Christmas Sports Games

The pre-Christmas period brings coziness, contemplation and often more time with family and friends to the fore. Why not use this time to get active together and enjoy the festive atmosphere at the same time? Christmas sports games offer the perfect opportunity for this. Not only are they fun, but they also promote a sense of togetherness – and burn off a few calories after all the gingerbread and cookies!

Here are a few ideas for Christmas sports games for the whole family or friends that provide exercise and fun indoors or outdoors.

12 Christmas Sports Games That Get Your Body and Mind Vibrating

Christmas sports games not only offer variety, but also bring families and friends together. The festive touch lifts the spirits and the exercise gets the body in shape for the festive treats. Whether outside in the snow or inside in the living room – these games are easy to play and turn any celebration into something special. This way, sporting and festive experiences can be combined in a very special way. Happy playing and a merry Christmas time!

1. Snowball Fight

The snowball fight is probably the classic among Christmas sports games and delights young and old alike. As a winter game, it not only promotes physical fitness and coordination, but also brings a lot of fun and action into the cold season.

Various rules can be set for a snowball fight: players can compete against each other in teams to hit the opposing “snowball camp” or defend certain targets. For even more excitement, “snowball fortresses” can be built behind which the players can take cover. Alternatively, the snowball fight can also be designed as a target game in which each player in turn has to try to hit a specific object from a distance.

Whether played freely or with rules, a snowball fight is a perfect Christmas game that combines exercise and fresh air with lots of fun and helps to enjoy the winter atmosphere to the full.

2. Throwing Snowballs at Targets

This is a great game for indoors and outdoors that will put your aiming skills to the test. To prepare, draw targets with different point values on paper. Outdoors, you can either attach them to the garden fence, garage door, trees or lampposts, indoors you can simply stick them to the wall.

How it works: The participants throw snowballs (indoors: cotton balls, crumpled up paper or similar) at the targets and collect points. The player with the most points after several rounds wins.

3. Reindeer Race

In case you’re asking yourself “Are they serious? Who the hell has reindeer in a stable? Or a stable at all?”, don’t worry – you don’t need to live in Lapland for the kind of reindeer racing we’re talking about.

It’s very simple: the participants form teams of two – one “reindeer” and one “sledge” (person being pulled). The “reindeer” ties a rope around its waist, while the “sled” sits on a sledge and is pulled. The aim is to complete the course as quickly as possible. There is a change after one run.

Tip: A course with small obstacles or slalom stations makes the whole thing even more exciting!

4. Reindeer Basketball

There is also a festive version for all basketball fans. All participants put on reindeer antlers and try to throw a ball (or cotton balls, crumpled up wrapping paper, etc.) into a small basket or bucket. Each successful placement scores one point, and after a set period of time, the winner with the most hits is crowned.

Additional challenge: Small obstacles in front of the throwing basket increase the level of difficulty and provide additional excitement.

This game is particularly suitable for children.

5. Biscuits-on-the-Spoon Race

A Christmassy version of the egg race: instead of an egg, players balance a cookie or gingerbread cookie on a spoon and run a certain distance with it. The aim is to get the cookie safely to the finish line without it falling off.

Tip: If you want to make it more difficult, you can lead the course around corners, through door frames or over carpet thresholds.

6. Christmas Three-Legged Race

A fun option for the whole family! The legs of two players are tied together so that they have to run like a “tripod”. The aim is to cover a distance together as quickly as possible.

But what does all this have to do with Christmas? Here comes the Christmas twist: the participants wear Christmas costumes or tie a string of lights around their waist to make the race even more fun. They also have to sing Christmas carols while running!

7. Snowman Competition

A game for all ages that encourages creativity and teamwork. Depending on how many of you there are, you form two or more teams. The teams use either real snow (if available) or materials such as white absorbent cotton balls, cardboard and glue. The aim is to build the most creative snowman in a given time.

If you don’t have any real snow available, the snowman can of course be much smaller. In this case, it’s best to agree on an approximate size beforehand.

You can either play the snowman building competition for real time, i.e. whoever finishes first is the winner, or you can choose the winner by judging beauty. In the latter case, an independent jury decides at the end or, if there are more than two teams, the teams themselves vote on who has created the most creative or most beautiful snowman sculpture.

