Here are our 10 favourite games to play over the festive period.
1. Do you want to draw a snowman?
You need:
paper plates
felt tip pens
Hold a paper plate on your head. With your other hand try to draw a snowman. Compare your pictures and pick your favourite.
2. Chocolate Tumble:
You need:
one small piece of chocolate/gingerbread man per player
Place a chocolate button/small gingerbread man on your forehead. Try to move it from your forehead to your mouth without using your hands! Try wiggling your eyebrows, twitching your nose or making different facial expressions to help! When we played this with chocolate buttons, it was even funnier because they started to melt and stuck to us!
3. Snowball Transfer
You need:
2 plastic bowls
a spoon
cotton wool balls or white pom poms
a scarf/tea towel to use as a blindfold
Place a bowl of cotton wool 'snowballs' on the table. The person playing should wear a blindfold and hold the other bowl on the top of their head. With their other hand, they should try to scoop the snowballs from the bowl in the middle of the table and transfer them to the bowl on the top of their head. You could set a timer and see who can get the most snowballs into the bowl on their turn.
4. Oven Glove Present Opening Challenge
You need:
oven gloves or ski gloves
empty boxes wrapped in wrapping paper
Take it in turns to try opening a 'gift' while wearing over gloves. Wrap objects from around the house or empty boxes using wrapping paper. You could also use this reusuable wrapping paper.
5. Let it Snow!
You need:
a bowl
a plate
flour
butter knife
chocolate
Fill a bowl with flour. Press it down and add more until it is full. Put a plate on top then tip the bowl over. Lift the bowl carefully to create a mound of flour on the plate. Place a chunk of chocolate on the top. Players take it in turns to cut away some of the flour. They should try not to make the chocolate fall. If someone makes the chocolate fall they should try to pick it up using just their mouth!
6. Christmas Scavenger Hunt
You need:
a list of household objects including some Christmassy items
One person is in charge of reading the list. Call out one of the objects and see who can be the first person to find it and bring it back.
7. Chocolate Coin Hunt
You need:
Chocolate coins
Hide the chocolate coins around the house and see who can find the most. You could write letters on the coins and then see if you can work out the word when you have found them all e.g. Santa. Alternatively, you could hide candy canes.
8. Snowman Stack:
You need:
3 large marshmallows per player
The aim of the game is to be the first person to stack the marshmallows on top of each other to make a snowman. To make it hard for older children or adults you could use tongs. You could also see who can make the most snowmen in one minute using mini marshmallows.
9. Christmas Card Tree Race
You need:
10 Christmas Cards
Stand the Christmas cards on their side so they make a triangle shape like a Christmas tree. Line them up along the edge of a table. Each player should start in the middle of the table. They need to blow the card so that it falls off the table, then move to the next card working their way along towards the end of the table. The first person to reach the end is the winner.
10. Baby it's cold outside!
You need:
2 sets of clothing e.g. christmas jumper, hat, scarf, gloves, coat etc.
Choose 2 players. See who can get dressed first. You could support younger children who could go head to head with an adult.
Click the badge below for even more games and challenges to play over the festive period.
