25 Fun Xmas Party Games for Kids & Family Bonding
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Heart of Holiday Play: More Than Just Games
- Crafting Unforgettable Holiday Memories with Games
- Speech Blubs: Your Partner in Communication & Connection
- Choosing the Right Speech Blubs Plan: Value for Your Family
- Conclusion
- Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction
The holiday season often feels like a whirlwind of activities – shopping, baking, decorating, and endless to-do lists. In the midst of this joyful chaos, it’s easy to lose sight of what truly matters: connecting with our loved ones, especially our children. Remember those magical Christmas mornings or festive family gatherings where laughter filled the air and core memories were made? That’s the feeling we chase each year, a yearning for genuine connection that transcends the hustle and bustle.
This blog post is your ultimate guide to reclaiming that magic. We’ve curated a collection of 25 engaging, easy-to-organize Xmas party games for kids and the whole family. But these aren’t just games; they are powerful opportunities to foster essential communication skills, build confidence, and create joyful, lasting memories. As we explore each game, we’ll also highlight how dedicated resources, such as our Speech Blubs app, can support and enhance these vital developmental areas, making every moment of play a step towards empowering your child to “speak their minds and hearts.”
The Heart of Holiday Play: More Than Just Games
At Speech Blubs, we deeply understand that play is a child’s natural language for learning and growth. It’s through playful interaction that children develop their social skills, emotional intelligence, cognitive abilities, and, crucially, their communication prowess. The Christmas season, with its inherent joy and opportunities for gathering, provides the perfect backdrop for maximizing these developmental benefits.
We believe in “smart screen time” – using technology purposefully to facilitate active engagement and learning, rather than passive viewing. Our founders, all of whom grew up with speech problems, created Speech Blubs to be the immediate, effective, and joyful solution they wished they had. We know firsthand the frustration that can come with communication challenges, and our mission is to provide children and families with tools that blend scientific principles with play. Our app’s unique “video modeling” methodology, where children learn by watching and imitating their peers, activates mirror neurons in the brain, making speech development a natural, fun, and highly effective process. This approach helps the 1 in 4 children who need speech support build foundational skills while fostering genuine family connection. You can learn more about our commitment to empowering children on our Speech Blubs homepage.
When we engage children in games, we’re not just passing the time; we’re building bridges for communication. Every turn taken, every laugh shared, every instruction followed, and every silly sound made is a stepping stone in their developmental journey. These games reinforce crucial skills that complement the targeted practice a child might get from an app like ours or professional therapy, from expressive language to social cues, and even fine motor control.
Crafting Unforgettable Holiday Memories with Games
The key to successful holiday games lies in simplicity, adaptability, and an emphasis on fun over fierce competition. Remember, the goal is connection and communication, not just winning. Here are some of our favorite ideas, categorized for easy planning, along with insights into their developmental benefits and how they align with the Speech Blubs philosophy.
Classic Christmas Game Twists
These timeless favorites get a festive makeover, perfect for engaging all ages.
1. Gingerbread Cookie Face Challenge
How to Play: Each player places a small gingerbread cookie on their forehead. The challenge is to move the cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only facial muscles – no hands allowed! The first one to successfully eat their cookie wins. Developmental Benefits: This game is fantastic for developing oral motor skills, which are crucial for speech articulation. It also encourages patience, concentration, and non-verbal communication through exaggerated facial expressions. Speech Blubs Connection: This activity playfully engages the muscles around the mouth, an essential area for speech development. For children working on specific speech sounds, simple games like this build oral motor awareness and control. Our app’s playful exercises often involve similar facial movements to encourage sound production.
2. Candy Cane Hook Race
How to Play: Give each player a candy cane, which they must hold in their mouth with the hook facing down. On “Go,” players have one minute to hook as many additional candy canes as possible onto the one in their mouth, without using their hands. Developmental Benefits: This game significantly boosts fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination (even without hands!), as well as concentration and problem-solving. It’s also a great way to practice counting. Speech Blubs Connection: Developing fine motor skills, including the intricate movements of the tongue and mouth, is often linked to speech development. This game subtly reinforces the precision needed for articulation. After playing, you can practice counting the hooked candy canes, reinforcing numerical vocabulary, which Speech Blubs covers in its early learning modules.
