PARTY GAMES · CHARADES
Christmas charades: 50 ideas and how to play
PUBLISHED JUL 26 · 2026 DATA REFRESHED AT EACH BUILD
By the PlaySpinWheel editorial team
Christmas charades is ordinary charades with a themed word bank, which is exactly why it works on a full room of relatives who disagree about everything else. Here are 50 Christmas charades ideas covering films, traditions, carols, decorations, and the specific chaos of Christmas dinner.
The rules are below too, including the simplified version for a room with young children in it, and every idea here is in the generator if nobody wants to be in charge of the list.
Ideas for a Christmas charades game
The bank does the work here. Christmas gives you a set of images every person in a Western living room shares regardless of age, which is rare and is why this version of the game survives a table containing a five-year-old, a teenager, and a grandparent. These fifty cover the films, the carols, the traditions, and the small domestic disasters of the day:
- Santa Claus
- Reindeer
- Elf
- Snowman
- Angel
- Decorating the tree
- Hanging stockings
- Wrapping presents
- Unwrapping presents
- Untangling fairy lights
- Building a gingerbread house
- Baking cookies
- Carving the turkey
- Pulling a cracker
- Setting the table
- Singing carols
- Ringing a bell
- Posting a Christmas card
- Writing a letter to Santa
- Sitting on Santas lap
- Ice skating
- Sledding
- Making a snow angel
- Throwing a snowball
- Catching a snowflake on your tongue
- Mistletoe
- Candy cane
- Christmas pudding
- Hot chocolate
- Eggnog
- Home Alone
- The Grinch
- A Christmas Carol
- Its a Wonderful Life
- The Nutcracker
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- Frosty the Snowman
- Jingle Bells
- Silent Night
- Deck the Halls
- Sleigh ride
- Chimney
- Nativity scene
- Christmas lights on a house
- A tree that will not stand up
- Last-minute shopping
- Regifting
- The awkward family photo
- Falling asleep after dinner
- Boxing Day sales
Notice how many of them are actions rather than nouns. Untangling fairy lights and carving the turkey are better rounds than reindeer, because the whole family has watched someone do them badly this month.
How do you play Christmas charades?
Exactly like ordinary charades, with one bank swapped. Split into two teams. One player draws a Christmas word and acts it out silently while their team guesses against a clock. No talking, no pointing at objects in the room, and no spelling in the air. A correct guess inside the time scores a point, then play passes to the other team.
- Sixty seconds a round is standard. Cut it to thirty if the room is big and restless.
- Rotate the actor every round so nobody becomes the family performer.
- Signal the category first: film, carol, tradition, or food. It saves fifteen wasted seconds every round.
- Skips are free but the clock keeps running, which is punishment enough.
- Play to twenty points or until dinner is ready, whichever comes first.
The full rules, including the standard hand signals for a film, a song, and a book, are on the how to play charades guide, which is the version to consult when the argument is about whether a guess counted.
Christmas charades ideas for kids
For a room with young children, take teams and scoring out entirely and go around the circle instead. These are the fifteen easiest ideas from the list above, each one a single image a four-year-old has personally seen:
- Santa Claus
- Reindeer
- Snowman
- Elf
- Angel
- Decorating the tree
- Hanging stockings
- Wrapping presents
- Unwrapping presents
- Baking cookies
- Making a snow angel
- Throwing a snowball
- Catching a snowflake on your tongue
- Ringing a bell
- Candy cane
Turn the timer off for these. A clock reads as pressure to a small child and the game is louder and happier without one. The charades generator for kids has the Christmas bank built in alongside its other vetted sets.
Christmas charades ideas for adults
The grown-up version of this game is not ruder, it is more specific. Last-minute shopping, regifting, the awkward family photo, falling asleep after dinner, and the tree that will not stand up are the ideas that get the biggest reaction from a room of adults, because every one of them happened this week. Pair them with the harder film and carol titles and you have a round that a family of adults will actually fight over.
For a game night that runs past the point where anyone cares about Christmas, the 85 funny charades ideas pick up where this list leaves off, with a grown-up set built on work, bills, and dating.
Pick the Christmas category and hand the phone to whoever is acting:
Deal a random Christmas word →Christmas movie charades ideas
Holiday films are the strongest single category in this bank, because everybody has seen them repeatedly and mostly against their will. Home Alone, The Grinch, A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life, and The Nutcracker each have one instantly recognizable image, which makes them fair rounds rather than lucky ones.
The trick with a film title is to decide as a group whether you are acting the plot or the words of the title, and to signal which. Miming a small boy touching his cheeks is the plot; holding up two fingers and pointing at a house is the title. Both are legal, and confusion between them wastes more rounds than any other rule dispute in this game.
Printable Christmas charades
The list on this page is real text rather than an image, so printing it needs no download and no email address: select the set you want, print the page, and cut between the lines. Fifty words fits on a single sheet in two columns, which is enough for a full afternoon with a large family.
Fold each slip once before it goes into the bowl so nobody reads through the paper, and if you have both children and adults playing, use two bowls rather than one mixed pile. Swapping banks between rounds is what keeps a mixed-age room engaged, and it takes a second when the sets are already separate.
What else can you play at a Christmas gathering?
Charades pairs well with anything that needs no equipment. If the group is large, the random name picker settles who goes first without a debate, and the random team generator splits a room of relatives into even teams in one tap. For a game that runs quietly across the whole afternoon rather than in one burst, the would you rather wheel works between courses.
Fair questions
- What are good ideas for a Christmas charades game?
- Actions beat nouns: untangling fairy lights, carving the turkey, wrapping presents, building a gingerbread house. Everyone in the room has watched somebody do those badly this month, so the recognition lands before the guess does. There are fifty on this page.
- How do you play Christmas charades?
- Exactly like ordinary charades with a festive word bank. Two teams, one actor per round, sixty seconds, no talking and no pointing at objects. Signal the category first, film, carol, tradition or food, and play to twenty points or until dinner is ready.
- What are the best Christmas charades ideas for kids?
- Single images a young child has seen: Santa Claus, reindeer, snowman, decorating the tree, throwing a snowball, baking cookies. Drop the teams and the timer, go around the circle instead, and let everyone shout guesses at once.
- What are the best Christmas movie charades ideas?
- Titles carrying one instantly recognizable image beat clever ones: The Grinch, Home Alone, and The Nutcracker all work because everybody has seen them repeatedly, mostly against their will. Settle before the round whether the actor is miming the plot or the words of the title.
- Can I print a Christmas charades list?
- Yes. The list here is real text, not an image, so you can select it, print the page, and cut between the lines. All fifty words fit on one sheet in two columns, which is enough for a full afternoon with a big family.
- How many people do you need for Christmas charades?
- Four is enough for two teams of two, and it scales to twenty or more if you keep rounds to thirty seconds so everyone gets a turn. With a very large room, run two games in parallel at opposite ends rather than making people wait.