Christmas Party Games For Adults At Home: 18 That Aren't Office Games

A Christmas party at home is a different animal to the office do: no HR, no strangers, and people who already know each other's business. The games can be sharper and the rounds can be shorter.

These work with eight people in a living room or twenty spread across a kitchen.

Games that start without an announcement

• Post-it foreheads with Christmas figures: the Grinch, Mariah Carey, a sprout, Alan Rickman in Die Hard.
• Guess the Christmas hit from two seconds of the intro. Two seconds, not five.
• Most likely to, Christmas edition - most likely to cry at an advert, most likely to still be up at 3am.
• The advent calendar game: a numbered envelope per guest with a dare or a question inside.
• Guess the price of the ugliest ornament in the room.

Team rounds

• A Christmas quiz: film, music, food, adverts and 'name the year' rounds.
• Articulate or Heads Up with a Christmas word list.
• The wrapping challenge - wrap an awkward object (a mop, a football) with one hand tied.
• Pictionary on a big pad, Christmas words only.
• Christmas song emoji round on a printed sheet. Easy to make, surprisingly hard.

Drink-optional games

• Never have I ever, Christmas edition, played with fingers rather than shots.
• Mulled wine roulette - one mug has cranberry juice, nobody knows whose.
• Ring of fire where any drink counts, soft included.
• The cracker joke competition: worst joke buys the next round or makes the next tea.
• Beer pong with a Christmas hat forfeit instead of the drink, if half the room isn't drinking.

Gift-swap games for a house party

• Bad Santa (White Elephant) with a £10 limit - steal rules and a three-steal cap.
• The dice steal game: sixes and ones move parcels round the circle until the timer goes.
• Secret Santa with a theme: something secondhand, something from a garage, something edible.
• Full rules for all three are in our Secret Santa and gift swap guide.

Shop Christmas cards

How to write it so it lands

• Put the games near the food, never in another room.
• Have the playlist and the quiz ready on a phone before anyone arrives.
• End on the gift swap - it gives the night a finish line.

Where to shop next

• Christmas gift ideas hub
• Christmas Day games for after dinner
• Christmas games for the whole family
• Christmas Eve games and traditions
• Christmas games for two people
• Secret Santa and gift swap games
• The left right Christmas story game
• Christmas charades and Pictionary word lists
• Christmas Day quiz
• Christmas morning games for kids
• Twelve games of Christmas
• New Year's Eve party games
• Boxing Day walk and outdoor games
• Christmas board games
• Boxing Day games
• Board games hub
• Secret Santa gift ideas
• Free feel good tools
• Shop Christmas cards
• Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
• How to make a balloon arch
• Photo booth prop ideas
• Pin badges
• All guides

Frequently asked questions

What are good Christmas party games for adults at home?

Post-it foreheads, a Christmas quiz, guess the intro, Pictionary and a gift-swap game like Bad Santa. Keep each to ten or fifteen minutes and run them between food and drinks rather than as a sit-down activity.

What Christmas party games work without drinking?

All of the quiz, music and team rounds work exactly the same sober. Use fingers for 'never have I ever' and forfeits like wearing a hat instead of drinking, so nobody has to announce they're not drinking.

How many games should a Christmas house party have?

Two or three. One while people arrive, one after food, and the gift swap last so the evening ends on it.

What's a good prize for a Christmas party game?

A tin of chocolates, a bottle of supermarket fizz, a scratch card or the last cracker. Cheap and funny beats expensive every time.

Do you sell games or party supplies?

No - we make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. The games here need little or nothing to run, and the only products on this page are our own cards.