Christmas party games for kids: free printable games for school and home

Paper-only party games, by how much setting up they need

Pick games by the time you have the night before. All of these work indoors.

• No printing at all. Charades is the classic. It began as a word riddle devised in France in the 18th century, and in the modern game nobody may speak: one player acts and the team guesses. Write Christmas actions on slips of paper (building a snowman, wrapping a wobbly present, ice skating) and pull them from a hat. Would you rather also needs nothing but a voice: read a question and children walk to one side of the room or the other. Our 24 Christmas would you rather questions are listed on the page, so you can read them from a phone.
• Print and play. Christmas I spy (38 little drawings to find and count, with an answer key), the Christmas word scramble (12 words and a word bank) and a race to finish a Christmas word search take five minutes to print and no explaining.
• Print, cut and hide. Bingo needs its caller cards cut out, the Christmas memory game needs 24 cards cut and, ideally, glued to thin card, and a scavenger hunt needs its pictures hidden before the children arrive. Do these the day before and keep each game in its own envelope.

How to run Christmas picture bingo with a whole class

Bingo is the one game that keeps a whole class busy at the same time. In the common form of the game, Britannica explains, the centre square is free and the first player with five called items in a row, vertically, horizontally or diagonally, wins. It also notes that the earliest name, lotto, belonged to a children's game first recorded in 1778, so it has been a party game for a long time.

1. Print. The picture bingo PDF has 24 numbered 5×5 cards, two pages of caller cards and a caller checklist. Each card has 24 of the 30 Christmas pictures, each with its name, plus the free centre square.
2. Cut the caller cards and put them in a bag or hat. Keep the checklist with the caller so you can check a winning card.
3. Choose markers. Crayons are the simplest: children colour each square as it's called, and the card goes home as a picture. For younger groups, crayons also mean no buttons or coins to drop or put in mouths, and no food counters.
4. Call slowly. Hold up the picture as well as saying the word, so children who can't read yet can play. Tick it on the checklist.
5. Check the winner. Ask the child to read back their line while you check the list.

Because no two cards share a winning line, two children can't win with the same row, but two can still finish different lines on the same call. Decide before you start: both win, or both play on for a full card. More than 24 children? Let pairs share a card, one spotting and one colouring, or print the set twice and accept that some calls will produce matching winners. For a group of three- to five-year-olds, use preschool Christmas bingo instead: 12 cards of 3×3 big pictures, played to a line of three or the whole card.

Christmas party games by age

• Ages 3 to 5. Short turns and pictures, not words. Preschool bingo, the preschool scavenger hunt, the six-pair preschool memory game and the easy I spy all suit this age. Stop each game while they still want more.
• Ages 5 to 8. The classroom scavenger hunt has 12 pictures to find, each with its name underneath, and picture cards to cut out and hide. Picture bingo, the medium I spy and would you rather all fit here too.
• Ages 8 to 12. Older children like to compete and to be in charge. Let one of them call bingo, run the family Christmas quiz in teams (20 questions, answer key on its own page), or race through the hard word scramble. Christmas word bingo, with 36 words in large print, is a step up from the picture cards.

A one-hour class party plan

Plan the hour to the minute and put the running order on the board. Raising Children Network's advice for autistic children at parties is to explain what will happen when, for example food first, then games, and a written order like this helps every child who likes to know what's next.

1. 0 to 5 minutes: settle. Hand out bingo cards and crayons while you explain the plan.
2. 5 to 20 minutes: picture bingo. Two or three rounds: a line, then four corners, then a full card if time allows.
3. 20 to 35 minutes: scavenger hunt in pairs. Hide the 12 picture cards before the class comes in; one sheet per pair halves the printing.
4. 35 to 50 minutes: would you rather, then the quiz. Get everyone moving with five would you rather questions, then sit in teams for the quiz.
5. 50 to 60 minutes: quiet finish. I spy or a colouring page while the room is tidied and coats go on.

In New Zealand, term 4 of 2026 ends no later than Friday 18 December, and many schools hold the party in that last week, so print the week before. Our Christmas printables planner has the sheet counts for a class party.

Games for kids and adults together

At a family Christmas the trick is putting a child and a grown-up on each team, so the grown-ups read and the children answer. The family quiz was written for this, with questions from about age seven up. Picture bingo and the memory game also work across ages because they depend on luck and looking, not knowledge.

Grown-ups who want more than bingo can play the online games on a big screen: our free Christmas games online include a trivia quiz, jigsaws, a memory match and Christmas mahjong, with no download or sign-up. For a longer evening, the Christmas Party Games Pack has games that aren't on our free pages: two read-aloud pass-the-present stories (pass the gift every time you hear LEFT or RIGHT), act-it-out and draw it cards, A to Z categories, party bingo and a gift swap dice game, best for ages six and up with adults.

Prizes, losing and children who don’t celebrate

Keep food out of the games and the prizes. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells teachers to avoid allergens in classroom activities, including counting and parties, and to use non-food rewards such as special privileges, extra recess and small non-food prizes. Stickers, a turn as the bingo caller or first pick of the colouring pages all work, and our free Nice List certificate is a prize every child can take home.

Some children find losing hard, especially when they're excited. Raising Children Network notes that children, and adults, find it easier to lose a game of luck than a game of skill, because luck says nothing about how good you are. That makes bingo a good first game, and a team quiz a gentler second one than a race. Praise good turn-taking out loud, and have the winner choose the next game.

Not every child celebrates Christmas. The Anti-Defamation League's guidance on the December holidays in school says children should be able to opt out and have other enjoyable activities instead. Winter versions make that easy: winter bingo, the winter scavenger hunt and winter I spy play exactly like the Christmas ones. Pages print on A4 or US Letter; if they come out cropped, our guide on how to print colouring pages covers the settings.