The holidays are finally here, and for many of us, that means it’s time to celebrate with a few favorite traditions .
There are the classics, like decorating the tree or bingeing on Christmas movies.
If you’re looking to start a new tradition or two with your family this year, check out these fun ideas.
They’re great for holiday parties, too!
Santa hats game
For this game from Lalymom , you’ll need a sleeve of red cups and some white pom poms.
Take turns building a tower alternating between a cup and a pom pom. Whoever makes the tallest tower before it collapses wins!
The Christmas Pickle
Ahh, the glorious Christmas pickle.
According to tradition, parents would hide a pickle ornament in the tree. They blend in surprisingly well.
Whoever spots the pickle ornament first is said to have good luck for the rest of the year.
White elephant
This game was made popular by a very famous and very funny episode of The Office .
Basically, everyone brings a wrapped secret Santa-style gift for the game. Once an order has been determined, the first player unwraps a gift.
The next person can either steal that gift or choose a new gift from the pile, and this repeats until everyone has a turn.
I’m sure where you can see where this is going, but it is really fun.
Candy cane hunt
This is sort of like an Easter egg hunt, but for Christmas. Hide candy canes around the house and have the kids find them all.
You can even make a grand prize for whoever finds the most!
Snowman hat game
I love games that involve any sort of drawing, so I will definitely be playing this game from Housing A Forest on Christmas Eve.
Give all your guests a paper plate and a marker. Have everyone place the plate on their head.
Someone will begin reading instructions for how to draw a snowman (for example: draw a larger circle for the body and a smaller one on top for the head).
Without peeking, everyone has to draw a snowman on their plate.
Whoever has the best-looking snowman at the end, wins!
Dollar store stockings
Stockings are one of my favorite things about Christmas morning.
If you want to add a fun tradition to filling them, raid the dollar store. Set a budget for everyone in your family and have them pick items from your local Dollar Tree.
They can be genuine gifts or gag gifts, but it’s always fun to see what everyone can find for a few bucks.
Rudolph Race
Here’s another fun game from Play Party Plan you can play at your Christmas party. Think of this game as a Christmas version of pin the tail on the donkey.
Have everyone dab a bit of vaseline on their nose and stick a pom pom on. The idea is to try and get the pom pom to stick to Rudolph without using your hands. I think this is what they meant by “reindeer games”.
The Oven Mitt Game
Seriously, where have these games been my whole life?
Wrap a present for the game and use extra tape if you want to up the difficulty level.
Have everyone sit in a circle with a pair of dice, with the first gift-opener wearing oven mitts.
They get to try unwrapping the present until someone rolls doubles. Then, the person to their right can have a go at unwrapping it with oven mitts on.
The person who successfully opens the gift gets to keep it!
Tree Toss
This is an easy game that will keep the kiddos occupied after Christmas dinner.
Set up plastic cups in a tree formation and have the children take turns tossing chocolate kisses into the cups. The first child who gets 10 kisses in cups, wins!
Reindeer Games
So apparently you can buy these inflatable reindeer antlers and use them to play ring toss. Well, I know what I’m asking Santa for this year.
But seriously, how much fun would this be? And, it’s definitely not just for kids. I’m sure adults would get a kick out of it, too.
Christmas scavenger hunt
Instead of keeping all the gifts under the tree for Christmas morning, create a scavenger hunt. Give clues to your family to help them find their gifts for a unique Christmas morning activity.
Where’s the fun in just sitting around and opening gifts? Make them work for it a little.
Gag gift exchange
I’ve done this before and it is one of the highlights of any party. It’s also way more memorable than a regular secret Santa exchange.
Set a budget and let people find the most ridiculous gifts they can. Taking a trip to the thrift store is always a good idea for this tradition.
Pull a Christmas prank
We don’t want to the pranks to be too mean, but how funny would it be to wrap a Christmas present in zip ties? Or, wrap a gift card in the biggest box you can find and fill it with a ton of tissue paper. The options are endless.
Just remember, Santa is still watching so don’t be too naughty.
Ugly Christmas sweater photo
This tradition is a classic, but one that I fully endorse. Ugly Christmas sweaters are just really fun. Hideous, but fun.
If you want to take it to the next level, you can host a DIY sweater night and have everyone decorate their jumpers with tinsel, glitter, and anything else you can attach with a hot glue gun.
Play the Right and Left game
This is another present game that sounds so fun!
There are templates you can find online for this, but you’ll need a story that repeats the words “right” and “left”.
Have everyone sit in a circle and begin passing a present while someone starts reading the story.
Whenever the story says, “right” pass it to the right, and when it says “left,” start passing to the left. Whoever has the present at the end of the story gets it!
Saran wrap ball challenge
I had never heard of this game, but I know I have to try it this year.
Pick up a bunch of small gifts like dollar store items and candy. Wrap them in a big ball of saran wrap, layering the gifts throughout the ball.
When the ball is done, grab a pair of dice and gather your family. Someone starts trying to unwrap the ball as fast as they can — any gifts they find are theirs to keep. As soon as someone rolls doubles, that ball is passed to the right for the next person to unwrap.
