When you all get together for Christmas, you need an activity that will bring you closer together, make you laugh, and will build memories. Here are my tried and true activities that work!
I was introduced to a ‘formal Christmas Eve program’ when I married into a family of entertainers. I saw children getting up and reciting poems, playing violins, and singing Christmas songs. . . But because I also married into a hilarious theatre family who adore movies, I also saw every single song in “White Christmas” reenacted for our pleasure.
Christmas Eve was a magical program mixed perfectly with sweet and salty experiences.
That was when I realized that my family – who may not be ‘entertainers’ – were also hilarious, and were just waiting for someone to tell them to do something creative and funny for Christmas.
Not to brag, but every time I was in charge of an activity for Christmas, it totally rocked, and was the best thing of the night.
So let me share some seriously fun things to do for a Christmas Get-Together
- Christmas themed Marshmallows and Toothpicks. This game is like Pictionary, except you use, you guessed it, marshmallows and toothpicks. Beforehand I wrote a few Christmas related things on a paper, which people would have to recreate. I focused on Christmas songs, and it turned into a mesh of Pictionary and charades as people used the ‘bells’ they made to ‘jingle’ behind a ‘horse. Everyone got really into it, and there was a bunch of yelling. . . Which is a win in my book!
- Christmas song mad lib. Yet again, start with Christmas words, like -elf, snowman, silent night, reindeer- and every group will pick out 4-8 words from a hat. Then they also pick out a Christmas song (I used simple tunes like Jingle Bells, We Wish You A Merry Christmas, etc,.) and then they had to create a song – sing it and act it out if possible – using that tune and it had to include the words they chose. Everyone had a blast doing that and it was fun watching everyone show off their creativity.
- Pictionary, Charades, or Poor Man’s Cranium (also known as Celebrity and other names) using Christmas words: Again, using Christmas words, but doing a classic group guessing game. Simple but always a hit! Make sure to record as much as possible, because you know someone is going to be terrible at giving hints!
- Then my family moved, and we started sending out video challenges. . . These still can be done in person, but it’s also a fun thing to challenge beforehand, and just come together to watch. . .We were doing this long before tiktok or other social media videos was a thing.
- Pick a Christmas song, and change the lyrics to report on your last year.
- Pick a popular song and change the lyrics into a Christmas Song
- Pick a scene from a Christmas movie, and reenact it (the more obscure the scene the better)
- This one is a twist on a white elephant gift exchange, where you use dice instead of the boring ‘pick a number’. Check it out
Ok, so you may have caught onto a theme here, and that is taking something that works (game or song) and twisting it into a Christmas activity.
Yep. I’m actually not that creative, but I sure can steal ideas and make them better!