13 Christmas Eve Games With Free Printables for the Hours Children Will Not Sleep

The best christmas eve party games do one specific job: they move children from wired to drowsy without a single meltdown. This list gives you 8 printable sheets and 5 no-prep activities, arranged deliberately so the energy drops with each game, and by the time you reach the last one, everyone is whispering.

This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

1. The Christmas Eve Wish Card (Keepsake Card)

Each child gets their own card and fills in what they hope to find under the tree, one thing they are grateful for this year, and a note to their future self to open next December.

Four cards print per sheet, so one A4 page covers a small group. The writing is entirely their own, which makes the card worth keeping.

Print on cardstock the night before, set out fine-tip markers or coloured pencils, and let children take as long as they like. There is no winner and no clock. The card doubles as a quiet writing activity and a keepsake the parent can tuck into the Christmas box for next year.

Children who cannot write yet can draw instead. A parent writes their dictated words underneath the drawing. The card works just as well, and the scrawled picture version is often the one families treasure most a decade later.

2. Guess What Is in the Stocking (Fill-In Card)

Before the stockings are hung, the host tucks a small selection of mystery items inside one designated guessing stocking, then every child writes down their predictions on their card. Categories prompt the guesses: something sweet, something small, something red, something that makes a noise.

The child whose list comes closest wins a small prize, or everyone wins, which is easier at this hour.

Four cards print per sheet. Hand them out before dinner so children are thinking during the meal, then reveal the contents together as a pre-bedtime ceremony. Setup takes two minutes: fill one stocking, print the cards, provide pencils.

If the group is mixed ages, let younger children whisper their guess to a parent who writes it for them. Keep the stocking items genuinely mysterious, nothing obviously shaped like a candy cane through the fabric, or the guessing is over before it starts.

3. Christmas Story Sequencing

Children read ten short sentences describing the classic Christmas Eve story in jumbled order, then number them 1 through 10 to put the events in the correct sequence.

The story moves from settling down for a long winter’s nap all the way through to Santa departing before dawn. It works as a solo activity or as a gentle group discussion where older children help younger ones.

One sheet per child. Children need only a pencil. The answer key prints at the bottom of the same sheet in tiny italic type so the host can check answers without holding a separate paper. Allow around ten minutes, which is exactly right for this point in the evening.

A common issue: children argue about two events that could plausibly swap. Accept any defensible answer for those, and treat the debate as part of the game. It keeps the conversation going without raising anyone’s pulse.

4. The Memory Tray of Things by the Fireplace (No Printing Needed)

Arrange twelve small Christmas Eve objects on a tray: a jingle bell, a cookie, a carrot, a candle, a small stocking, a piece of tinsel, a star, a key, a book, a mug, a pinecone, a wrapped sweet. Children study the tray for sixty seconds.

Then a teatowel goes over it. Each child calls out as many objects as they can remember, and the host tallies quietly on a notepad.

No printing, no setup beyond gathering the objects, which you almost certainly already have in the house tonight. The game seats everyone in a circle, works for ages four and up, and takes about eight minutes from first look to last guess. Younger children may peek, which is fine.

The classic mistake is starting with too few objects. Twelve feels like a lot in the room but shrinks once covered. Fourteen is the sweet spot for older children. Remove the carrot and cookie if you want to use them as actual Santa offerings later and avoid confusion.

5. Colour While You Wait (Colouring Page)

A single detailed Christmas Eve scene: the living room at night, stockings hung, tree lit, a plate of cookies by the hearth, curtains open onto a snowy sky. Children colour at their own pace, which is the point. No competition, no timer, no right answer. The room gets quieter the moment pencils touch paper.

Print one per child on plain copy paper, no cardstock needed. Set out a shared basket of coloured pencils or crayons. This works for any age that can hold a pencil, and adults often end up joining in, which is not a problem.

Detailed scenes hold attention longer than simple outlines. If the file you print looks too sparse, children finish in three minutes and want the next thing. The imagePrompt below requests a scene with enough small details, window panes, rug pattern, ornament shapes, to last fifteen to twenty minutes of colouring.

6. Reindeer Food Recipe Card (Recipe Card)

Each child gets a recipe card listing the classic reindeer food formula: oats (for energy on the long flight), glitter or sugar sprinkles (to catch the moonlight so Rudolph can spot the garden), and a pinch of cinnamon (because it smells like Christmas).

