15 Christmas Vacation Party Games for a Griswold-Worthy Night

If you’re planning national lampoons christmas vacation party games for your holiday crew, congratulations — you officially have the best taste in party themes AND in movies. Clark Griswold has been carrying the spirit of chaotic, over-the-top Christmas joy since 1989, and honestly?

He hasn’t aged a day. Whether your squad can recite every line by heart or your friend group is just now discovering the hap-hap-happiest Christmas movie since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny Kaye, this lineup has something for everyone.

Grab your Moose Mug, pour a generous eggnog, and get ready for a night that would make Clark himself proud (minus the SWAT team, hopefully).

These 15 games cover every vibe your party could need — from rowdy relay races and costume contests that’ll have everyone in stitches, to printable sheets you can set out on the table so guests have something to do the second they walk in the door.

There’s even a couple of quieter moments in here, because every great Christmas Vacation party deserves a beat where someone tells a story so catastrophically relatable it makes the whole room feel seen. So let’s do this.

Wear something festive, maybe put on the movie in the background, and let the Griswold chaos begin.

1. Christmas Vacation Quote Charades

This is the game that separates the true Christmas Vacation fans from the people who’ve ‘seen it a few times.’

Quote Charades works just like classic charades, except every card is a famous line from the film — and your teammates have to guess the EXACT quote being acted out, not just the scene.

Think Clark’s legendary bonus meltdown, Aunt Bethany’s Pledge of Allegiance, Cousin Eddie’s infamous greeting by the RV — all of it, fair game.

Split into two teams, set a one-minute timer per turn, and watch your most reserved guests absolutely lose it trying to silently mime ‘the little lights aren’t twinkling.’

To set up, write 20–30 quotes on index cards ahead of time (or print them from a quotes list online — there are plenty). Fold them and drop them in a Moose Mug or a Santa hat for authenticity.

The actor draws a card, reads it silently, then has 60 seconds to act it out without speaking or mouthing the words. Their team shouts guesses. If they nail the quote word-for-word (close enough counts — we’re not monsters), their team scores a point.

If the timer runs out, the other team gets one guess to steal.

Here’s a host tip that makes this game genuinely hilarious: include a few quotes that are so physically absurd to act out that the actor just stands there in despair. Clark sliding down the snow hill in his saucer?

The squirrel launching out of the Christmas tree? Pure gold.

You can also add a ‘Quote or Misquote’ bonus round at the end where you read a line and teams buzz in to say whether it’s the real quote or a slightly altered fake — because as any true fan knows, the most famous line in the movie is actually misquoted by basically everyone.

2. Christmas Vacation Movie Bingo

Bingo gets a serious upgrade when every square is a Christmas Vacation moment instead of a generic holiday word. This version is played while the movie is running in the background — guests mark off squares as scenes, phrases, and signature moments happen on screen.

Clark adjusts his glasses? Mark it. Someone says ‘Griswold’? Mark it. The squirrel appears? Absolute pandemonium.

It’s the perfect game to keep running all night alongside the other activities, and even guests who drift in and out of conversations can pick their card back up at any moment.

Print one unique bingo card per guest (randomizing the square order so not everyone yells ‘BINGO!’ simultaneously — though honestly, chaos is on-brand for this party).

Each 5×5 card has a FREE space in the center labeled ‘Clark’s Christmas Dream,’ and the surrounding squares feature moments like: Cousin Eddie in his bathrobe, the Christmas tree falling, the lights finally working, someone yelling ‘Hallelujah,’ Clark’s cheek getting stuck to the frozen sled, Aunt Bethany wrapping her cat, and more.

First person to get five in a row wins a small prize — a jar of jelly, perhaps.

The beauty of Movie Bingo is that it rewards the fans who’ve memorized every beat AND gives newcomers a reason to pay close attention.

If you’re not screening the movie, you can run this as a standalone caller game — just have the host read out moments and events.

