How to host a Christmas Holiday Party

Dust off the Christmas Tutu......

Christmas party games are a must for any Christmas Holiday celebration. Here are a few of my favourite games and activities for any Christmas gathering.

Christmas Memory Tree
The cheeky elves have stolen items that were hanging on the magical Christmas tree. This is played like a memory tray game. Have children look at the tree and items hanging on it, place a cover over the tree and remove one item, children must correctly guess what the missing item is.

Christmas Memory Tree is a great warm up game for party arrival

Magical Reindeer Food
Secret Ingredients:

• Oats (reindeer love oats!)
• Glitter moonlight dust (silver glitter)
• Giggle dust (Red/Green or Gold dust)

Magical Reindeer Dust. Source: Listen In Georgina Hall Blog

The special poem you could print out onto small card and attach to either an organza bag or simply a zip-lock bag could read:

Expecting a visit from Santa?
Here is a recipe I have found
It is a special reindeer food
to  sprinkle on the ground
The oatmeal is for energy
The sparkles are for flight.
So sprinkle the reindeer food
on Christmas night!
All of Santa's reindeer
will love this healthy snack
and next year Santa and his reindeer
surely will be back!!!

You could make the ingredients in the children's hands explaining each of the ingredients and the magical properties of each. Each child gets a pinch, then stir once to the left, twice to the right (using your magical pinkie of course), then all skip outside to sprinkle in the garden and make a magical wish. Alternatively, why not create a Christmas treasure hunt with the clues. Each clue could contain one  magical ingredient at a time. Then mix, stir and sprinkle.

Reindeer Poop and Snowman's Poop

Pin the Nose on the Rudolph
An oldie but a goodie. Blindfold one child at a time and have them pin the red nose on Rudolph.

I love the pin the nose on Rudolph that Fiona Carter from Living on the Crafty Side of Life  played

Reindeer Candy Canes
 These are simple for any age to make. Set up a craft station which displays:

• Candy Canes
• Googly Eyes
• Red pipe cleaners cut to a 2 inch length
• red and green fabric balls
• craft glue bottles

Reindeer Candy Canes easy party craft

Reindeer Hokey Pokey
Little kids will love singing along with the actions. Get kids in a circle and sing loud and strong!

You put your antlers in,

You put your antlers out.
You put your antlers in,

And you shake them all about.
You do the reindeer pokey,
And you turn yourself around.
That's what it's all about!

• You put your right hoof (hand) in
• You put your left hoof (hand) in
• You put your hind legs in
• You put your tail in

My Jodie loved playing Reindeer Hokey Pokey at playgroup!

Reindeer Antler Game

Make 2-4 teams.  Hand each team one pair of pantyhose and 1 balloon to each player. Each team should have about 8 balloons.

On the word "go", the teams race to make reindeer antlers, by blowing up the balloons and stuffing them into the pantyhose. Then one team member wears the antlers and sings the first verse of Jingle Bells.
The first one to do so wins for the team.

Santa Relays
Here are a few relay ideas for teams. Mix the adults and children together to make the teams even.

• Santa Flag Race: Paint tins (4 per team) red and have plastic toy candy cane decorations to use as the flags. Play in the same way as a school carnival flag race is run.  
• Ride the reindeer: You will need one toy reindeer horse on a stick (find them at Kmart, Target, novelty stores), jar of Vaseline, red fluffy balls and one reindeer antler headband for each team. Have teams line up and one at a time they must place a red nose (red fluffy ball dipped in Vaseline) on their nose, don the reindeer antlers and then ride the reindeer around a marker located 20 metres away and back. They then tag the next team member. The team who completes the course first wins.
• Santa Sack Race this simply is a sack race using red sacks
• Santa Pop Place a chair for each team approx 20 metres in front of the start line. Each team member must one at a time, put on a Santa beard, Santa hat and blow up a balloon. They run with the balloon to the chair and must pop the balloon by sitting on it. They run back and tag the next team member. First team who completes the relay first wins.
• Christmas Dress up relay Make two piles of Christmas clothing (hats, boots, red shirt, beard etc... and divide the group into teams. First players race to the dress up clothes from their team's pile. When finished, the player must take off the clothes run back and tag next player. The team that dresses and undressed first wins

Christmas Wreath Relays

Santa Says
This is a great game to use at the beginning of the party to ensure all kids are listening and following instructions. Play the game like Simon says. Santa will give orders but only those instructions which are proceeded with "Santa Says", should be followed by the players. Any player who follows instructions without "Santa Says" are out.

Pass the Present  Play like pass the parcel. Simple and kids love it.

Giant Christmas Cracker Pop game - just think Pinata Christmas style!

Wrap the Present Challenge
Each team is given their own present wrapping supplies of equal numbers of wrapping paper, sticky tape, ribbon, five different sized boxes, scissors, pen and 5 cards.
On the word 'go" teams must race against the clock to see which team completes the wrapping presents challenge the fastest. The first team to wrap all of their boxes completely with wrapping paper and ribbon are the winners.

Christmas Draw on your head:


Everyone places a large book on their head with a piece of blank paper on it. They each have a pen. The host then gives a series of instructions. Without looking, the players draw onto their page, which is over their head. Here are the instructions:

1. Draw a line for a floor
2. Draw a Christmas Tree.
3. Draw a star on top of your tree.
4. Draw a fireplace with a mantel next to the tree.
5. Draw a stocking hanging from the mantel of your fireplace."
6. Draw a present below the tree.

Have everyone remove their pictures from their heads. It can be pretty funny to see what you have drawn.

The host now offers points for random hits.
1. 2 points if the tree touches the floor.
2. 2 points if your stocking is touching your mantel
3. 1 point if your star touches your tree.
4. 1 point if your star is above your tree
5. 1 point for every Christmas ornament ball that is ON your tree, etc.
6. 1 point if your fireplace doesn't touch the tree (it's a fire hazard!)
7. 1 point if you actually drew something decorative on your stocking.
8. 2 point if your present if under your tree.

The winner is then the person with the most points.

Christmas Face Painting

Christmas Face Painting  Kids love to get their face painted.
Water Games  For a warm Christmas party, why not try cooling down with these water games

Christmas Candy Kebabs. Sourced from : Sweets Indeed

Christmas Candy Kebabs  I blogged earlier this week about the amazing Sweets Indeed Candy Kebabs. Why not trying to make these at your party as a craft/take home activity. A helpful hint is to place a hard candy on the bottom of the kebab stick so your lollies do not slide down and also to spray with cooking oil the stick so lollies slide on easily.

What's in Santa's stocking game

What's in the Christmas Stocking
Divide players into teams of 3-5 people per team. Give each team a Christmas stocking full of items that has been tied shut with a ribbon.  Set a timer and give each team 3 minutes to feel the stocking and write down all the objects that they can identify by feeling them through the stocking. The team with the most correct items wins.

Christmas Tree Lottery

Your guests will love this idea! Tie onto a small christmas tree various Lottery Scratch n' Win tickets for guests to choose and scratch. This is a family tradition for us. One year, one lucky relative won $200.
Have Fun and Happy Holidays!!

Ollie our very own Christmas Pug