They read the card, scoop the ingredients together in a small bag or bowl, and head outside to scatter it on the lawn before bed.

Four cards print per sheet. The activity bridges indoors and outdoors, and the walk outside in the cold night air does something useful: it signals to small bodies that something real has happened, the preparations are done, it is time to come in and sleep. Allow five to ten minutes for mixing and scattering.

Skip glitter if it will end up on a lawn where birds forage. The card itself can note the substitution: silver or gold sugar sprinkles are just as reflective and entirely bird-safe. Print a note on the card rather than an afterthought, so children feel the choice was intentional.

7. One Story Read Aloud in Turns (No Printing Needed)

Choose one Christmas Eve picture book or chapter, and pass it around the circle. Each person reads one page, or one paragraph for longer books, then passes it to the left. No one is skipped, no one reads alone for long, and the story moves steadily around the room. The shared rhythm is the whole point.

No materials needed beyond the book itself. Works for any group size from two to ten. Younger children who cannot read yet can describe what they see on the illustration for their page. Plan for ten to fifteen minutes depending on book length.

Good choices include the original Clement C. Moore poem, a single chapter from a favourite, or any seasonal picture book the family already loves.

The common failure is choosing a book that is too long and losing children halfway. One picture book at this stage of the evening, no sequels. If children ask for another, that is a good problem, and the answer is: tomorrow after gifts.

8. The Countdown Chart to Morning (Shared Poster)

A single large poster goes on the wall or fridge. It shows the hours between bedtime and morning as a row of numbered clocks or sleep-phase panels: 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, midnight, 2am, 4am, 6am.

Each panel has a small illustration of what is happening at that hour (Santa packing, the sleigh lifting off, reindeer flying over rooftops) and a blank checkbox. Children check off each hour as it passes, which turns waiting into something concrete they can see.

Print once, tape it up, and provide a marker on a string. This replaces the frantic repeated question of whether it is morning yet with something the child can check themselves. One poster serves the whole group or family.

The key design detail is making the early-morning hours look far away and cosy, not exciting, which is why each late-night panel shows sleeping reindeer and dark skies rather than action. The 6am panel is the one with the bright sun and the gift pile, and children learn quickly that everything interesting happens at the end of the chart.

9. The Torchlight Hunt for One Hidden Object (No Printing Needed)

One small object, usually a gold star, a tiny ornament, or a foil-wrapped chocolate, gets hidden somewhere in one room while children cover their eyes. The lights go off. Each child gets a torch and searches in silence or very low whispers until someone finds it. One object, one room, one winner who gets to hide it next.

No printing, no setup beyond choosing the object and switching off the overhead light. The torches do the heavy lifting: there is something about moving a beam of light around a dark room on Christmas Eve that feels genuinely magical rather than manufactured. Limit to two or three rounds or the calm you built starts to unravel.

Play this before the colouring page or the read-aloud, not after: it is the last burst of physical movement on the list, and it needs the quieter activities to follow it and bring energy back down. Children should be sitting again within fifteen minutes of the final round.

10. Christmas Eve Bingo, Quiet Version

A 4×4 bingo grid filled with Christmas Eve images and words, called out by the host using a whisper voice rather than a shout.

The images include a stocking, a cookie, a carrot, a jingle bell, a candle, a star, a present, reindeer, snow, a chimney, a mince pie, a key, a letter, a sleigh, holly, and a night sky.

Children mark their squares with a small star sticker or a pencil dot. First to complete a row wins, but the rule is that the winner must whisper their claim.

Print one grid per child on plain paper. Each grid is randomly arranged so every child has a different card. The host draws calling cards from a small envelope or simply reads from a list. Allow around ten minutes. The whisper-calling rule sounds silly until you try it, and then the whole room drops to a hush automatically.

This is the right point in the evening for bingo because it requires sitting still, listening carefully, and doing very small things with a pencil. Those three things are also what falling asleep requires. The game is doing gentle work on the nervous system while everyone thinks they are just playing.

11. Guess the Carol Hummed Quietly (No Printing Needed)

One player hums a Christmas carol, no words, no instruments, just a closed-mouth hum at a genuinely low volume. Everyone else writes their guess on a scrap of paper or simply holds up a finger when they think they know.

The first correct guess earns a point. No printing needed, no materials beyond whatever scraps of paper are already on the table.