Either way, have a small prize bag ready: jelly of the month club memberships (real ones!), candy, or a funny gag gift works perfectly. Pro tip: laminate the cards and use dry-erase markers so you can replay them every year.

Clark would absolutely approve of that level of commitment.

3. Griswold Trivia Showdown

Think you know Christmas Vacation? Prove it. The Griswold Trivia Showdown is a full-on competitive quiz game played in buzzer-style rounds, and it covers everything from iconic quotes and character names to behind-the-scenes facts that will make even the most devoted fans question their loyalty.

Did you know the movie was filmed in Colorado, not Illinois where the Griswolds supposedly live? Did you know that the most famous line in the movie is technically a misquote?

This is where things get deliciously nerdy, and people get surprisingly competitive about a 1989 comedy.

Divide guests into teams of 2–4 and play through five rounds of five questions each, with categories like: ‘Clark’s Rants’ (finish the quote), ‘Cousin Eddie Knowledge’ (specific Eddie moments), ‘By the Numbers’ (how many lights did Clark use?), ‘What Happened Next?’

(describe the scene, teams guess what comes immediately after), and a lightning round of true/false statements. The host reads questions aloud, teams write answers on a notepad, and everyone reveals simultaneously to prevent cheating. One point per correct answer, double points in the lightning round.

To make it feel extra official — and extra Griswold — give the winning team a ridiculously over-the-top trophy moment. Print a ‘Certificate of Christmas Vacation Excellence’ and read it aloud with full ceremony, ideally while someone hums the movie’s theme.

You can also add a ‘Steal’ mechanic: if a team answers wrong, another team can buzz in with the correct answer for half a point.

Keep the energy fast and the rounds short — this game is best played at high speed with lots of groaning at answers people should have known.

4. Griswold Would You Rather

Would You Rather gets a Griswold makeover, and the result is a printable conversation-starter that doubles as a surprisingly revealing look into your friends’ characters.

Every dilemma on this sheet is pulled directly from the world of Christmas Vacation, forcing guests to choose between two equally terrible (or equally magical) scenarios from the film.

Would you rather have Cousin Eddie show up unannounced for Christmas, or receive a jelly-of-the-month club subscription instead of your bonus? Would you rather be trapped in the attic watching home movies, or stuck on the sled when it goes off the hill?

Nobody escapes unscathed.

Print one sheet per guest and give everyone five minutes to circle their answers, then go around the room and share — the real game is defending your choices out loud while the rest of the table erupts.

You can also play this as a group show-of-hands game without the printed sheet, but having it on paper means guests can save it (and re-read each other’s answers) throughout the night.

The mix of silly and surprisingly relatable dilemmas keeps the energy light while sparking real conversation, which is exactly what you want at a holiday party.

For maximum chaos, add a ‘Griswold Rating’ at the bottom of the sheet where guests score themselves: 0–3 Griswold choices means you’d somehow survive a Griswold Christmas unscathed, 4–6 means you’re a solid family disaster waiting to happen, and 7–10 means you ARE Clark.

Read the results aloud. Whoever scores highest gets crowned the evening’s Official Griswold — complete with a plastic crown or a paper one you’ve printed and cut out beforehand. (The overachiever host energy is very on-brand for this theme, tbh.)

5. Squirrel in the Tree Chase (Plush)

You cannot throw a Christmas Vacation party and not acknowledge the squirrel. It is legally required.

This game is inspired by the unforgettable scene where a very alive, very angry squirrel launches itself out of the Griswold Christmas tree and terrorizes the entire household — and it translates into a genuinely chaotic, running-around-the-house relay that adults will talk about for years.

All you need is a small stuffed squirrel (they’re everywhere on Amazon and in craft stores around the holidays) and a group of people willing to be slightly ridiculous.