3. Pin the Nose on Rudolph (or Snowman/Star on Tree)
How to Play: Draw a large picture of Rudolph (or a snowman, or a Christmas tree) and tape it to a wall. Cut out red sticker “noses” (or carrot noses, or stars) for each player. Blindfold each child, spin them gently a few times, and direct them to try and stick the nose as close as possible to the correct spot. Developmental Benefits: This game enhances spatial awareness, provides practice in following multi-step instructions, and encourages turn-taking. The blindfolded navigation also encourages children to use descriptive language when being guided (“a little to the left,” “up higher”). Speech Blubs Connection: This game is a fantastic opportunity for practicing directional and positional language. Our app helps children build vocabulary and sentence structure for concepts like “left,” “right,” “up,” “down,” “on top,” and “next to,” which are vital for understanding and giving instructions.
4. Christmas Charades
How to Play: Write down holiday-themed words, songs, movies, or characters on slips of paper (e.g., “Rudolph,” “Elf,” “Jingle Bells,” “decorating the tree”). Players take turns picking a slip and acting out the word without speaking, while others guess. Developmental Benefits: Charades are phenomenal for non-verbal communication, expressive language (even without words, you’re expressing), and creative thinking. It encourages understanding abstract concepts and interpreting body language. Speech Blubs Connection: For children who might be “late talkers” or are building confidence in expressing themselves, playing charades can be incredibly empowering. It allows them to communicate ideas and emotions without the pressure of speaking, building a strong foundation for verbal expression. Many Speech Blubs users find that improving their communication skills leads to greater confidence in all forms of expression, as shown in our Testimonials.
5. Santa Says
How to Play: This is just like “Simon Says” but with a festive twist. One person is “Santa” and calls out commands (e.g., “Santa says touch your nose like Rudolph,” “Santa says hop like an elf”). Players must only follow commands that begin with “Santa says.” If they follow a command that doesn’t include “Santa says,” they’re out. Developmental Benefits: This game is excellent for auditory processing, attention, and following multi-step commands. It also develops body awareness and encourages listening skills. Speech Blubs Connection: A core skill our app helps children develop is listening comprehension and the ability to follow instructions. “Santa Says” is a playful, engaging way to practice these crucial skills in a fun, low-pressure environment. It reinforces the importance of careful listening before acting.
6. Christmas Pictionary
How to Play: Similar to charades, but instead of acting, players draw holiday-themed words or phrases. Divide into teams. One player draws, their team guesses. Set a timer for extra excitement. Developmental Benefits: Enhances creative thinking, problem-solving, visual-spatial skills, and the ability to convey complex ideas through simple drawings. It’s also great for vocabulary recall. Speech Blubs Connection: This game encourages descriptive language and the ability to articulate what one sees or interprets. Our app, through various themed activities, helps children expand their vocabulary and improve their ability to describe objects and actions, making them better at both drawing and guessing in games like Pictionary.
7. Guess the Candy in the Jar
How to Play: Fill a clear jar with a variety of holiday candies (like chocolate bells or candy canes) and have guests guess how many are inside. The closest guess wins the jar of goodies! Developmental Benefits: Encourages estimation, counting, and numerical reasoning. It’s a simple, low-pressure game that can be enjoyed by all ages. Speech Blubs Connection: This is a perfect game for practicing numbers and quantity. “How many?” “More,” “Less,” “Too many,” “Just right.” Speech Blubs helps children develop a strong foundation in these basic concepts, which are fundamental to early math and language skills.
Active & Energizing Holiday Challenges
Burn off some holiday energy with these movement-based games!
