There is nothing better than experiencing the atmospheric Advent season and Christmas together with games and crafts. And these 5 beautiful Christmas family games will make this time unforgettable.
What thoughts move your child at Christmas time, what wishes does he or she have? Have you ever written your own Christmas story together as a family? Time – especially the best time – flies by incredibly fast and especially the Christmas time with the children is something you want to remember forever. These 5 Christmas family games combine play, fun, imagination and creativity and at the same time create lasting memories: in the form of a unique Christmas story, special works of art and the immortalised thoughts that move our loved ones.
Stimulate the senses, spark imagination, encourage creativity and create unforgettable memories of this time together – we have collected the best Christmas games for this in best lists at Greatime. Here you’ll find great Advent games, beautiful Nicolaus games and imaginative Christmas games for the senses, which – we hope – will give many children and their families an especially wonderful Advent and Christmas season!
5 Gorgeous Christmas Family Games
For children, the Advent and Christmas season is charged with smells, stories, the magic of lights and excited anticipation. At no other time of the year are their senses so stimulated with scents, tastes and sounds and there is nothing better than taking full advantage of this time and making crafts together and playing lovely Christmas family games.
So, here we go!
Unforgettable Christmas Family Games #1 – The Christmas Post
Materials: Notepads in different colours, ribbon, pens.
Every day so many thoughts run through our minds and it is high time to record the most important or most beautiful thought of the day with the Christmas Post!
Every day from 1 December to 24 December, each member of the family takes a colourful notepad and writes, draws, paints or sticks on it the thought or experience that moves them the most. Then everyone ties their thought with a piece of gift ribbon or with a piece of beautiful Washii Tape. All thoughts are collected in a bowl next to the Advent wreath. You can hang your thoughts on the Christmas tree shortly before Christmas or simply place the bowl under the tree.
At Christmas, you open all the notes, read them out loud and share your thoughts, funny moments of Advent and what moved you. And of course, you don’t throw away these treasures of thoughts, but keep them to bring them out in 10 or 20 years and enjoy them again.
Tip: If each family member uses a piece of paper of the same colour, it will be easier to keep track of who wrote what if there are several children in the future.
Unforgettable Christmas Family Games #2 – But It Happened a Long Time Ago…
Material: Cardboard cards, pens, paper.
The Christmas story begins with the words: “Now it came to pass in those days that a commandment went out from the Emperor Augustus that all the world should be treasured”. Thereupon the heavily pregnant Mary and Joseph set out on their journey and everything else is history and is written in the Bible. Christmas is the occasion for many great stories – e.g. Charles Dickens’ famous Christmas story – so why not make up and tell your own own Christmas story?
In the middle of the table, place a pile of cardboard cards and pens. Now everyone can take turns to write on 3-4 cards with terms that fit the Christmas season they experienced or tell an adult what to write on them. Collect these terms and lay them out in the middle of the table in an open and legible way. All these terms must appear in your Christmas story.
Examples of terms: angel, Christmas tree, Christmas market, handicraft accident, skating, feeding ravens, cough, grandma’s sciatica, etc.
Now the first one starts with the sentence: “But it came to pass at that time…” and finishes it as he likes. Now it’s a round robin. Each player is allowed to continue the story for two sentences and includes the terms they have written down. When a player has included a term in his sentences, he may take the card with the term on it and place it in front of him. This continues until all the terms have been used up and the story is over.
The best storyteller is the one who has the most cards in front of him at the end.
Tip: This game is one of the most nostalgic Christmas games for children and the family. It is worth writing down the story as you tell it – maybe even drawing it on – and saving it for later!
*
Unforgettable Christmas Games #3 – The Christmas ABC
Materials: Paper, pens.
Each player gets a piece of paper on which they write the alphabet vertically. Now the youngest teammate starts, says A out loud and then silently recites the ABC in his head until the player to his left says aloud: Stop! shouts. The child announces aloud the letter they have arrived at, and then everyone has 10 seconds to write down a term that fits the Christmas season next to the letter.
A like Advent wreath
B like Bethlehem
C like Christ
Now it is the turn of the player sitting on the right to recite the alphabet etc. If he stops at a letter that has already been recited, this letter is skipped and the next letter that is still free is recited.
When all the letters of the alphabet have been recited, everyone takes turns to read out the word for the first letter. Then to the second, etc.
For each matching word, the player writes 10 points next to it. If several players have the same word, each player gets only 5 points. Unsuitable words or no words at all score 0 points.
It is worth keeping the children’s Christmas ABC as a souvenir.
Unforgettable Christmas Games for Kids #4 – Interpreting Christmas Motifs
Material: Newspaper pages, blindfolds, candle.
Each player gets a newspaper page and a blindfold with which they blindfold themselves until they can no longer see. Now an adult turns on Christmas music – or, for example, a YouTube clip from a film that fits in with Christmas and the Advent season.
All the participants listen intently and then tear an object – something that in their imagination exactly matches what they have heard – as a figure from their newspaper page.
Now everyone takes off their blindfolds, the figures are held in turn in the light of the candle and everyone else tries to guess what the figure represents and then together you point out what you see in its shadow cast.
It is one of the Christmas games for children where imaginative children can fully express themselves!
*
Unforgettable Christmas Family Games #5 – Christmas Dice
Material: Din A4 cardboard coloured, paper glue stick, sharpie.
Make a cube out of a coloured Din A4 cardboard before 1 December. You can find a template to print as a .pdf here. On each of the 6 sides of the cube, the family together thinks of a wish to write on it. Now each family member gets to roll the Christmas die once every day from 1 December and their wish is fulfilled by the family on the same day or week.
Examples:
- Lighting the candles on the Advent wreath
- Singing or listening to a Christmas carol together
- Tape a homemade star/snowflake to the window
- Telling a Christmas story / reading aloud
- Play a game together
- Baking biscuits or eating one
Whether celebrated religiously or not, Christmas is the celebration of family, when we take time for each other. We make little joys for each other every day in the lovingly self-made Advent calendar, bake biscuits together, feast together, make Advent wreaths and Christmas decorations together and these Christmas games for children create memories that last.
We wish everyone a wonderful Christmas season! 🙂
Now that you’re here, happily browse our Christmas ideas, as well as our general tips for activities with friends, as a couple or with the family 😉
If you like our ideas and don’t want to miss any more, just follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
*There are affiliate links in this article. This means that if you order a product through one of these links on amazon, Greatime will receive a small commission. The product will not cost you a cent more.