Set up the game as a team relay: one player on each team is the ‘Squirrel Carrier’ and must run the plush squirrel from a starting point, around a designated ‘Christmas tree’ obstacle (a real tree, a cardboard standee, or even just a chair with tinsel on it), and back — but they can only carry the squirrel tucked under their chin.

No hands. If it drops, they have to stop, pick it up (using only their arms pressed against their body), and restart from the drop point. First team to get all their players through wins.

Want to ramp up the chaos? Add a ‘dog in the yard’ wildcard rule — at any point during the relay, the host can shout ‘Snot!’ (Eddie’s dog) and everyone has to freeze in place for five seconds before continuing.

It sounds small but it is absolutely unhinged in the best way when it happens mid-sprint. Keep a second plush squirrel on hand just in case the first one gets launched across the room with a little too much enthusiasm. (It will. It always does.)

6. Quote Fill-In Sheet

This is the printable you set on every chair before guests arrive, because the second someone sits down and sees a Christmas Vacation fill-in-the-blank sheet, they immediately start arguing with their neighbor about whether they know the right answer — and just like that, your party has started itself.

The Quote Fill-In Sheet features 12 iconic lines from the movie with key words blanked out, and guests have to fill in the missing word or words from memory. It sounds easy. It is not always easy.

The misquote trap is very real (looking at you, ‘shitter was full’ versus ‘shitter’s full’).

Print one sheet per person and give guests 5–7 minutes to complete it solo before comparing answers.

You can run this as a scored game (most correct answers wins a prize) or just as a conversation starter — either way, the moment someone confidently writes the wrong word and another guest corrects them is worth every cent of the printer ink.

Pair it with a themed cocktail and snacks right when guests arrive, and it sets the perfect warm-up tone before the more active games kick in.

Make the answer key a tiny, light-grey italic line at the very bottom of the page so the host can verify answers without spoiling the game for players mid-fill. The real bonus of this game?

It works as a gentle litmus test for how serious the other players are. If someone aces every single blank, you know they’ve watched the movie approximately forty-seven times — and that person should immediately be made the trivia team captain. They’ve earned it.

(Possibly against their will, but still.)

7. Jelly of the Month Gift Swap

If you’ve seen Christmas Vacation, you know the moment: Clark tears open his Christmas bonus envelope, full of hope and dreams of a backyard pool, and finds a membership to the Jelly of the Month Club — a gift described as ‘the gift that keeps on giving throughout the year.’

This game is a White Elephant-style gift exchange built entirely around that energy.

Every guest brings a wrapped gift that is either literally a jelly or jam product, OR something equally underwhelming and over-hyped — think bizarre flavored popcorn, a ‘deluxe’ dish sponge set, novelty socks, a single fancy candle, a gift card for an extremely specific amount like $6.37.

The more anticlimactic the better.

Play it just like a classic White Elephant: number the guests, draw numbers to determine order, and the first person unwraps a gift. Each subsequent player can either steal an already-opened gift or unwrap a new one.

A gift can only be stolen twice before it’s ‘frozen’ (locked with the current holder). The last person gets to swap with anyone.

The twist here: at the end of the game, the host dramatically reads Clark’s bonus rant speech before announcing the final gift totals. It brings the house down every single time, especially if you have someone who can really commit to the performance.

To kick this up a notch, announce the gift that gets stolen the most times as the ‘Jelly of the Month Award Winner’ — and yes, that person gets to keep it along with a handwritten certificate declaring their gift ‘the gift that keeps on giving.’

If you want to stretch the budget conversation naturally, it’s worth noting that keeping your gift swap under a $15–$20 cap is a great way to budget for Christmas without anyone feeling the pressure to overspend. Clark would have appreciated that memo, tbh.

8. Light Up the House Team Challenge

Clark Griswold hung 25,000 individual twinkle lights on his house with a level of dedication that bordered on clinical. This team challenge honors that legacy by turning string-light wrangling into a competitive relay.