8. Snowball Toss
How to Play: Crumple up white paper or use soft foam balls as “snowballs.” Set up buckets or baskets at varying distances and assign point values. Kids take turns tossing snowballs to score points. Developmental Benefits: Develops gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination, and spatial awareness. It’s also great for practicing counting and simple addition. Speech Blubs Connection: Incorporate counting into the game: “How many snowballs did you toss into the big basket?” “You got three!” This simple interaction reinforces number concepts, often covered in early learning modules within Speech Blubs. It also encourages verbal encouragement and communication (“Go!”, “You can do it!”).
9. Reindeer Relay Race
How to Play: Divide players into teams. Provide each team with reindeer antlers (inflatable ones are hilarious) or a red nose. Set up a short course. Players “gallop” to a designated point and back, tagging the next teammate. The first team to have all members complete the race wins. Developmental Benefits: Promotes teamwork, gross motor coordination, and following rules. The silliness encourages laughter and social bonding. Speech Blubs Connection: This game naturally encourages collaborative language and cheering. “Go, go, go!” “Your turn!” “Run fast!” These exclamations are fantastic for practicing simple, high-frequency words and encouraging verbal participation and social interaction, skills that Speech Blubs actively nurtures.
10. Present Stacking Challenge
How to Play: Wrap empty boxes of various sizes in festive paper. Challenge kids (individually or in teams) to stack them into the tallest “gift tower” they can manage within a time limit, or to create the most stable structure. Developmental Benefits: Encourages problem-solving, spatial reasoning, fine motor skills, and collaboration (if played in teams). It also introduces concepts of balance and stability. Speech Blubs Connection: This activity offers abundant opportunities for language development around size, shape, and position. “The big box goes on the bottom.” “It’s wobbly!” “Can you find the square one?” Our app helps children articulate these concepts, building their descriptive vocabulary and ability to formulate complex sentences.
11. Candy Cane Relay
How to Play: Divide participants into two teams. The first person on each team is given a candy cane. At the opposite end of the room, place a cup of extra candy canes. The starting team member must run to the cup and, using only their mouth (no hands!), fish out another candy cane. They then transport it back to the next team member (again, using only their mouth) who then repeats the process. The first team to complete the relay wins. Developmental Benefits: This game requires impressive fine motor control, particularly oral motor precision, patience, and teamwork. It’s hilariously difficult, guaranteeing lots of laughs. Speech Blubs Connection: The intense focus on precise oral motor control (holding and transporting the candy cane with the mouth) can be a fun, indirect way to engage and strengthen muscles important for speech articulation and clarity. This can be a delightful precursor to the focused oral motor exercises sometimes needed for speech development.
12. Gift Wrapping Race
How to Play: Set up a table with gift wrapping supplies (paper, tape, scissors, various oddly shaped items to wrap). Challenge players to wrap as many items as possible within a time limit, or to wrap one particularly difficult item as neatly as possible. Developmental Benefits: Develops fine motor skills, planning, and problem-solving. If scored for neatness or creativity, it also encourages attention to detail. Speech Blubs Connection: This activity can be a great way to practice sequencing and following instructions (“First, cut the paper; then, fold; next, tape”). It also creates opportunities for descriptive language (“This box is bumpy,” “The paper is shiny”). These are all skills that Speech Blubs reinforces through structured language activities.
13. Christmas Cookie Decorating Contest
How to Play: Provide plain sugar cookies, frosting, and a variety of sprinkles and candies. Challenge participants to decorate the most festive, creative, or delicious-looking cookie within a time limit. Have everyone vote on their favorites. Developmental Benefits: Encourages creativity, fine motor skills, and following instructions. It’s also a wonderful sensory experience that engages taste, smell, and sight, offering rich opportunities for descriptive language. Speech Blubs Connection: This is an excellent activity for expanding sensory vocabulary. “This cookie is sweet!” “The frosting is sticky.” “Look at the colorful sprinkles!” These phrases are perfect for practicing descriptive language skills, which Speech Blubs actively encourages through its themed sections designed to build a child’s expressive vocabulary.
Sweet & Creative Holiday Activities
For quieter moments or when you want to spark imagination.
