Christmas Day Games for the whole family

Christmas time in our house means having some fun with family and friends. Over the last few years we have introduced different games to the mix. It’s a nice way to relax together after a big meal. When I choose a game for the day I look for something that will work with a big group, is easy to set up and easy to play for all ages. I thought I would share with you some of our Christmas Day Games for the whole family.

Nerf Gun Shooting Gallery

The first game I want to share for your Christmas Day Games is one that had us all laughing our heads off. Not the easiest to play but definitely a lot of fun.

To construct the game you will need the following:-

• Piece of MDF
• Large disposable cups – I used 23 in total
• Small pieces of paper with numbers from 1 – 23.
• Paper Christmas serviettes
• Rubber bands
• Nerf Gun
• 23 small gifts

I painted the MDF black because thats what I had on hand. You could use Green or Red for a more Christmas feel. Obviously you can make a much smaller tree than we did. We had a big group so made it large so everyone would get a prize.

Steps to Construct

• Paint board,
• Hot glue the cups to the board in the shape of a Christmas Tree as seen above. If you don’t have a hot glue gun or your glue is not strong enough you can use small screws to attach the cups to the board. We used the screw method because we made it way ahead of time and had to store it.
• Place a number in every cup and cover with 1/4 of a paper napkin. Attach the napkin with a rubber band. TIP: don’t double up the napkin or you will not be able to shoot a hole through it!!

Ideas for the gift box for your Christmas Day games

You don’t have to spend a fortune on gifts for the game.

I usually have a mix of good gifts and very small inexpensive ones. Some examples of what I use are:-

• Small Christmas Chocolates
• $1 scratchies
• Notebooks
• Pens
• Lip balm
• Books
• Jigsaws
• Small Lego kits
• Christmas socks
• Small games
• Skin care
• Nice tea

How you Play the Game

Each person has a turn at shooting the nerf gun to try and puncture a cup. If they do they keep the number inside.

Each person gets one turn and it keeps moving in order until all cups have been punctured.

When all numbers have been allocated the person who has number one gets to choose from the present box first. Then number 2 etc until you get to the last number and the last gift.

The next game is The Right Left Game

To play this game you need one person who will be the reader. You will then need the same number of gifts as you have guests (not including the reader).

Everyone needs to gather around a table or in seats close to each other. The reader then reads the story which contains the words left and right. Every time the reader says “right” everyone has to pass the gift to their right. When the reader says “left” all gifts are passed to the left etc.

This game has everyone in stitches trying to keep up with the reader. The reader needs to read fairly quickly to keep the game fast.

The Reading Material

You can find many different stories for this game online but I have our story ready to print for you in the Christmas section of our Free Resource Library.

Game Number Three of Christmas Day Games

I found some windup Christmas characters on Amazon and thought it would be fun to race them.

Tony drew up a race track for the game (you can obtain the PDF to print out at the end of this post).

How to Play

We had 12 people for Christmas so did three heats. Four people at a time. Place the characters in a box and have each participant draw one out.

Each player for the first heat will then place their character into the centre of the track while still holding it down so it doesn’t take off until someone says go!!. The two characters who cross the finish line first go through to the next round. We have our prizes set up as follows:-

• We have 7 main prizes and
• 13 lesser prizes
• From the first heat the player who cross the finish line first gets one of the main prizes and the three who remain get to choose from the 13 remaining prizes and you repeat this with each heat. The first two players over the line get to go through to the next heat.
• The 6 players who go through are then split in to two groups of three and race again. The winner of each of these two heats get one of the big prizes and the balance of players again get to choose a prize from the lesser prizes.
• You will then be left with two players who race to get the winner. The winner gets to choose from the last two gifts and the second placed player gets the last remaining gift.

Games like these are a lot of fun especially when you have guests of varying ages. You will find the race track in the Free Resource Library. It will need to be printed in A3 for the best results.

If you’re hosting Christmas this year I have some to great recipe books available in the shop.