19 Christmas Games With Free Printables That Work for a Four Year Old and a Grandparent

The best christmas party games for all ages share one quality: luck and observation beat general knowledge, so a four-year-old and a grandparent start on level ground.

This list gives you nine printable sheets you can run off before noon and ten games that need nothing but the people in the room, covering every energy level from rowdy relay to quiet keepsake.

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1. Picture Bingo Everyone Can Play

Every player gets one of four different bingo grids filled with small Christmas pictures: a star, a reindeer, mittens, a present, a candy cane and so on. The caller draws image cards from a bag and holds each one up.

Players cover the matching square with a button, a coin or a chocolate. First to fill a row calls out and wins.

Print four different grids on one sheet and cut them apart, or print one sheet per player if you have a big table. Works for any group size from four upward. The call bag takes about five minutes to assemble: print the call list, cut into strips and fold them into a bowl. Each round runs about eight minutes.

The only hitch is that toddlers sometimes cover everything at once. Sit one small child with one adult as a pair rather than trying to play them separately, and that solves it neatly.

2. Pairing Each Child With an Adult

Before any game starts, assign every child a named adult partner for the whole afternoon. Write each pair on a slip of paper and announce them at the beginning.

That one move changes every game that follows: the adult stays calm when the child gets excited, explains rules in a whisper and celebrates wins on the child’s behalf without steamrolling them.

No materials needed at all. This is a hosting decision, not a game, but it shapes every game on this list. Choose pairs based on temperament, not family relationship: a shy four-year-old often thrives with a calm aunt rather than a competitive dad. Announce pairs with a small ceremony, calling names out one by one, which children love.

The problem it prevents is a child melting down mid-game because they feel lost or left behind. With a dedicated adult beside them, that almost never happens, and every other game on the afternoon runs faster and quieter as a result.

3. Match the Decoration to the Word

The left column shows twelve drawn Christmas decorations, the right column shows twelve names in a shuffled order. Players draw a line connecting each picture to the word they think matches. Older guests lean on vocabulary; younger ones lean on picture recognition. Both strategies work, which is exactly the point.

One sheet per player, fine-tip pen or pencil. Works as a table activity while food is being served: no one has to stand up or wait for anyone else. Allow about five minutes, then reveal answers together so the room hears the correct names, which sparks small conversations about obscure decorations like a kissing ball or a loo roll angel.

Players who genuinely cannot read yet can still circle or point. Pair non-readers with their adult partner to mark the sheet together, counting it as a team entry rather than an individual one.

4. The Memory Tray Passed Around

Load a tray with fifteen small Christmas objects: a bell, a mini bauble, a candy cane, a piece of tinsel, a star, a walnut and so on. Pass it around the table for sixty seconds, then take it away. Everyone writes or whispers to their adult partner the objects they can remember. Most items wins.

No printing needed. Use a standard kitchen tray and raid the decoration box. Give small children thirty extra seconds of looking time or let them name objects rather than write them. The game takes under ten minutes and generates surprising amounts of competitive muttering from grandparents who consider themselves to have excellent memories.

Cover the tray with a tea towel the moment time is up so nobody sneaks a second look. If a child and adult are paired together, accept their combined list as one entry: they will likely remember different items, which makes pairs competitive with individuals and keeps the score tight.

5. Christmas Would You Rather, All Ages

Six cards on one sheet, each posing a Christmas dilemma: Would you rather eat nothing but sprouts for Christmas dinner or nothing but stuffing? Would you rather be an elf for a day or a reindeer?

Would you rather open all presents on Christmas Eve or wait until noon on Christmas Day? Players circle their answer, then the host reads each one aloud and the room argues cheerfully about their choices.

Print one sheet per player and cut the six cards apart, or print one sheet per table and pass it around. No right answers means no score to keep. Run it as a conversation starter during drinks or as a warm-up before a scored game. Each card takes about two minutes of table discussion. The whole sheet fills fifteen minutes.

Young children who cannot read need their adult partner to read the options aloud. Frame it as a voting game: hands up for option A, hands up for option B. That turns an individual sheet into a whole-room activity without changing anything you print.

6. Pass the Parcel With Layers for Everyone

Wrap a central prize in many layers, and between each layer tuck a small forfeit or treat sized to whoever is most likely to unwrap it. Outer layers hold sticker sheets, chocolate coins and silly forfeits like “do your best reindeer impression”.