14. Plastic Wrap Unwrapping Game
How to Play: Create a giant ball by wrapping small prizes (candies, small toys, money) in many layers of plastic wrap. Players sit in a circle. One player wears winter gloves or oven mitts and tries to unwrap the ball. Meanwhile, the player next to them rolls two dice. Once they roll doubles, it’s their turn to wear the gloves and unwrap. Any prizes unwrapped are kept by the player. Developmental Benefits: This game requires fine motor dexterity, fosters anticipation, turn-taking, and quick reaction times. It’s incredibly engaging and full of laughter. Speech Blubs Connection: This game inherently involves crucial social communication elements like turn-taking, asking for “my turn” or saying “your turn,” and describing what prizes were found (“I got a chocolate!”). Speech Blubs provides structured practice for these vital social communication skills, helping children navigate group interactions with confidence.
15. Holiday Cookie Exchange & Hot Cocoa Bar
How to Play: Not strictly a game, but a fantastic interactive activity. Invite guests to bring a batch of their favorite holiday cookies. Set up a “voting station” for categories like “Most Festive,” “Best Flavor,” or “Prettiest Presentation.” Pair it with a cozy hot cocoa bar with various toppings (marshmallows, whipped cream, sprinkles). Developmental Benefits: Encourages social interaction, sharing, and descriptive language (tastes, textures, smells). It also promotes polite conversation and giving compliments. Speech Blubs Connection: This activity is rich in opportunities for sensory vocabulary and social language. “This cookie is crunchy!” “The cocoa is warm and sweet.” “Thank you for sharing.” These interactions reinforce descriptive language and social etiquette, core components of effective communication that Speech Blubs supports.
16. Letters to Santa
How to Play: Set up a letter-writing station with festive paper, crayons, stickers, and envelopes. Encourage kids to write (or draw) their letters to Santa. Create a “North Pole Express” mailbox where they can drop their notes. Developmental Benefits: Fosters creative expression, narrative skills (telling Santa what they want and why), and fine motor skills (writing, drawing). For younger children, it’s a chance to practice making marks and telling stories. Speech Blubs Connection: This activity directly helps develop narrative skills as children think about what they want to communicate and how to express it. For children who are developing their communication skills, expressing desires and ideas is crucial, and Speech Blubs provides a safe and encouraging environment to practice building these thoughts into words and sentences.
17. Holiday Coloring Pages & DIY Christmas Cards
How to Play: Provide printable holiday coloring pages or blank cards, along with crayons, markers, glitter, and stickers. Let children get creative designing their own festive masterpieces or personalized cards for family and friends. Developmental Benefits: Encourages artistic expression, fine motor control, and imaginative play. It also provides a calm, focused activity. Speech Blubs Connection: While primarily a creative activity, discussing the colors, shapes, and characters on the pages (“This reindeer is red!”) can significantly boost vocabulary and descriptive language. Our app has categories that introduce colors, animals, and festive items, allowing children to link their app-based learning to real-world creative projects.
18. Christmas Who Am I?
How to Play: Write names of Christmas characters, objects, or songs on sticky notes. Stick one on each person’s forehead (without them seeing it). Players then ask yes/no questions to guess who or what they are (e.g., “Am I an animal?”, “Do I wear red?”, “Am I found on a tree?”). Developmental Benefits: Promotes critical thinking, question-asking skills, deductive reasoning, and active listening. It’s fantastic for developing vocabulary related to holiday themes. Speech Blubs Connection: This game is a powerhouse for developing question-asking and answering skills, which are fundamental to conversational turn-taking. Speech Blubs directly addresses these pragmatic language skills, helping children formulate clear questions and understand how to respond appropriately.
19. Holiday Movie Bingo & Trivia
How to Play: Create bingo cards with common holiday movie tropes (e.g., “someone sings,” “a reindeer flies,” “Santa appears”) or host trivia rounds based on popular Christmas films. Watch a movie and mark off bingo squares, or pause for trivia questions. Developmental Benefits: Encourages observation, auditory processing, memory recall, and expands vocabulary related to narrative and characters. Speech Blubs Connection: This game enhances listening skills and vocabulary associated with storytelling and character traits. For children, understanding narratives is crucial, and Speech Blubs helps build the vocabulary and comprehension skills necessary to follow stories and engage in discussions about them.