Two teams race to untangle, string, and drape a set of Christmas lights around a designated ‘house zone’ — this could be a doorway, a chair, a small tabletop Christmas tree, or a section of a fence if you’re outdoors.

The team that gets their lights fully displayed AND successfully plugs them in to prove they’re working wins. Simple premise. Absolutely chaotic execution.

Set up two identical tangles of lights at the start line — and really commit to the tangle. Don’t be gentle about it. Stuff them in a bag and shake it.

Each team gets the same length of lights (a 25-foot strand works beautifully), and the relay rules require players to rotate: one person untangles for 30 seconds, passes to the next, and so on until the lights are ready to hang.

Then one designated ‘Clark’ on each team does the final draping and plugs them in. If the lights don’t work (because a bulb is out or a connection is loose), the team has to troubleshoot — just like the real Clark — before claiming victory.

The beauty of this game is that it scales perfectly for your space. Outdoors on a patio, it becomes a full sprint. Indoors around a mantel or a stair railing, it’s hilarious in a completely different way.

Award the winning team with a small prize, and give the losing team a consolation ‘we’ll try again next year’ Griswold ribbon.

For the host: test both light strands beforehand to make sure they actually work — nothing tanks the game energy faster than both teams tangling with broken lights. (Unless you lean into it and call it ‘the full Clark experience,’ which honestly also works.)

9. Cousin Eddie Costume Contest

Every Christmas Vacation party needs a costume contest, and this one has a very specific brief: come dressed as Cousin Eddie, OR as any character from the movie. The key word being ‘character’ — this isn’t a generic ugly sweater contest.

It’s a full-on commitment to the Griswold universe.

Eddie’s bathrobe and dickie combo is the obvious frontrunner, but sharp guests will show up as Clark in his full snowsuit, Aunt Bethany with her cat in a box, Ellen in a power suit, or even a human interpretation of the squirrel.

The more obscure the character, the better, tbh.

Set up a judging panel of three guests who were explicitly told NOT to dress up (they’re the neutral judges), and run the contest in three rounds: the Walk (each contestant does a slow lap while judges score on a 1–10 scale), the Impression (each person delivers one line from their character in character — no reading from a phone), and the Audience Vote (everyone else cheers for their favorite).

Tally scores across all three rounds. The host reads results dramatically. Winner gets a ridiculous trophy — a plastic gold figurine, a Moose Mug with their name on it, whatever you can find.

This game works beautifully even if only a few guests dress up. Five contestants can carry a room of twenty.

And for guests who didn’t come in costume, give them a simple ‘character card’ at the door with a Griswold family member’s name on it — they can play along in the voting rounds without feeling left out.

If you’re also looking for budget-friendly costume ideas, the Cousin Eddie look is genuinely achievable for under $10 at any thrift store, which is very on-brand for Eddie himself.

10. Hap-Hap-Happiest Toast Contest

Clark Griswold’s commitment to the ‘hap-hap-happiest Christmas’ energy is something we should all aspire to, even when everything is clearly falling apart.

The Hap-Hap-Happiest Toast Contest channels exactly that spirit: every guest has two minutes to prepare and deliver the most over-the-top, Griswold-worthy Christmas toast they can imagine.

The toast has to include at least one movie reference, one sincere sentiment buried under chaos, and end with a dramatic declaration. Think less ‘Cheers!’

and more ‘I want to look back on this night and know that I made it the greatest night of our lives — or so help me, I will find out whose idea it was to not give us a bonus and I will personally—’ You get the idea.

Give guests five minutes of prep time with index cards to jot notes (pens and cards provided by the host), then run the toasts back to back with a two-minute timer visible to everyone.

The audience votes on three categories: Most Heartfelt (even under the Clark-level drama), Most Dramatic Delivery, and Most Quotable Line.

Each category gets its own winner, so you end up with three crowned champions of the evening — which means more people feel seen, and more people ham it up trying to win.

Votes are cast by holding up fingers (1–5 rating) after each toast, and the host tallies in real time.

