 seconds as the other party-goers try and give you clues.

You may have seen this game on the Ellen Show, as it was created by the celebrity!

There’s over 40 different themes from naming celebrities, to singing, to accents, to superheroes, to movies.

You can even play this game online on FaceTime SharePlay if you want to play with family and friends virtually – yippee!

It’s super easy and fun to play, so forget about having to explain the rules over and over to your older family members on Christmas day.

Heads Up! Is available to download on both iOS and Android.

3. Cards Against Humanity

If you haven’t heard of Cards Against Humanity then where have you been for the past couple of years?

Whilst it’s not explicitly a Christmas game, this card game is an absolute must for a get-together with friends or family.

It’s been labelled as a “party game for horrible people” as the way it works is players complete fill-in-the-blank statements using words or phrases from their handful of cards.

You can choose whatever white card you want to in response to another player’s question from a black card.

Then, all the players put their card face down and the person who answered the question must read them out loud and find the best answer.

The aim of the game is to answer in the most hilarious or clever way that you can.

We’d suggest playing this game with at least 4 people, but the more the merrier!

There’s not really a limit to how many can play as there’s 600 cards.

Although, we’d probably recommend not playing this game with children, and to be wary that some of the jokes could come off as offensive to some.

Although, there is a family alternative to the popular game available.

4. Picolo

Next on our list of Christmas games you need to play at your festive gathering is Picolo.

This is another game which is available to download from your phone, so you don’t need to faff around or pre-order anything before your holiday celebrations.

Plus, this one’s free to download so it’s a winner if you want a cheap games night, or if you want a games night on the go!

When the night starts to get late and everyone’s had a few drinks, whip Picolo open and shake things up.

If you’re a fan of games like Never Have I Ever or Truth Or Dare, you’ll like this one.

The way it works is you input every player’s name into the app, then answer the questions that show up as a group or one by one and follow the instructions.

No matter how mad the challenges are, the aim of the game is to answer them or follow what the prompt states, or you’ll receive a penalty.

Some of the game penalties for failing to answer a question or follow an instruction can be to “drink 2 drinks” for example.

However, it doesn’t have to be just alcoholic drinks, feel free to play with non-alcoholic options like mocktails!

This game is certainly guaranteed to make you and your friends and fam laugh, download it and give it a go to get in the holiday spirit.

Piccolo is available to download for iOS or Android.

5. Monopoly

Whilst we all know the classic board game Monopoly, we couldn’t leave it off our list as it’s the perfect game for a merry little celebration.

When it comes to Christmas games, we’re sure everyone’s got Monopoly in their house somewhere, you can even get a holiday-themed addition!

The way the Christmas-themed addition works is you choose a special Christmas token like a reindeer, a snowman or Santa himself and you move around the board collecting good and bad parts about the season of goodwill.

You can play with up to 6 players, although this game does tend to take longer to complete so be prepared to be playing for a short while.

Get some friendly competition going and play a game of Christmas Monopoly!

6. UNO

After you’ve finished eating your dinner and you’re looking for ways to spice the party up, a great Christmas party game which is super easy to play is UNO.

Whilst there are absolutely tons of Christmas games, this one is one of our favourites as it’s something that every member or your family or friend group will enjoy playing.

If you somehow didn’t grow up playing this iconic game then what are you playing at?!

The rules for UNO are to take turns racing to get rid of all your cards by matching a card in your hand with the current card shown on the top of the desk, either by colour or number.

The objective of the game is simple, you’re aiming to be the very last person to play all of the cards in your deck, when you have one card left you need to shout “UNO” – don’t forget!

You can play UNO with up to 10 people or play in teams, the first person or group to reach 500 points will win the game.

If you haven’t already got the UNO card game you can get it online, or download the app to play from your phone for iOS  or Android.

7. Christmas Karaoke

Christmas wouldn’t be complete without a bit of karaoke now would it?!

If you’re searching for a game to get the good vibes flowing at your holiday party, then organise a sing-along with your fam or friends.

There’s plenty of karaoke games out there, but we recommend getting your own wireless karaoke microphone and having some fun singing along to your choice of songs.

There aren’t really any rules when it comes to a karaoke session which makes it SO much fun.

Why not take it in turns to sing holiday anthems and judge which person or group performed the best?

You can vote for the winner and have a mini X Factor competition at home – release your inner Mariah Carey!

8. Trivial Pursuit

Our last Christmas game is a perfect way to entertain your party guests.

You’ve most likely heard of Trivial Pursuit, but in case you haven’t the aim of the classic game is to answer trivia and pop culture questions.

If you enjoy a pub quiz then bring the challenge to your dining table and play Christmas Trivia with up to 6 others – may the best Elf win!

The best part is, you can play individually or within teams and show off how much you know about certain topics like history, pop culture, science, art, sports and more.

There’s tons of different editions of the game with some focusing on films and TV shows or different decades.

You can purchase the board game online.

As you can see, there is a huge variety when it comes to party games to play at Christmas.

Whichever of these festive games you choose to play with your friends and fam this year, you’ll be guaranteed a fun-filled time.

Let the games begin!

Struggling to find a Secret Santa present? Take a read of our guide on The Best 10 Secret Santa Ideas For Students This Christmas.