20. Tannenbaum Avalanche (Cup Stacking)
How to Play: Give each player a stack of small red plastic cups. On “Go,” players have one minute to create the tallest Christmas tree stack they can. The tallest tree wins. Developmental Benefits: Improves fine motor control, spatial reasoning, problem-solving, and hand-eye coordination. It’s a quick, exciting challenge. Speech Blubs Connection: This game provides a tangible activity to discuss concepts like “tall,” “short,” “more,” and “less.” These comparative and quantitative terms are important for language development and are often introduced and reinforced in early learning modules within Speech Blubs.
21. Family Christmas Bell Stack Party Game
How to Play: Each player gets a handful of bell-shaped candies. On “Go,” players have one minute to stack them as high as possible, using any design. The highest tower wins. Developmental Benefits: Similar to cup stacking, this game hones fine motor skills, concentration, and patience. The smaller candies add an extra layer of challenge. Speech Blubs Connection: This activity naturally lends itself to using descriptive language about the candies (“It’s sticky!”, “It’s round!”) and the stacking process (“It fell!”, “Careful!”). These spontaneous utterances are wonderful for encouraging real-time communication.
22. Oh, Christmas Tree (Whipped Cream Creation)
How to Play: Give each player a paper plate and a can of whipped cream. On “Go,” players must spray whipped cream onto their plate to form the tallest or best-looking Christmas tree within one minute. Developmental Benefits: Encourages creativity, fine motor control, and sensory exploration (the texture and smell of whipped cream). It’s incredibly silly and fun! Speech Blubs Connection: This game is a fantastic opportunity to engage the senses and use descriptive words related to appearance, texture, and taste. “It’s so soft!” “My tree is fluffy.” “It smells sweet!” This sensory language development is a key area that Speech Blubs helps children enhance.
23. Mistletoe Kissing Toss Game
How to Play: Divide players into teams of two. One person tosses, the other catches. A pile of wrapped Hershey’s Kisses is placed in front of the tosser. On “Go,” the tosser must unwrap a Kiss and toss it into their teammate’s mouth. The team with the most catches in one minute wins. Developmental Benefits: Improves hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills (unwrapping), and teamwork. The silliness of the game encourages laughter and lighthearted interaction. Speech Blubs Connection: This game encourages clear communication for coordinating the toss and catch (“Ready!”, “Open wide!”). It’s also a great way to practice counting the successful catches, reinforcing numerical concepts in a fun context.
24. Human Tic Tac Toe
How to Play: Draw a large Tic Tac Toe board on the floor with masking tape. Divide players into two teams, each assigned a “marker” (e.g., green candy canes vs. red candy canes). Teams line up. On “Go,” the first player from each team races to place their marker on a square, then tags the next player. The goal is to get three in a row. Developmental Benefits: Promotes strategy, teamwork, and quick thinking. It also involves gross motor movement and following rules. Speech Blubs Connection: This game is excellent for practicing turn-taking, directional language (“Put it in the middle square!”, “Go here!”), and strategizing (“We need to block them!”). These elements are crucial for developing conversational skills and executive functions that Speech Blubs supports.
25. The Chocolate Game
How to Play: Players sit in a circle around a large block of chocolate and a knife and fork. Take turns rolling two dice. If a player rolls doubles, they quickly put on a hat and scarf (or oven mitts) and use the knife and fork to cut and eat pieces of chocolate. They continue until the next person rolls doubles, then it’s that person’s turn. Developmental Benefits: Encourages quick reflexes, anticipation, and turn-taking. The elements of dressing up and trying to eat carefully add to the fun and challenge. Speech Blubs Connection: This game is all about turn-taking and quick verbal reactions (“My turn!”, “I rolled doubles!”). It creates a high-energy environment for practicing spontaneous communication, which can be particularly beneficial for children who are building their confidence in social interactions.