Play five rounds, rotating the hummer clockwise. The low-volume rule is the key constraint: humming quietly is harder than humming loudly, and it keeps the game from escalating into a competition. Good carols to include: Silent Night, Jingle Bells, O Christmas Tree, Away in a Manger, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Children who feel shy about humming alone do better with a partner. Let two children hum together if needed, same rule on volume. The game works across ages because recognising a melody requires no reading, no spelling, and no physical coordination.

12. Letters to Leave Out (Fill-In Card)

Each child writes a short note to leave out for Santa alongside the cookies. The card prompts them with four fill-in lines: one thing they did well this year, one thing they are still working on, one question for Santa, and a closing wish.

The card is then folded and left on the plate. Whether Santa writes back is entirely the parent’s call, but the writing itself is the activity.

Four cards print per sheet. Children who cannot write yet dictate to a parent or draw a picture in the blank space provided. The card is intentionally simple: the prompts are generous enough to give direction but short enough that finishing feels achievable, even at the end of a long and exciting day.

The most useful detail is the question-for-Santa line. Children take it seriously and often ask something genuinely unexpected, which makes the card worth reading before it goes on the plate. Keep a phone nearby to photograph it quietly.

13. The Whisper Game to Wind Down (No Printing Needed)

The classic telephone game, but every message is a Christmas Eve instruction: ‘Hang up your stocking and close your eyes,’ or ‘Santa cannot come until everyone is sleeping.’

One person whispers into the next person’s ear, the message travels around the circle, and the last person says aloud what they heard. No scoring. No winner.

The garbled result usually gets a tired giggle, and tired giggles are exactly right at this point in the evening.

No materials. No setup. Works for any age from about four upwards. Run two or three rounds, each with a slightly sleepier message than the last. The final message should literally be a bedtime instruction, so the game ends and the next natural thing is going to bed.

Start the messages long enough to get interesting distortion but not so long that children forget the middle. One sentence is the right length. If the group is fewer than four people, whisper in a silly voice instead of a quiet one, which produces the same garbled result with a smaller group.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Many Christmas Eve Party Games Is Too Many for One Evening?

Four to six games is the working limit for most families. This list gives you thirteen options so you can pick the right ones for your group, not so you run them all.

Choose two or three printable activities, one active game earlier in the evening, and end with one or two quiet ones. The goal is a gradual descent toward sleep, not a packed schedule.

If a game is going well and children are calm, that counts: stay in it longer and skip the next one.

What Age Group Do These Christmas Eve Games Work For?

Most of these games work across a range. The Memory Tray, Bingo, and the Whisper Game all work from around age four. The Story Sequencing sheet and Letters to Leave Out suit readers from age six or seven.

The Wish Card and Carol Humming work for any age because non-readers can draw or partner up. The mix is deliberate so that a group with a six-year-old and a ten-year-old can play the same game without one being bored and the other lost.

How Do You Keep Christmas Eve Excitement From Getting Out of Hand?

Sequence matters more than rules. Start with the most physical activity (the Torchlight Hunt) and end with the most sedentary (the Whisper Game). Do not introduce a loud or competitive game after a quiet one or you reset the energy.

Dimming the lights and lowering your own voice are faster than any instruction: children mirror the adult in the room without knowing they are doing it.

Do the Printable Sheets Need Special Paper or a Good Printer?

Plain copy paper works for every sheet on this list except the Wish Card and the Letters to Leave Out, which feel more special on cardstock. Standard 80gsm copy paper is fine for bingo, the countdown poster, colouring, and the sequencing sheet.

Print in black and white if colour ink is running low: the designs are all designed to read clearly either way.

What If Children Refuse to Go to Bed After All This?

The Countdown Chart is specifically for this problem. Point to the panel that shows the current hour and the panels still to go before sunrise. Make it a factual conversation rather than a negotiation: the chart says 6am, and here is where we are now.

The reindeer food scatter is also useful as a physical marker, something has been done outside, a real action completed, which signals to children that the preparation stage is genuinely over.

Can These Games Work for a Larger Christmas Eve Party, Not Just One Family?

Yes, with small adjustments. Print extra sheets, divide into small groups for the Memory Tray and Carol Humming, and run the Torchlight Hunt one room at a time if the group is large. The Bingo and Sequencing sheets scale without any changes.

For a full list of games that work across a bigger mixed-age group, the Christmas Eve party games guide has more options for larger gatherings.