Keep a stash of small prizes on hand — a mini bottle of something festive, a candy bar, a Christmas cracker — because the best part of this game is watching people who swore they ‘couldn’t do it’ absolutely nail a toast that brings the whole room to its feet.

Encourage guests to raise their Moose Mugs for the actual toasting portion. If someone delivers an Eddie-level toast — sincere, slightly off, weirdly moving — give them a standing ovation. They’ve earned it.

11. Guess the Movie Scene

This printable is a photo-free twist on movie trivia that works entirely through vivid scene descriptions.

Instead of showing a screenshot, the sheet describes 10 iconic Christmas Vacation moments in careful, sometimes deliberately vague detail — and guests have to identify which scene is being described and who says or does the key thing in that moment.

It’s harder than it sounds, because when you strip a scene down to just its beats and actions, even the ones you’ve seen a dozen times suddenly require you to actually think. Which is exactly what makes it so satisfying when you get it right.

Print one sheet per guest and allow 8–10 minutes of solo play. Each scene description is numbered, and guests write their answer (scene name or brief description of the moment) on the blank line provided.

The host reads the correct answers aloud one by one at the end, and guests score themselves — one point per correct scene identified, bonus point if they can also name the character responsible.

Whoever has the highest score wins, but the real prize is the moment where the host reads the description and everyone goes ‘OHHH — the sled scene!’ simultaneously.

For variety, mix the difficulty deliberately: include two or three ‘gimme’ scenes that every casual viewer knows, then bury a few deep cuts that only the true devotees will recognize (the rooftop sequence details, the attic film projector moment, the specific contents of Aunt Bethany’s wrapped gifts).

This range keeps the game competitive across the whole group rather than having one superfan dominate start to finish. And if you need gift ideas for the guest who wins?

A quick peek at a Christmas gift guide might spark some inspiration for the prize bag.

12. Turkey Carve Charades

The Christmas Vacation turkey dinner scene is a masterclass in holiday cooking disasters — a turkey so overcooked it practically turns to dust the moment Clark carves it.

Turkey Carve Charades is a physical acting game where players have to mime the act of carving and presenting a very specific, increasingly absurd dish to the table — while their team guesses not just what the dish is, but HOW the cooking went wrong.

Every prompt card has a food item AND a Griswold-style cooking catastrophe attached to it. ‘Roast beef — that’s been left in the oven for three days.’ ‘Christmas cookies — that were decorated by someone who’s never held a piping bag.’ You get the vibe.

Write 20–25 prompt cards ahead of time, each with a dish and a disaster descriptor. Players draw a card and have 90 seconds to act out both the dish AND the cooking failure without speaking.

Their team has to correctly name both elements to score the point. If they only get the dish right (not the disaster), they get half a point.

The 90-second timer keeps things moving and the pressure of a ticking clock makes even the most dignified adults start doing full-body turkey-carving impressions, which is exactly what this party deserves.

The game works in teams of 3–4 and plays through at least two full rotations so everyone gets a turn in front of the group.

To escalate the drama, use a silver carving knife as the ‘acting prop’ — whoever holds the knife is the actor. Passing the knife between turns adds a little ritual that keeps everyone focused and invested.

End the game by having everyone vote on the most committed performance of the night, and give that person the title of ‘Clark Griswold Honorary Chef’ — which is both an honor and a warning.

13. Eggnog Glass Balance Race

The Griswold family eggnog bowl is a thing of legend — a moose-shaped punch bowl filled to the brim with something Clark describes as looking like a glass of warm eggnog served in a rubber boot.

This relay race honors that legacy by making guests carry a plastic cup of ‘eggnog’ (apple juice, lemonade, or actual eggnog — your call) balanced on a small plate from one end of the room to the other and back, without spilling. Sounds easy.

Is not easy. Especially after the first round of actual eggnog has been consumed.