Speech Blubs: Your Partner in Communication & Connection
These festive games offer incredible opportunities for growth and bonding. At Speech Blubs, we are dedicated to amplifying these everyday learning moments with our scientifically-backed approach. Our “video modeling” method is designed to be incredibly engaging and effective: children learn by watching and imitating their peers, fostering communication skills in a way that feels natural and fun. This is what makes our app a true “smart screen time” experience – it’s an active, not passive, engagement tool that strengthens family connections. You can explore the research behind our highly-rated method on our research page.
For a parent whose 3-year-old “late talker” loves animals, for instance, our “Animal Kingdom” section offers a fun, motivating way to practice “moo” and “baa” sounds, with immediate positive feedback from real children. This type of targeted, playful practice, combined with the rich communication opportunities presented by holiday games, forms a powerful duo for your child’s developmental journey.
Unsure if your child could benefit from speech support? Take our quick 3-minute preliminary screener to get a simple assessment and a personalized next-steps plan. It’s a great way to gain insight and understand how Speech Blubs can fit into your family’s routine.
Choosing the Right Speech Blubs Plan: Value for Your Family
We offer flexible plans to meet your family’s needs, but for the best value and access to all features, we highly recommend our Yearly plan.
Our Monthly plan is available for $14.99 per month.
However, our Yearly plan is by far the superior choice at just $59.99 per year, which breaks down to an incredible $4.99 per month. That’s a massive 66% savings! Beyond the significant cost savings, the Yearly plan includes exclusive, high-value features:
- A 7-day free trial to experience everything Speech Blubs has to offer before committing.
- Access to the extra Reading Blubs app, helping your child develop crucial pre-reading skills.
- Early access to new updates and a rapid 24-hour support response time, ensuring you always have the best and most current resources at your fingertips.
The Monthly plan does not include these fantastic benefits. We want you to have the best experience and the most comprehensive tools to support your child’s communication journey.
Conclusion
The holiday season is a precious time for family, laughter, and creating memories that will last a lifetime. By incorporating these engaging Xmas party games for kids into your celebrations, you’re not just providing entertainment; you’re fostering essential communication skills, building confidence, reducing frustration, and deepening family bonds. Every game is an opportunity for your child to grow, learn, and connect.
At Speech Blubs, we are honored to be a part of your child’s communication journey, offering a powerful, playful, and scientifically-backed tool that complements these joyful family moments. We are committed to empowering every child to “speak their minds and hearts.”
Ready to infuse your holidays with more communication, connection, and confidence? Start your child’s journey with us today! We encourage you to choose the Yearly plan to unlock all features, including your 7-day free trial and the Reading Blubs app. Download Speech Blubs on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, or create your account and begin your free trial on our website today!
Frequently Asked Questions
Q1: How long should Christmas party games for kids typically last?
A1: Generally, it’s best to aim for 10 to 15 minutes per game, especially for younger children whose attention spans may be shorter. Rotating between high-energy and calmer activities can help keep kids engaged without leading to overstimulation or meltdowns.
Q2: Do I need to offer prizes for Christmas party games?
A2: Prizes are not strictly necessary, as the fun and interaction of the games themselves are often reward enough. However, small, inexpensive prizes like stickers, candy canes, mini ornaments, or even “bragging rights” certificates can add an extra layer of excitement and motivation for kids.
Q3: How can Speech Blubs enhance the communication skills practiced in these games?
A3: Speech Blubs uses “video modeling” where children learn by imitating peers, which boosts expressive and receptive language skills. Games provide real-world contexts to practice these skills, like asking questions in “Christmas Who Am I?” or describing objects in “Present Stacking.” Our app reinforces vocabulary, sentence structure, and social communication skills, preparing children to participate confidently in these interactive games and beyond.
Q4: What’s the best way to get started with Speech Blubs for our family?
A4: We recommend choosing our Yearly plan. Not only does it offer significant savings (66% compared to monthly), but it also includes a 7-day free trial, access to our Reading Blubs app, early updates, and 24-hour support. This allows you to experience the full suite of our features and see the benefits firsthand. You can download Speech Blubs from your app store or sign up on our website to begin your trial.