Inner layers hold something a bit more grown-up: a mini candle, a scratch card, a bath fizzer. The core prize suits everyone: a tin of biscuits, a bottle of something, a family game.

No printing needed. Music runs on a phone. The rule change that makes this all-ages rather than children-only: when the music stops, the person holding the parcel unwraps one layer, does the forfeit or pockets the treat, then passes it on. Nobody is eliminated. The game ends when the core gift is revealed, which everyone celebrates together.

Resist putting all the child-aimed treats in the outer layers and all the adult ones in the middle. Mix them throughout so a grandparent might unwrap a sticker sheet and do a silly voice, which the children find hilarious and the grandparent secretly enjoys.

7. Guess How Many in the Jar

Fill a large clear jar with wrapped sweets, chocolate coins, candy canes or mini baubles before guests arrive. Each player gets a tally card to write their name and their guess. Closest guess without going over wins the jar to take home. Youngest guest gets to announce the real count at the end.

One tally card per guest. The jar sits on a table all afternoon so guests can study it at their own pace without any time pressure.

This is one of the few games where a very young child has exactly the same chance as an adult, because neither group can actually count through glass accurately. The child just guesses more boldly, which sometimes wins.

Seal the jar with ribbon so nobody opens it mid-afternoon and ruins the count. Keep the real number written on a sticky note under the jar so you do not forget it yourself by the time the reveal arrives.

Reveal the count after dinner, when the room is settled and you need a gentle activity that does not require anyone to stand up.

8. Musical Statues Nobody Is Out Of

Christmas music plays, everyone dances. Music stops, everyone freezes. Instead of eliminating movers, the host gives a small sweet to every player who froze cleanly. Music starts again. Repeat for ten rounds. At the end, whoever has the most sweets wins, but everyone has at least a few, and nobody has been sitting watching for the past twenty minutes.

No printing needed. A phone playlist and a clear space are all that is required. Works indoors even in a small living room if you move the coffee table. Toddlers to grandparents can all participate because the pace of dancing is entirely up to each player: nobody has to jump or spin if they do not want to.

Tell adults privately before starting that deliberately moving slowly makes the game more fun for small children, not less. Most adults will play gently once they understand that their job is to make the game work for the whole room, not to beat a five-year-old at standing still.

9. Spot the Difference

Two nearly identical Christmas scene illustrations sit side by side on one sheet. Ten small differences are hidden between them: a missing star on the tree, a striped stocking swapped for a spotty one, an extra present in the corner.

Players circle every difference they find. Most found wins, or players compare notes together if the room prefers cooperation over competition.

One sheet per player, or one per pair if you want to keep the all-ages principle running through to this game too. Works at any pace: fast players finish in four minutes, careful players take ten. Run it as a timed round or as a free activity that guests pick up and put down during the afternoon.

The sneaky problem: adults sometimes find all ten quickly and start announcing answers, which deflates children still searching. Set a rule that finders write their count on the back of the sheet face-down and say nothing until time is called. That single rule keeps the room equal for the full duration.

10. Charades in Mixed Teams

Split the room into mixed teams, one child and at least one adult per team, never children versus adults. Each turn, one player mimes a Christmas word or phrase and their team guesses: words like “snowman”, “Jingle Bells”, “Christmas pudding”, “elf”, “chimney”. The mime has sixty seconds. Correct guesses score a point, the team with most points wins.

No printing needed. Write the words on slips of paper and fold them into a bowl before guests arrive. Keep words short and picture-friendly so small children can mime them: “snowball”, “wrapping paper”, “reindeer” are all easy to perform.

Avoid abstract phrases that require reading or cultural knowledge. Allow children to choose their own word from two options so they do not draw one they cannot perform.

The game collapses when adults accidentally guess too fast and leave the child standing there with nothing to contribute. Enforce a rule that the first guess must come from the youngest team member. If the youngest guesses wrong, then anyone can guess. That single rule flips the dynamic entirely.

11. The Family Sweepstake

A single large shared poster lists five Christmas-Day predictions: what time the first present is opened, who falls asleep first after dinner, what the most-said word of the day will be, who burns something in the kitchen, what song plays on the radio during lunch.

Each guest writes their name in pencil in the column they think will be correct. At the end of the day, the host reveals each answer and the guest with the most correct columns wins.

Print one poster and stick it on the wall or lay it flat on a table at the start of the event. A pencil on a string beside it works perfectly.

