You don't often think to play games on
Christmas Eve, but playing a game or two can be a lot of fun.
One fun game is ideally suited for anxious children, but could
also be for adults, if you want to add some fun for gift giving.
For children, this is a way to make that "open one gift on
Christmas Eve" rule a little more exciting and make it last a
little longer.
You create a hunt with clues, so the children have to follow the
clues to find their gift. Instead of the gift being under the
tree, for example, you might put it somewhere else, but the
children will follow clues to find it. For this game, you can
use anything to write your clues on. You could use Christmas
cards in their envelopes that you had extras of, you might cut
out Christmas tree shapes for this, or you might want to use
ornaments.
Whichever method you choose, write a clue on each of your items
and leave those around the house. You start by handing each
child the first clue. It might say, "you sleep here every night"
and the children will run to their beds. On their pillow you
have placed another clue that might say, "mom's eggs taste
better with this" and the children head to the spice cabinet,
where they find another clue on the salt. The final clue (and
depending on the ages of your children and their tolerance, you
might have only 5 clues for this game, or many more) will be the
gift itself. To make it extra fun, have the gift be under the
tree. Your children won't see that coming!
If you have a large gathering on Christmas Eve, try a circle
game. Have everyone get in a circle and the first person will
start with, "in my Christmas stocking there is an apple" and the
next person will add, "in my Christmas stocking there is an
apple and a boot". Each person will continue on, remembering the
previous items and the adding one of their own, and all in
alphabetical order. If you miss an item, you're out of the game
and the winner is the person who successfully remembers all the
stocking items over and over again each time they have to recite
the items and add to the list.
Looking for a little physical activity on Christmas Eve? How
about a rousing game of musical chairs using Christmas music?
This one can be particularly fun if you use upbeat and
well-known Christmas music. Use songs everyone knows and require
they sing along and dance while they run around the chairs. This
adds a fun element because you are likely to have at least one
person who gets so caught up in the music and dancing they don't
realize the music has stopped. This game is played like any
traditional game of musical chairs with the loser being the one
who doesn't get a chair when the music stops.
Since the big event on Christmas Eve is Santa's arrival, play a
game of "where's Santa"? In this game, everyone sits in a circle
and one person is chosen to be Rudolph. That person leaves the
room for a minute. A Santa is chosen among those left in the
room. Rudolph returns and begins hunting for Santa. Rudolph
should stand in the center of the circle and try to figure out
which person is Santa. Santa, meanwhile, winks at other people
in the circle. If someone gets winked at, they yell, "ho ho ho".
Once Rudolph figures out where Santa is, another Rudolph and
another Santa are chosen and the game continues.
By Christmas Eve, your Christmas cards have been on display for
a few weeks, so maybe it's time to play a game with them. Have
someone set up a laundry basket, or a gift box a few feet away
(the distance depends on the age of your players and ability).
Have them try to toss the cards into the box or basket. This
sounds easy, but different cards of different weights and styles
will react differently and can be harder than expected to get
into the box or basket.