16 Christmas Contest Ideas for Families That Like a Little Competition!

The year is coming to its end. And, before we get to 2020, we have to make one last stop. And what a lovely stop it is! We are headed towards a very special time of the year, Christmas! 

The holiday spirit slowly makes its way towards us, and everyone can feel it–you included, I’m sure! Families get together and communities grow closer one last time before we kick off the New Year. 

This is the perfect opportunity to create some stories together and make our bonds stronger with exciting games. You can add a little fun to your Christmas party and make it an unforgettable event, adding a little competitive edge to it all. 

Remember, these games are always better when there are prizes involved, so you should get a couple of small prizes to make everyone put in real effort.

Creative Christmas Contests For Your Christmas Party

If you’re looking for a great activity to do at your Christmas Party this year, consider incorporating one of these fun Christmas competitions!

Christmas Family Feud

Put your knowledge to the test, and play a friendly match of Christmas Family Feud. You can play it with your family members or even with your neighbors, and see which is the better family! Of course, remember to be a sport and that everything is in good fun.

Christmas Bible Trivia

Another brain teaser contest to play during the holiday is Christmas Bible Trivia. This could be played by adults and kids alike individually or in teams, especially if you’re with your church friends! 

It would be a good idea to give prizes to the winners, and also it’s another reason for the kids to brush up on their Bible readings.

Christmas Carol Karaoke

Set up your karaoke machine (or use YouTube if you don’t have one) to sing along to your favorite Christmas carols! You can go solo or sing in duets. After everyone has sung their favorite song, you get to vote for the winner or let the karaoke machine pick for you.

Guess That Christmas Carol

Most people are way too shy to sing in public, but you can still enjoy your favorite Christmas carols without letting anyone be uncomfortable. Use little snippets of everyone’s favorite songs (five or ten seconds long), and let teams guess which song it is! Whoever has the most correct guesses wins. 

Ugliest Ugly Christmas Sweater

There are two ways to play this game. Either everyone buys their sweater, and whoever has the ugliest one wins or you can have a little Ugly Sweater Secret Santa going on. Everyone buys the ugliest sweater they can get, wrap it up and give to someone else. Whoever gets the ugliest sweater wins . . . in a way.

Best Outdoor Christmas Lights Display

You can get a little competition going between the families living in your neighborhood with a Christmas Lights Display contest. All the families can pitch in and get a prize for whoever gets the most beautiful light display in the community. What’s more, you all get to enjoy the scenery.

Christmas Ornament Bowling Competition

This one is really easy and fun to do, plus the kids can play along as well! Place a couple of ornaments in a bowling formation and use jingle bells to try knock them over. Whoever knocks the most ornaments is the winner. If you take the time and play plenty of rounds, you can have a bowling-like competition right in your living room!

Best Gingerbread House Decoration

Bake a couple of gingerbread houses before the party begins, but don’t decorate them just yet. Once everyone is there, take out the gingerbread houses and have teams decorate one. You could even delegate judges to pick out the winning team with the most creative gingerbread house decoration! 

Candy Cane Fishing

You can have as many players as you have bowls filled with candy canes. Each player would use their cane to fish other candy canes from the bowl. Whoever fishes the most is the winner. Oh, if it seems rather easy, it’s because there’s a little detail missing. You can only use your mouth to hold the cane to fish the candy out!

Candy Cane Hunt

If nobody is too keen on fishing candy canes but still want to eat some, they can hunt them down! Hide the candy canes all over your house and let a couple of teams start hunting them. 

A nasty little trick is to hide them in the most obvious places of them all. But if you want to keep them guessing, put them all over your home. The team to find the most candy canes gets to keep them all! Here’s hoping they get the Christmas spirit in them and at least share a couple.

The Other Kind Of Nutcracker

With this game, you can show off your nut cracking and eating skills! Get as many nutcrackers you can from the store–or as many you think are necessary. This can be played individually, where a limit of five to eight people play against each other, or by teams. Whoever breaks and eats the most nutcrackers wins.

Cup Christmas Tree Competition

This contest is mostly for kids, but adults can tag along and have fun, as well! You’ll need a lot of green disposable cups (green paper or plastic cups work fine as well) and a table of random craft supplies. Challenge the kids to stack the cup as tall as a Christmas tree would be, and let them decorate it with paper ornaments, garland, and Christmas tree toppers! 

Adults can try as well–they’ll get to see how hard it is! The objective is to build the tallest tree possible, without it falling apart. The tallest tree–or the last tree standing–wins!

Christmas Charades

Everyone knows how to play charades, even kids! This fun, light-hearted competition can be easily adapted to a Christmas theme; act out the usual things you do during the holidays, like setting up the tree or decorating cookies or anything Christmas-related, and wait for your team to guess it right. Remember, you can’t say a word about it!

Gift-wrapping Contest

We all know how hard it is to wrap presents, and even harder to make it nice. So, this gift-wrapping contest is a fun one to do! Have an empty box or an asymmetrically shaped object ready on the table for players to gift-wrap. You can set a first and second place for this competition, and whoever wraps their gift either the fastest or nicest (you decide the criteria) gets the prize! Maybe you could have the guys compete, just for fun.

Christmas Scavenger Hunt

You can hide different Christmas tree ornaments all over your house, and have teams go and look for them. As they find the different objects hidden all around the place, they have to quickly rush over to the tree and hang them there. The team that hangs the most wins . . . unless the other team gets the Christmas star.

Snowman Building Contest

If you live in a snowy place, what better way to enjoy Christmas than with a little Snowman Building contest? You can have it individually played, but it’s always better to play in teams. That way, kids and adults alike can enjoy the fun and competition together! 

You can turn it into a fun contest using categories, like the most original snowman, the fastest to build one, or the biggest snowman. 

Let the Christmas Contests Begin!

There you have it! There are more than plenty of Christmas contests and games to choose from. You can play against each other or have fun as teams. You can even invite all the families in your neighborhood for a huge Christmas party event! 

There are a lot of simple and silly games while others are more complex, but the important thing is to have fun. Remember to let your competitive side take a little rest during the holidays; when it comes to these games, there are no losers . . . unless you get the ugliest sweater. Although, you are kind of winning there as well! 

Regardless of the games and activities you choose, you’ll get to experience that great time of the year where friends, families, and the entire community get along, share their stories and bond closely with each other. You would hear great conversations, eat better food, and get to relax a little bit before going back into your weekly routine. 

Make sure you have some energy left for the New Year’s Eve parties, though. They can be as much fun as their Christmas counterpart, with plenty of food and games of their own.

Laura is the force behind Gathered Again, transforming family gatherings into unforgettable memories with expert tips and a heart full of passion. Join her mission to celebrate the magic of family connections, one event at a time.