Set up a straight course of about 15–20 feet with a turnaround point (a chair, a cone, a garden gnome in a Santa hat — whatever you have).

Each player gets a plastic cup filled three-quarters full on a small paper plate, walks the course, and passes the plate-and-cup stack to the next teammate.

If the cup tips and spills, the player has to stop, refill at the eggnog station (a pitcher at the start line), and continue from the spill point. First team to get every player through the relay wins.

No running — walking only, which is somehow more chaotic than running would be.

For adults-only parties, the obvious upgrade is using real eggnog spiked to whatever level your group enjoys — and adding a rule that any eggnog spilled must be replaced from the pitcher but also means the player takes a small sip as a ‘penalty’ before continuing.

This turns the race into a wonderfully bad incentive structure where winning requires NOT spilling, but spilling isn’t entirely a loss either. Classic Christmas Vacation energy: the stakes feel enormous and the outcome is cheerfully unhinged either way. Your guests will thank you.

14. Best Family Disaster Story

This is the game that turns your Christmas Vacation party into something genuinely memorable — a quiet, seated moment where every guest gets to be their own Clark Griswold for exactly three minutes.

The Best Family Disaster Story game is simple: each person thinks of their most chaotic, most relatable, most ‘somehow this is what the holidays are like at our house’ story. It could be the year the oven broke on Christmas morning.

The relative who showed up unannounced with a large animal. The gift exchange that ended with someone crying (not about the gift). Anything that would fit comfortably in a Griswold movie counts.

Run it as a storytelling round where each person stands up and shares their story with a strict three-minute timer. No phones for notes — this is memory and performance.

The audience votes at the end of each story by holding up a ‘Griswold Meter’ score (you can make simple cards numbered 1–5 out of index cards, or just use finger ratings).

The story with the highest cumulative score wins the title of ‘Most Griswold Family in the Room,’ which in this context is absolutely a compliment and should be treated as one.

The magic of this game is that it levels the playing field completely — no movie knowledge required, no physical ability needed, no prep work. Everyone has a family disaster story.

Some people didn’t know that until they had to tell it out loud, which is the best part.

It also tends to go long in the best way, because one story inevitably prompts another, and before you know it, the whole room is swapping holiday horror stories like trading cards.

Keep the timer honest but be flexible — if someone’s story is building to a genuinely incredible payoff, let it breathe.

15. Most Griswold Moment Vote

Save this one for the very end of the night, when everyone’s had a couple of eggnogs and the stories from the Best Family Disaster game are still floating around the room.

The Most Griswold Moment Vote is a group vote where each guest nominates someone ELSE at the party for the ‘Most Griswold Moment of the Night’ — meaning the single funniest, most chaotic, most try-hard-but-lovable thing that happened during the party.

It could be from one of the games, from the costume contest, from a toast, or just from something that happened organically. Real life counts here.

Hand out small ballot cards (index cards work perfectly) and give everyone two minutes to write down the person they’re nominating and the specific moment they’re citing. Collect the cards, and the host reads each one aloud before revealing the vote count.

One point per nomination. The person with the most nominations wins the ‘Official Griswold of the Night’ title — and yes, you should have a physical thing to give them.

A plastic crown, a printed certificate, a Moose Mug with their name written on it in marker. Something they can take home and display with pride.

What makes this game perfect as a closer is that it’s a genuine celebration of the night you just had together, framed through the lens of the movie you all love.

It also gives shy guests — the ones who didn’t necessarily star in the active games — a moment to be seen and appreciated by the group. And if someone nominates you for the Most Griswold Moment? Accept it gracefully. Clark always did, eventually.

(Okay, he didn’t, but that’s what makes him Clark.)

If you’re already planning next year’s party and thinking about what to get the host, a Christmas gift guide is a great starting point — because the person who hosted a Griswold party deserves something genuinely good.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do you need to host a National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation party?

