This childrens Christmas party game ideas page gets longer each year as family and friends introduce us to new games.

My 11 year old son is the real games master in our house and so he gets to be my professional advisor!

* Guess the present

Age: 4+
Equipment: Selection of household items wrapped in paper and with a different number written on the outside of each, pencil and paper for each player

Sit the kids in a large circle each with a pencil and piece of paper. One by one pass the presents round the circle and the aim of the game is for each player to try and guess what is inside each present. They can touch, hold and squeeze each gift but they are not allowed to open them. They should write or draw what they think it is on their piece of paper. When the allotted time is up the kids can take it in turns to open the gifts and to see if they were correct. The one with the most correct answers wins.

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* Christmas Stocking filler

Age: All
Equipment: Two large Christmas stockings/sacks, two chairs, two large wooden spoons, candy

Divide the kids into two teams and line them up at one end of the room. At the other end of the room hang two large stockings or Christmas sacks on the back of a couple of chairs. Give each team a large bowl of candy and a large wooden spoon. On the word 'go', the team members take it in turns to fill up their spoon with candy and then rush to place it in the stocking. First team to finish gets to eat the candy.

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* Three legged Christmas Stocking race

Age: 4+
Equipment: Several large stockings, ribbon

Divide the kids into pairs and each pair puts one of their legs into one stocking so that they have three legs. Tie the stocking with a bit of coloured ribbon if necessary. The kids then have to race to a finishing line and first pair there is the winner.

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* Snow ball toss

Age: All
Equipment: Lots of cotton wool balls, white Ping-Pong balls or white marshmallows, two large pieces of strong card cut out in a Christmas shape e.g. Father Christmas with a sack, chimney stack, present,

This takes a bit of advance preparation in that you need to draw, colour and cut out a Christmas design on the two large pieces of card. Once done, balance them against a chair or make a cardboard stand. Divide the kids into two teams and supply each with a large bowl or bucket of snowballs (cotton wool balls, Ping-Pong balls or marshmallows). Line them up a few meters from your large cardboard cut-out and the aim of the game is to get as many snowballs through the holes as quickly as possible within a time limit. Alternatively each child could have 5 balls and if s/he gets a certain through the hole s/he gets a prize.

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* Father Christmas's Journey

Age: All
Equipment: Small wrapped gift for each child, festive music

This is a great game for the end of the kid Christmas party and plus it calms everyone down. In advance wrap up enough small unisex gifts for the number of guests that you have. Sit all the kids in a circle, place all the gifts on the floor in the middle and put on some festive music in the background (not too loud). Each child grabs a gift and then you as the narrator have to tell a story of Father Christmas delivering his gifts to all the children. The aim here is to weave in lots of the words "Left" and "Right" and as you say one of those words the kids have to pass the gift that they are holding either "Left" or "Right" depending on what you said. When the story is over each kid can open up the gift that they are left holding. Tip: For very young children you could use a different keyword such as "Father Christmas" and in which case they would just past their gift round in one direction.

Example story:
It was the night before Christmas and all the little girls and boys were tucked up in bed and dreaming about the food, excitement and fun that was planned for Christmas day, but most of all they were dreaming about what Father Christmas might bring them this very night. Each child had Left a wee gift for Father Christmas and his reindeers, tucked Right under their beautifully decorated tree. Meanwhile Father Christmas was getting ready for his nights outing, the most special and the most busy time of the year for him. But oh dear he just couldn’t find one of his black boots. The Right boot to be precise. He looked everywhere from Left to Right and up and down and then all of a sudden he spied it stuck Right on top of his big sack of presents…….and so on….

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* Christmas Guess

Age: 4+
Equipment: Bowl of small colouered candy

Sit the kids in a circle and one person (A) is elected to secretly think of a Christmas word. The other players then have to guess what it is by asking a maximum of twenty questions to which (A) can only answer "Yes" or "No". Each time a player asks a question, (A) gets to take a sweet so at the end of the round s/he could end up with 20 sweets – that's is why it's sensible to provide very small candies. The player who correctly guesses the word, gets to go next.

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*Shooting Star

Age: 5+
Equipment: Foil covered cardboard stars, various sizes of small, empty boxes wrapped in Christmas wrap.

This game always appeals to the more boisterous crowd and is great fun. Prepare in advance (or get the kids to do it when they arrive) some stars made of strong card and covered in several layers of silver foil. The kids have to take it in turns to throw their star rather like you would a Frisbee, at the targets of small boxes. Give each child has three or four stars and see who can knock off the most boxes. You'll find that if the kids make their own stars it's much more fun for them as they can decorate them and one usually becomes their personal 'lucky star'!

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