This is the one game that runs across the whole afternoon rather than in a dedicated slot: guests drift to it between other games and fill in their predictions when they feel ready.

Use pencil, not pen, because some guests will change their mind three times. That is not cheating, it is exactly the kind of gentle indecision the game is designed for. Children can point to their choice and have an adult write their name for them, making this genuinely all-ages without any adaptation.

12. The Guessing Jar on the Table

This is the live reveal companion to the printed Guess How Many in the Jar tally card. After dinner, the youngest guest present gets to open the jar, tip the contents onto a plate and count them aloud with help from their adult partner.

The host collects all the tally cards, reads each name and guess aloud, and the room calls out how close each one is. Closest without going over wins the jar and everything in it.

No printing needed for this stage. The tally cards have already been filled in earlier. The reveal itself takes about five minutes and gives a small child a starring role in front of the whole room, which is genuinely exciting for them and charming for everyone watching.

If two people guess the same number, the one who submitted their card first wins. Write arrival times on the back of cards as guests hand them in, or simply use the order you collected them. State this rule before the reveal so there are no disputes during it.

13. Wishes for Next Year

Four keepsake cards on one sheet, each with lines for a guest to write their name, one thing they are grateful for this year and one wish for the year ahead. Cards are collected, kept by the host and given back to each person the following December as a small piece of personal time travel.

Print one sheet per four guests and cut the cards apart. Set them out with fine-tip pens after dinner when the room is settled and conversation has softened. Younger children dictate to their adult partner, who writes on their behalf and signs the child’s name.

The result is a genuine family record that costs nothing to keep and becomes more interesting every year it is repeated.

Resist the urge to read cards aloud: some guests will write something private and the expectation of privacy is what makes the writing honest. Seal each card in a small envelope, write the guest’s name on the outside and store them somewhere you will actually find them next year. The back of the Christmas decoration box is the obvious answer.

14. Snowball Sock Toss

Roll white socks into balls, set a laundry basket or large pot at the other end of the room and give each player five throws from behind a tape line. Most socks in the basket wins.

It is loud, competitive, surprisingly difficult and genuinely equal across ages because the distance from the line to the basket is the only variable that matters.

No printing needed. Use a roll of painter’s tape to mark throw lines at different distances: one close line for under-fives, one medium line for children, one far line for adults. Each age group throws from their own line, and scores are compared within age brackets rather than across them, so the final winner is one person from each bracket.

The chaos escalates quickly: socks bounce, roll and get disputed. Nominate one adult as the official counter who stands beside the basket and calls each successful toss. Without a counter, the score dissolves into argument within three rounds. Keep it to two rounds per player to maintain pace, and move on before the room gets competitive about sock-fluffing techniques.

15. Guess the Scent

Number six small opaque cups or ramekins and drop a different Christmas scent into each: a cinnamon stick, a clove, a piece of orange peel, a sprig of pine, a vanilla pod and a tiny dab of peppermint oil on cotton wool.

Guests sniff each cup without touching the contents and write their guess on their tally card. Most correct guesses wins.

One tally card per guest. Set the cups in a row on a side table so guests visit in their own time rather than all crowding at once. The card has six numbered lines and a small note reminding players not to share guesses aloud until everyone has finished. This game works beautifully alongside drinks, before a formal round begins.

Cover the cups with squares of muslin or kitchen paper, secured with a rubber band, so nobody sees the contents before they sniff. Reveal all six at once after collecting the cards.

Young children often outperform adults on scent recognition because they have not yet learned to override instinct with logic, which makes this one of the few rounds where a small child can genuinely beat a grandparent on pure ability.

16. One Word Story Around the Table

One person says a single word to start a Christmas story. The next person adds one word. The story continues around the table, one word at a time, until it reaches a natural ending or complete nonsense, both of which are equally entertaining. No preparation, no score, no winner.

No printing needed. Works best seated, so nobody feels put on the spot by having to stand up or perform. A child who freezes can pass once without penalty, and the story simply moves on. The constraint of one word forces short confident choices, which children handle better than open-ended narration.

Run two or three rounds rather than one long one: stories tend to get funnier on the second attempt because players have warmed up. The host can steer a derailed story back on track by adding a word like “suddenly” or “Christmas” at a natural stumble point, which feels like part of the game rather than intervention.

