Get your family or friends together to play a series of Family Party Games for good clean, holiday fun! Whether it’s for Christmas, New Years Eve, or fun any time of the year, discover an assortment of games played with players age 70 – 8!
Every Christmas for the past few years, my side of the company comes to visit and we collectively play a set of Christmas Party Games. Between my sister’s family of 5, including 3 boys, my family of 4, including 2 girls, and my parents, we have a big range of abilities, talents, ages, heights and strengths. It makes for a good time since I, as the host, come up with a series of games that explore all these areas!
While some of these have a hint of Christmas, they can easily be done for New Years Eve as well! Take note of some of these ideas and put them into play this holiday season, along with my tips!
Family Party Games Hosting Tips
- Designate a single host – In our game, it was me! I came up with the games, kept score and was the judge on any games that had questionable results. It always helped that pulling me out of game play made our group of 11 have an even 10 players with 5 paired teams. PS Make sure said host and judge can COUNT! I made a mistake right at the end and swapped the tied 3rd place teams with the 2nd on this photo but we figured it out soon after!
- Create teams – Since our group of 11 is made of people age 70 – 8, including some pretty competitive kids, I, as the host, predetermined pairs to both mix family groupings but also break up the ages/strengths. We have 5 adults and 5 kids playing so it made for an even amount of kid/adult team pairings.
- Create a scoring chart – I noted each game, the team breakdowns (which they got to name as a fun first step) and the points total. We awarded 1st place with 3 points, 2nd with 2 and 3rd with 1. This allowed for opportunities for even the underdogs to gain points in game play.
- Mix game abilities – Sure, physical challenges are great but younger/shorter kids might not have the advantage on all activities. Consider adding some mental or creativity options to stretch everyone’s strengths in this fun group game day. We did some physical games but also including some to do with counting, drawing and even a word search.
Family Party Games
- Muffin Tin Pong – The Setup: Fill muffin tins with papers assigning each spot a different amount of points. We went with points 1, 2, 3, 5, and 15 in different holes. To play: Each player takes a turn to throw ping pong balls in an attempt to get it into the muffin tin. We made it so you had to get all 6 balls in. The highest team score wins. Tip: Make sure there are walls or borders to help force the ball into the tins or it will take forever!
- 99 Snowflakes – I saw many versions of this game and could’ve easily created my own printable but I spotted this reel by Teaching With a Point that offered this as a free printable and signed up to get it! The setup: each person gets one print out and the first person to write the numbers 1 – 99 in the boxes is the winner. How to play: there is only one pen for the whole group playing. The first player starts writing their numbers while the person next to them rolls a pair of dice continuously until they roll a double and steal the pen and start writing their numbers. Tip: if you have a large group, 2 pens might help the game go faster but everyone seemed to like this one with the attempts to roll doubles fast!
- It’s a Me – This is simply a fun name for Mario Kart! My girls are not big video gamer kids but we did gift them a Nintendo Switch for their birthday last year with Mario Kart as their first game. My 3 nephews on the other hand, are big gamers! In regards to our Family Party Games play, I randomly selected 2 players to face off in one round and whatever your in the game was your score for that round. Lowest team score wins in this game! Everyone got a kick out of grandma and grandpa, the least gamer people you could possibly know playing their round.
- Candy Cane Taste Test – I designed this game years ago with my family in mind due to all the flavored candy canes that started coming out in the holiday season. We had to take a break from it for a year, due to a child’s food limitations with orthodontic work, but we brought it back this year with lots of fun flavors! The setup: Each player or team gets one guessing sheet and one candy cane flight strip. The host of the game breaks up a flavored candy cane and puts it on the same number on everyone’s flight strip. Each player tries the sample and puts down their notes about the flavor and their best guess on. Points were awarded for the most correct guesses in the flavor.
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