Free Christmas Charades Printable

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Have fun at your next holiday party or create happy family memories with these 18 free Christmas charades printable cards and Christmas charades ideas.

There are many ways to create treasured family memories and holiday traditions that your entire family wants to continue year after year. A fun game of charades is a great way to create those traditions.

What are some good Christmas charades?

Chose words/scenarios to act that are are appropriate to the ages and interests of the players. If you’re playing with a variety of ages, choose words that are accessible to the different generations and interests.

You can play by creating your own game cards, use a Christmas charades list, like the one immediately below, or use printable Christmas charades cards, like the ones available for free below.

Some fun ideas for Christmas charades can be found in the following categories:

• The titles of Christmas songs and different carols
  • White Christmas
  • I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus
• The names of Christmas movies
  • A Christmas Story
  • Home Alone
  • You can even play an entire game of just Christmas movie charades
• Favorite holiday traditions
  • Hanging Christmas lights
  • Making snow angels
  • Hanging Christmas Decorations
• Common Christmas gifts
  • Mittens
  • Socks
  • Perfume
• Popular Christmas treats
  • Candy canes
  • Apple cider
  • Hot chocolate

What makes Christmas charades great?

• It’s a classic game that is so much fun for people of all ages
  • You can team younger children up with a teen or adult so they can play, too
• It’s an easy activity for family gatherings that you can play at the last minute
• It’s a fun Christmas game for classroom parties
• You can use these printable cards to play Christmas pictionary
• It’s a great party game for any ages or number of people
• It always guarantees lots of laughs at a youth group Christmas party
• It’s a fun way to keep kids distracted on Christmas Eve
• Family members can have a great time together and create treasured family memories

How to play holiday charades

A player will act out or pantomime the word or phrase on the holiday charades cards. Team members must correctly guess the right answer, the word or phrase on the card, in a set period of time. The player may not use words.

You’ll need the following equipment to play:

• A stopwatch or stopwatch app
• These free printable Christmas charades cards
• Slips of paper and pens if you will create your own charades cards
• 2 baskets to hold each team’s game cards or slips of paper
• Notebook and pen or whiteboard and marker to keep score

Establish the rules of the game. You’ll find that many people have their own traditions and play charades with different rules, so it’s important that all the players are using the same rules.

• No words can be spoken by the player acting out the card. Establish common charades clues so everyone understands what is being signaled. This list of charade clues is helpful.
• Determine how long the team has to guess the Christmas charades words. 3 minutes is a commonly used period.

Divide the group of people into two of equal number of players.

• It’s easier to play with two teams. If you have a very large group of people you can:
  • Have multiple groups of 2 teams playing
  • Play with more than 2 teams, but realize the play will go much more slowly and players may become distracted or bored.
• If you have a wide age gap between players, balance the mix of players in each group

Determine which team will go first.

Team A’s first person will select a charades card or slip of paper. This first player reads the card and has a few moments to prepare. The timekeeper tells the first player when to start and the player then has the 3 minutes to act out the card. The rest of the team calls out guesses trying to correctly guess the phrase. Team A wins the round when they guess the correct answer. If they are not able to correctly guess the phrase in the time limit, Team B has one chance to guess.

The next team picks one of the charades cards and each team takes turn picking and guessing clues.

How to score the game:

• One point for each correctly guessed card, whether Team A or Team B guesses correctly. The team with the most points wins.
• Keep track of how long it takes for the correct guess. The team with the least amount of time wins.

Which team at the end of the game wins depends on how you choose to score the game.

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Looking for more Christmas games?

Other charades printables you may have missed

• Thanksgiving Charades – 36 free Thanksgiving charades game cards you can print right away. An easy-to-play activity will be one of your favorite Thanksgiving games.
• Halloween Charades – coming soon
• New Year’s Eve Charades – coming soon

Be sure to pin this Christmas charades printable so you can enjoy Christmas games every holiday season for years to come.

You can find all our best Christmas ideas in the table below. You can scroll though the table and look for ideas or search for specific ideas with the magnifying glass in the upper right-hand corner (on desktop). Click on the topic and then click through the specific article.