17. Carols With the Words Printed Large

Print the words to three or four classic carols in a large, clear font, one carol per sheet of A4 or US Letter. Pass a sheet to every guest.

Play a backing track or have someone at a piano lead, and everyone sings together from the sheet. Nobody has to know the words from memory: the sheet removes that barrier entirely.

No separate printable game sheet required here. The carol lyric sheets are the only material, and they are genuinely optional if your room already knows every word. What the sheets do is include people who feel excluded from carol singing because they half-remember the second verse and tail off into mumbling. A printed sheet makes them full participants.

Choose carols everyone recognises in the first line: Jingle Bells, Silent Night, Deck the Halls, O Christmas Tree. Avoid carols with complicated middle verses that even adults get wrong. Three carols is enough: more than that and energy drops. End on the fastest one so the room finishes on a high rather than trailing off.

18. The Team Scorecard for Mixed Pairs

One scorecard per child-adult pair, listing every scored game on the afternoon down the left side with a blank column beside each for the pair’s score. The pair fills in their running total after each game.

At the end of the afternoon, the pair with the highest combined score across all games wins an overall prize. This turns individual games into a connected championship without any extra rules.

Print one card per pair at the start of the event and hand them out with the pairing announcement. A fine-tip pen kept with the card is enough.

The card makes the pairing feel official and gives children something to carry and update, which they take seriously. Adults find that keeping score for their small partner makes them invest more actively in games they might otherwise drift out of.

Keep the overall prize modest: a tin of biscuits, a small wrapped gift, bragging rights until next year.

If scores are tied, the youngest player on the winning team breaks the tie by picking a number between one and ten, closest to the host’s pre-written number wins. State this tiebreaker rule at the start so it does not feel invented after the fact.

19. The Photograph Round

Before the event, collect ten photos from family albums or phones: a childhood Christmas portrait of one of the adults, a baby photo, a group shot from years ago where everyone looks different, an old picture of the house decorated for Christmas.

Print them numbered one to ten and stick them on a board, or display them on a TV slideshow. Players write which family member they think each photo shows. Most correct wins.

No standard printing needed: the photos themselves are the game material, displayed however suits your setup. This round works because younger children recognise people from memory and instinct while adults second-guess themselves on old photos, levelling the field in an unexpected direction. A photo of a grandparent at age three is genuinely difficult for anyone to place.

Source photos quietly in the weeks before: ask family members to send one old Christmas photo each without saying why.

The secrecy is part of the fun, and the moment someone recognises their own baby photo and tries to stay neutral is reliably entertaining for the whole room. Allow one lifeline: any player can ask one other player a yes-or-no question per round.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the best christmas party games for all ages when you have toddlers and elderly guests in the same room?

Games based on observation, guessing and luck work better than knowledge or speed. Picture Bingo, Guess the Scent and the Memory Tray all give a toddler the same chance as an 80-year-old because neither group has a structural advantage. Pair each small child with an adult partner for the whole afternoon and the dynamic stays easy.

How do you stop older children from dominating games meant for younger ones?

Enforce a first-guess rule: in any game with a verbal answer, the youngest person on the team guesses first. In physical games, use different throw lines or distances for different ages. In guessing games, written answers mean nobody shouts out and spoils it for slower players.

How many printable games should you include in a four-hour Christmas party?

Three to four printable games is enough for an afternoon. More than that and the party starts to feel like a workbook. Printables work best when they run alongside other activities, such as during drinks or between courses, rather than in dedicated back-to-back slots.

Can you run all 19 of these games in one afternoon?

No, and you should not try. Pick six to eight games and run those well. A rushed afternoon of nineteen activities is exhausting for hosts and children alike. Use this list as a menu: choose what fits your group, your space and your energy level on the day.

What prizes work for all-ages christmas party games?

Keep prizes edible or shareable: chocolate bars, packets of biscuits, a box of clementines, a bag of sweets. Physical prizes create jealousy across ages. Edible ones get eaten and forgotten, which is exactly what you want.

For the overall team scorecard winner, a small wrapped gift for the child on the winning pair is usually the most appreciated prize in the room.

What do you do if a child gets upset about losing?

Design at least two or three games where there is no single loser: Musical Statues Nobody Is Out Of, Carols With the Words Printed Large and One Word Story Around the Table all end without anyone walking away empty-handed. Front-load these in the afternoon before the scored games begin, so children are warmed up and settled before stakes appear.