This game is ideal for outdoor and indoor fun with young and older children.

8. Christmas Tree Bowling

A great indoor option that is easy to implement with just a few tools: Use empty plastic bottles as bowling pins and decorate them for Christmas, for example with colorful wrapping paper or a string of lights around them. The “bowling ball” can be a small medicine ball or a rolled-up snowball made from socks.

The rules are very simple: the players try to knock down as many “Christmas trees” as possible with one throw. The player with the most hits wins!

9. Santa Claus Painting Relay Race

Team spirit and speed are required here. In this race, teams have to draw a large Santa Claus during a relay race. At the finish line of a running course, provide each team with a large sheet of paper or cardboard and a suitable pen, e.g. a felt-tip pen.

The race runs as follows: one player at a time runs to the painting station and is allowed to paint a certain detail of Santa Claus, which is announced out loud beforehand by a referee, for example: “left leg”, “right hand”, “pointed cap” etc.

To make it even more exciting, you can decide on a different way of moving for each round, such as hopping on one leg, walking backwards or crawling on all fours. This is either agreed in advance or announced by the referee. You can also play so that the referee can call out something at any time, even during a round, which must then be carried out immediately.

The winner was the team that first drew a presentable Santa Claus.

10. Santa Claus Obstacle Course

This course is one of the funniest Christmas sports games, if only because of the spectacle for the spectators. The participants slip into a “Santa disguise” (red clothes, Santa hat and possibly a Christmas hat) and then have to run through an obstacle course as quickly as possible.

Course ideas: Crawling under tables, climbing over cushions or slaloming around chairs – anything that promotes movement and coordination is allowed. Whoever completes the course the fastest wins the title of “Best Santa”.

11. Loading Santa’s Sleigh

Many Christmas sports games thrive on players taking on a role, in this case that of eager elves helping Santa load his sleigh. The aim of this game is to transport as many ‘presents’ as possible from Santa’s toy factory (= starting point) to the sleigh (= finishing point). The first team of elves to fill their sleigh is the winner.

However, you don’t necessarily need real sledges for this game; moving boxes, bicycle trailers or ball carts (if you are playing this game in a sports hall) can also be used as “sledges”. It is important that the “sledges” are the same size so that the game is fair.

You define Santa’s toy factory or toy warehouse as a clearly defined area in which “presents” are stored, which can be balls of different sizes, for example, but you can also use a collection of shoe boxes, moving boxes and gift boxes.

You can also be creative with this game when it comes to transporting the presents to the sledges, depending on whether you are playing it indoors or outdoors and how many people there are. For example, you can introduce the rule that only one present can be transported at a time in a box that has to be pulled with a rope. If there are enough players and space, you can also turn it into a kind of relay race or set up additional obstacles over which the gifts have to be transported.

12. The Secret Route to Santa Claus

Celebrities often have a hard time protecting their privacy. Of course, this also applies to Santa Claus – every child knows that the way to Santa’s house is secret, right?

This game is particularly suitable for children. One child at a time has to walk blindfolded along the path to Santa’s house, while the other children direct them by shouting: left, right, two steps forward, head down, etc. You can mark the path with various objects, but you should avoid any risk of injury. One option for indoors is to build a course out of sofa cushions, soft armchairs and beanbags. In a gym, marking cones or mats can also be used as boundaries.

This game is not so much about winning as it is about the fun of finding your way blindfolded.

Happy holidays and have fun trying out these Christmas sports games!

While you’re here on Greatime, why don’t you stay a while and browse around? You’ll find lots of content here on the topic of Christmas, such as more Christmas games for children and
for adults, but also for other occasions such as New Year’s Eve, Easter or Halloween. We have also collected numerous tips and games for birthdays, children’s birthdays, weddings and stag parties. In our shop you can also purchase ready-made games designed by us for various occasions. Why don’t you  have a look at them?

Do you like our website and want to stay up to date with the latest articles from Greatime? Nothing could be easier; just follow us on Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest.

*This article contains so-called affiliate links. This means that if you buy something through it, we may receive a small commission. However, this will not cost you a cent more.