To liven up the Christmas meal and keep young and old occupied between bites, rely on simple and friendly games. Lots of laughter and complicity guaranteed for an unforgettable New Year’s Eve!
At Christmas, the hours around the table can sometimes seem endless, especially for the youngest. What if, this year, you transformed the wait into a fun and playful moment? No need for major preparations or a Monopoly marathon: a few simple games will be enough to entertain young and old. Whether it’s to lighten the mood, keep the kids busy or avoid tricky topics, here are our best ideas for adding a dose of fun to your New Year’s Eve.
1 – The game of effort
For this part, you will laugh, but you will have to resist to be able to hold on and earn the most points. Two teams will face each other. The instructions are simple: install two buckets equidistant at the end of a room, and place one behind the other in two columns (one column per team). Each participant will have to place a foam ball between their thighs and as quickly as possible, they will have to throw it into the bucket without using their hands. Obviously, to succeed, everyone will adopt a certain position, like when you sit in the toilet. Ready ? Go!
2 – The Christmas sock game
The goal of the game? Guess the objects hidden inside the sock, filled with little surprises like decorations or treats. Each participant can feel or shake it, and a point is awarded for each correctly identified object.
3 – The giant tic-tac-toe game
Do you know the tic-tac-toe principle? You must line up three identical symbols (X or O) on a 3×3 grid before your opponent. This Christmas, have fun replicating the game board on your living room floor using paint masking tape. For the symbols to be placed, you can replace them for example with a paper plate and a cup, or a roll of toilet paper. Then, all you have to do is form the teams and compete!
4 – Santa’s Telephone Game
Your mission: send a message from Santa to Mrs. Claus by whispering it in the ear of her neighbor, until the addressee repeats it out loud. The distortions of the original message guarantee bursts of laughter for the whole table.
5 – The game of forbidden words
A New Year’s Eve not to mention Christmas and its lexical field (gifts, Santa Claus, tree, party, decorations, etc.) seems infeasible to you? Challenge yourself as a family! Each forbidden word spoken costs 1 euro, to be placed in a box which can then be redistributed.
6 – Post-it game: which Christmas character am I?
The Christmas version of the post-it game consists of guessing which holiday-related character is written on the post-it stuck to your forehead by asking questions to the other players. For example, you can refer to Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer, or to the Grinch, there is no limit!
7 – The wild Christmas dance
Between two courses, dim your lights and transform your living room into a dance floor with a festive playlist, with Christmas songs or your guests’ favorite songs. A perfect entertainment to energize the evening and to let off steam too!
8 – Christmas Pictionary
Christmas Pictionary follows the classic rules of the original game, but focuses on holiday-related words, like “tree” or “gift.” Two teams compete to guess drawings in less than a minute, with the option for the opposing team to respond if no one finds it.