At minimum: a screening of the movie (or just the movie playing in the background), Moose Mugs or festive cups for drinks, a big batch of eggnog, and a handful of these games printed or prepped.

For the full Griswold experience, add string lights everywhere, an oversized Christmas tree, and encourage guests to dress as characters from the film. The more chaotic the setup, the more on-theme it is — so don’t stress about perfection. Clark never did.

Well, he did, but look how that turned out.

How many people do you need for a Christmas Vacation party game night?

Most of these games work with as few as 6 guests and scale easily up to 30+. Team-based games like the Griswold Trivia Showdown, Squirrel in the Tree Relay, and Light Up the House Challenge work best with 8–20 people.

Printable games like the Movie Bingo and Quote Fill-In Sheet can be played simultaneously by any number of guests. The storytelling games (Best Family Disaster Story, Most Griswold Moment Vote) actually get BETTER with larger groups — more stories, more chaos.

What prizes work well for a Christmas Vacation themed party?

Lean into the movie for prize ideas: actual jelly or jam products (hello, Jelly of the Month Club), Moose Mugs or Walley World merchandise, mini bottles of eggnog liqueur, funny gag gifts, or a printed ‘Certificate of Christmas Vacation Excellence.’

You can also do a prize bag with Christmas candy, festive ornaments, or small stocking stuffers. Keeping prizes small and funny fits the theme better than anything extravagant — Clark would have wanted a bonus, but we know how that went.

Can you play these Christmas Vacation party games without watching the movie first?

Some games require movie knowledge (Quote Charades, Griswold Trivia Showdown, Quote Fill-In Sheet), so those are best for groups where at least most guests have seen the film.

But several games work perfectly for newcomers too: the Jelly of the Month Gift Swap, Eggnog Glass Balance Race, Hap-Hap-Happiest Toast Contest, Squirrel in the Tree Chase, and the storytelling games all stand on their own.

A quick ‘5 Things to Know About Christmas Vacation’ briefing at the start of the party — delivered by your most enthusiastic fan guest — goes a long way for newcomers.

What food and drinks should you serve at a Christmas Vacation party?

Eggnog is non-negotiable — serve it in a punch bowl if you can find a Moose Mug-style bowl. Beyond that: anything that fits the chaotic Griswold dinner table vibe.

A big roast (even if it’s dry — very on-theme), Christmas cookies, a relish tray, and whatever your family’s signature holiday dish is. For dessert, serve anything you can call ‘the gift that keeps on giving.’

And honestly, if you want to budget smartly on party food, checking out some <a href=’https://redcheeksgirl.com/cheap-thanksgiving-appetizers-that-look-expensive/’>appetizers that look expensive but aren’t</a> is exactly the kind of Clark Griswold efficiency move we can get behind.

How do you set up the printable games for a Christmas Vacation party?

Print them in black and white or color, one per guest, and set them out on the table before anyone arrives. Place a pen or pencil next to each sheet.

For the Movie Bingo card, print different randomized versions so not everyone marks the same squares simultaneously — you can do this by manually reordering the squares on different print runs.

The Quote Fill-In Sheet and Griswold Would You Rather work great as arrival activities guests can start on immediately while others are still showing up, which also means you don’t have to entertain everyone the second they walk in. (You’re welcome.)

There you have it — 15 national lampoons christmas vacation party games that cover every mood, every crowd size, and every level of Griswold devotion.

From the chaos of the Squirrel Relay to the surprisingly touching Best Family Disaster Story round, this lineup is built to keep your guests laughing all night long and talking about it well into January.

Print the sheets, tangle the lights, fill the Moose Mugs, and remember: it’s not a Griswold Christmas until something goes wonderfully, spectacularly wrong. So pin this, gather your crew, and go make some memories — hap-hap-happiest ones, obviously.

And if you’re still sorting out what to get everyone on your list this season, the 2025 Christmas Gift Guide has you covered from Cousin Eddies to Clark Griswolds and everyone in between.

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