For the past few years, I’ve thrown myself a big Christmas/birthday party to celebrate with my family. We love to get together for the holiday, and Christmas Eve is also my birthday! As a kid, I wasn’t a big fan of having my birthday on a holiday, especially Christmas. Once I had my own kids, I just love filling the day with fun games, family gift exchanges, and lots of sweets! It’s been really special and something I look forward to every year.

We’ve played a variety of games over the last few years, so I’m sharing some of those with you in this post. My goal when looking for Christmas party games is to find one that doesn’t require expensive supplies and one that isn’t going to add more stress to an already busy season.

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Oven Mitt Unwrapping

This game is one we do every year. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s my kids favorite. It’s easy for them to participate in and since this is a family friendly party – this game is a winner.

In order to set this up correctly you’ll need 3-4 different sized boxes. (A lot of times I use boxes from my pantry, like a cereal box!) You also need 2-3 types of wrapping paper and plenty of tape. My suggestion would be to get these at your dollar store!

I’ve done different items for the gift. It’s usually a small gift card or just something that says “WINNER!” and I’ll have some baked goods to send home for the winner. I keep it pretty simple.

Place the gift in the smallest box. Wrap the box in multiple layers with different types of paper. You choose the amount (Just remember there’s still a lot of wrapping to do!). Next, place that box into the other box and begin wrapping that second box in multiple layers. If you have a third, bigger box, follow the same procedure.

Now you’re ready to play. You’ll want to sit in a circle on the floor or around a table. One person has the gift and a pair of oven mitts. (This is another great dollar store purchase, but these cheap ones from Amazon may do the trick as well!) The next player (to the left) has two dice. Play begins when the player with the dice starts rolling. While this is taking place, the player with the oven mitts will be trying to unwrap as much and as fast as possible. The play stops when doubles are rolled (two of the same number). At this point, the dice are passed to the left and the gift and mitts are passed to the left.

Move quickly! As soon as the next person starts rolling and gets doubles, you have to pass again. The game continues in this way until someone gets their hands on the actual gift inside. This can get really exciting and the best part is no one really knows how much wrapping paper or boxes there are!

4-5-6

Another game we love to play is 4-5-6. I believe it sells in the stores by the name of “Left, Right, Center”. We just grew up calling it something else!

We play for cash with this one, and it’s so much fun. All players that want to play must have 3 one dollar bills. This is a jackpot game so you may or may not go home with that money! The game also requires one set of three dice.

Sit in a circle with your three dollars in front of you. Whoever is first rolls the three dice. If it’s a 4: one dollar goes to the left. If it’s a 5: one dollar goes to the right. If it’s a 6: one dollar goes to the middle.

Now, those are the rules but there are so many different scenarios that could happen. For example, if you roll two 5’s and a 3 then two dollar bills go to your right and you get to keep one. If you roll three 6’s then all three of your dollar bills go to the middle.

The other rule you have to remember is you only roll as many dice as you have dollars. So, if you lost a dollar on your last turn then you only roll two dice on your next turn.

The trick is you want to stay in your circle, even if you lose your money. You never know if a dollar or two will be passed in your direction. The last person with a dollar that doesn’t roll it away WINS!

Here is a link to a video that shows a great visual to the game. In the video, they are using the LRC dice (instead of regular dice) and instead of dollars they use chips.

Jingle in the Trunk

You need empty tissue boxes for this one, the regular size. I think it’s more fun when you put two people up against each other, so you may want to have a couple boxes for this game.

To prepare for the game you’ll need to poke a hole on each side of the tissue box so that you can put a small rope or string through it and tie it around your waist. You’ll want the tissue box opening to face outward and the bottom of the box will be resting on your back side.

Some people fill the box with jingle bells (hence the name). You might be able to find something like that at the dollar store but I believe when we played we used candy, like Hershey kisses. Put a handful inside the box and play your favorite Christmas music.

The person(s) with the box around their waist will dance like crazy to try and get everything to fly out of the tissue box. Whoever gets the most candy out in a certain time – I’d shoot for 20-30 seconds – is the winner.

Mystery Gift Exchange

I learned this game at a bible study once and it was a lot of fun, so I shared it with my family last year. The game does have an “ultimate prize”, so you can decide what that is. The rest of the parts come from the participants.

I told my family to bring a gift that could fit into a brown lunch bag. Now, to make it even simpler, I set a rule that you couldn’t buy anything. So people brought a coffee mug, coozie, portable fan, a rat trap…there was some interesting stuff! Nothing was new and it was small enough to fit in the brown paper bag.

Before the game started, I set each item in a bag and stapled it shut so no one could see what it was. We sat in a circle and began to play.

Two dice are needed and everyone takes turn rolling the two dice and following the directions below:

• DOUBLES: switch bags with someone OR make two people switch
• ROLL 5: All bags go one to the right
• ROLL 9: All bags go three to the left
• SNAKE EYES: The ultimate Prize and Game Over

Depending on the dice, this game could be quick or take much longer. The neat part about it is everyone goes home with something! One way you could stall the game is to have a bag of candy ready to give to the first person to roll snake eyes. Then the second person could be the winner.

You can see in the photo I have the gift in the middle, a list of directions, and a couple bags of candy to stall if we needed to.

Best Christmas Games

This year I’ve decided to keep it simple and stick to our two favorite: oven mitt unwrapping and 4-5-6. These two games are a lot of fun and everyone can play, including the kids! Have you played any games like this? What are your favorites?

You know, I would definitely call myself competitive so I love playing games. Most importantly, I just love the memories shared playing these games with my family. I love that my kids get to experience the joy and excitement of participating with us, and it makes my holiday birthday even more special!