Christmas games for seniors: 12 easy games with rules
Good Christmas games for seniors have three things in common: rules you can explain in one sentence, print big enough to read without hunting for glasses, and a way for everyone to score, whether they are 8 or 88. Long, fiddly party games tend to leave half the table watching.
Below are twelve games that work in living rooms, senior centers, assisted living and care homes. Each one has what you need, how to play, and how to adapt it. A few include real sample questions you can use straight away.
Before you start: teams and scoring
- Play in teams of two to four. Nobody is put on the spot, and people who don’t hear or see well have a partner.
- Mix the teams. A sharp-eyed grandchild and a grandparent who remembers 1950s Christmases make a strong pair.
- Keep one score sheet on a clipboard and read the totals out after each game. Small prizes, like a candy cane or first pick of the cookies, are plenty.
- Plan 45 to 60 minutes, three or four games, and stop while people are still enjoying it.
Quiz games
1. Christmas true or false
The host reads a statement and teams call out or circle TRUE or FALSE. It is the easiest quiz to run, because nobody has to come up with an answer from nothing. Try these:
- In Australia, Christmas comes in the summer. True: December is summer in the southern half of the world.
- Decorated Christmas trees began in Japan. False: the custom is traced to Germany in the 1500s.
- The famous Christmas truce of 1914 happened during World War II. False: it was World War I.
- Only male reindeer grow antlers. False: female reindeer grow them too, which is unusual among deer.
Adapting it: read each statement twice, slowly. For memory care, use statements about home and family (“We hang stockings by the fireplace”) where every answer is a chance to talk.
2. Which came first?
Read two events; teams decide which happened first. It works well with older players, who often know more history than anyone expects.
- The first Christmas card sold in shops, or the first postage stamp? The stamp (1840; the card followed in 1843).
- The telephone, or electric Christmas tree lights? The telephone (1876; electric tree lights were first shown in 1882).
3. Name three in 30 seconds
Write prompts on folded cards: “Name 3 things you hang on a Christmas tree”, “Name 3 kinds of Christmas cookies”, “Name 3 things that are red at Christmas”. A player draws a card and the team has 30 seconds to name three. One point per card.
Adapting it: drop the timer for memory care and simply share answers around the table.
4. Christmas memory questions
Not a quiz with right answers, and often the favorite: “What was in your stocking as a child?”, “Who made the best Christmas dinner in your family?”, “What was the first gift you remember?” Give a point for every story told.
Word and puzzle games
5. Word search race
Every team gets the same large-print Christmas word search; the first to circle all the words calls out “Ho ho ho!”. Our free Christmas word search for adults has three puzzles in 30-point letters, ready to print.
Adapting it: print at “actual size” so the letters stay big, and play in pairs rather than against the clock if speed would frustrate anyone.
6. Word scramble race
Unscramble ten Christmas words, such as LESNIT (TINSEL) or HAETWR (WREATH). Fill in the first letter of each word to make it friendlier for younger players and anyone who wants a gentler round.
7. How many words from MERRY CHRISTMAS?
Teams list every word of four letters or more they can make from the letters of MERRY CHRISTMAS: CHAIR, CHARM, MATCH, SHIRT, MIRTH and many more. Set a timer for five minutes. Fewer than ten is a good start; thirty is champion level.
8. Christmas A to Z
Go around the table: one Christmas word for each letter of the alphabet, A for angel, B for bells, C for carols. The whole room works together, which makes it a gentle closing game.
Games to move, look and listen
9. Christmas picture bingo
Swap numbers for pictures: a star, a stocking, a candle, a snowman. Large cards and big markers help, and the caller can describe each picture as well as naming it.
10. Guess the Christmas scent
Put cloves, orange peel, cinnamon, pine and gingerbread in small covered cups. Pass them around and guess. It needs no reading at all and starts a lot of conversations.
11. Pass the parcel with questions
Wrap a small gift in several layers with a question or a joke between each one. Play music; when it stops, the person holding the parcel unwraps a layer and reads the question for the table.
12. Carol “finish the line”
The host sings or says the first half of a line from a well-known carol and the table finishes it. Old songs tend to stay in memory for a long time, so this one often lights up people who are quiet in the other games.
A 60-minute Christmas game party
- 0:00 Cocoa, teams and a quick explanation of the score sheet.
- 0:10 Christmas true or false (one round of eight).
- 0:20 Word search race with the free large-print printable.
- 0:35 Name three in 30 seconds.
- 0:50 Christmas A to Z together, then the totals and the candy canes.
For a December afternoon with crafts, music and baking as well as games, see our guide to Christmas activities for seniors.
Questions
What are good Christmas games for seniors with dementia?
Choose games with no wrong answers and no clock: memory questions, scent guessing, the carol game and Christmas A to Z played together. Keep rounds short and praise every answer.
How many people do you need?
Most of these games work from two players up to a full activity room. For bigger groups, play in teams of three or four and print one game page per team.
What if some players can’t see the pages well?
Use large print (30-point letters or bigger), pair them with a partner who reads aloud, and choose spoken games such as true or false, which came first and the memory questions.
Ready-made games to print
If you’d rather not make the cards and questions yourself, our Christmas Family Game Night has ten large-print games for one evening: true or false rounds, which came first, the 30-second cards, word search and scramble races, the MERRY CHRISTMAS word race and Christmas A to Z, with a host page, a score sheet and every answer at the back. For quieter afternoons, the Christmas Large-Print Activity Pack has 44 word searches, scrambles and cryptograms, and our free coloring pages for seniors are a calm way to end the party.