Post your party games here...

[Robin]

Another question I am always being asked is
"I need more party games".

Please share yours here. Thanks!

[Bonnie Flanagan]

Memory Exchange

Have pictures of Christmas items (snowflake, berries, mittens) and have each person pick one then have them share that memory.


New Year’s Resolutions

Everyone writes several New Years Resolutions which are randomly read. Can you guess who made it?

Make each of your guests write down 5 resolutions, each on its own slip of paper. Pull one slip of paper out of a hat at a time and read it out loud. Everyone has to write down on another sheet of paper who they think made each resolution. At the end of the readings, the person who guessed the most correctly wins a prize. Talk about some of the wrong guesses out loud for fun!

Christmas Movie Quiz

Copy the Holiday Movie Trivia (make sure not to leave the answer in) and hand out one to every guest as they arrive. Whoever gets the most questions right wins! Another variation on this game: Divide all guests into 2 or 3 or 4 groups, each group can collaborate on answers, the group which gets most questions right, wins!

1. In the 1988 film "Scrooged," the character played by Bill Murray is:
a) a cold-hearted banker
b) a cold-hearted TV executive
c) a cold-hearted police officer
d) a cold-hearted politician

2. What's the name of George Bailey's guardian angel in "It's a Wonderful Life?"
a) Ariel
b) Henry
c) Clarence
d) Frank

3. In "It's a Wonderful Life," George Bailey as a boy suffers an injury to:
a) his foot
b) his arm
c) his eyes
d) his ear

4. "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is written by:
a) Tim Burton
b) Martin Scorsese
c) Jimmy Stewart
d) Danny DeVito

5. "White Christmas" is set in
a) Colorado
b) Montana
c) New Hampshire
d) Vermont

6. Who plays Bing Crosby's Army buddy in "White Christmas?"
a) Jimmy Stewart
b) Dean Martin
c) Danny Kaye
d) Bob Hope

7. The little girl who's skeptical about Santa Clause in "Miracle on 34th Street" is played by:
a) Natalie Wood
b) Audrey Hepburn
c) Anne Bancroft
d) Sharon Stone

8. Miracle on 34th Street revolves around which department store?
a) Bloomingdales
b) Macys
c) Parisian
d) Neiman Marcus

9. In "Home Alone," a young boy is abandoned when his parents rush to a holiday vacation in:
a) Vermont
b) London
c) Paris
d) New York

10. The 1982 Barry Levinson film "Diner" is set in which city?
a) New York
b) Cleveland
c) Baltimore
d) Boston

11. Which of the following actors was NOT in "Diner?"
a) Kevin Bacon
b) Ellen Barkin
c) Matt Dillon
d) Mickey Rourke

12.What happens to the character played by Tim Allen in "The Santa Clause?"
a) he gains weight
b) grows a beard
c) he gets fired
d) all of the above


1. - Answer - (b)
2. - Answer - (c)
3. - Answer - (d)
4. - Answer - (a)
5. - Answer - (d)
6. - Answer - (c)
7. - Answer - (a)
8. - Answer - (b)
9. - Answer - (c)
10. - Answer - (c)
11. - Answer - (c)
12. – Answer – (d)

[Bonnie Flanagan]

Christmas Trivia

Answer these Christmas trivia questions correctly and you are a Christmas Genius!


1. The first instrument on which the carol "Silent Night" was played was:

A) A harp
B) A pipe organ
C) A guitar
D) A kazoo

Answer: Guitar

2. In Guatemala, Christmas Day is celebrated:

A) On January 6
B) On December 25
C) On October 31
D) Never

Answer: December 25

3. Electric Christmas tree lights were first used in:

A) 1492
B) 1895
C) 1944
D) 1976

Answer: 1895

4. Good King Wenceslas was king of which country?

A) Abyssinia
B) England
C) Bohemia
D) Gondor

Answer: Bohemia

5. Medieval English Christmas pantomimes did NOT include which character?
A) St. Nicholas
B) The Bold Slasher
C) Father Christmas
D) The Turkish Knight

Answer: St. Nicholas

6. The name of Scrooge's deceased business partner in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was:

A) Bob Cratchit
B) Jerry Cornelius
C) Bill Sykes
D) Jacob Marley

Answer: Jacob Marley

7. In North America, children put stockings out at Christmas time. Their Dutch counterparts use:

A) Old hats
B) Beer mugs
C) Shoes
D) Stockings, just like everybody else!

Answer: Shoes

8. The poinsettia, a traditional Christmas flower, originally grew in which country?

A) Canada
B) China
C) Mexico
D) Spain

Answer: Mexico

9. Which name does NOT belong to one of Santa's reindeer?

A) Comet
B) Prancer
C) Blitzen
D) Klaxon

Answer: Klaxon

10. In Syria, Christmas gifts are distributed by:

A) The Three Kings
B) Tom o'Bedlam
C) One of the Wise Men's camels
D) Father Christmas

Answer: One of the Wise Men's camels

11. One notable medieval English Christmas celebration featured:

A) A giant, 165-pound pie
B) Snowball fights between rival courtiers
C) A swimming race across the English Channel
D) Huge crackers that sometimes exploded fatally

Answer: A giant, 165-pound pie

12. In Australia, usual Boxing Day activities include:

A) Building snowmen
B) Tobogganing
C) Wombat hunting
D) Surfing

Answer: Surfing

13. In Sweden, a common Christmas decoration is the Julbukk, a small figurine of a goat. It is usually made of what material?

A) Candy
B) Straw
C) Uranium
D) Fir wood

Answer: Straw

14. The real St. Nicholas lived:

A) At the North Pole
B) On the island of Malta
C) In Turkey
D) In Holland

Answer: In Turkey

15. Which of the following was not one of the Three Kings?

A) Caspar
B) Balthazar
C) Teleost
D) Melchior

Answer: Teleost

16. In Armenia, the traditional Christmas Eve meal consists of:

A) Fried fish, lettuce and spinach
B) Square meat pies
C) Broiled partridges with gooseberry sauce
D) Turkey and plum pudding


Answer: Fried fish, lettuce and spinach

17. In Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker, the nutcracker's main enemy is:

A) A girl called Clara
B) The King of the Mice
C) Dr. Almond
D) Drosselmeyer the magician

Answer: The King of the Mice

18. The day after Christmas, December 26, is known as Boxing Day. It is also the holy day of which saint?

A) St. Eustace
B) St. Brigit
C) St. Nicholas
D) St. Stephen

Answer: St. Stephen

19. In Greek legend, malicious creatures called Kallikantzaroi sometimes play troublesome pranks at Christmas time. To get rid of them, you should:

A) Placate them with gifts of rice pudding
B) Burn either salt or an old shoe
C) Sing hymns in a loud voice
D) Throw your sandals at them

Answer: Burn either salt or an old shoe

20. When visiting Finland, Santa leaves his sleigh behind and rides on:

A) Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer
B) A giant ptarmigan
C) A goat named Ukko
D) A flying carpet

Answer: A goat named Ukko

[Bonnie Flanagan]

An oldie but goodie.........

Christmas Who Am I

A guessing game where you guess who each Christmas character is by asking questions.

Make tags with names of Christmas characters: Kris Kringle, Mrs. Claus, Scrooge, Tiny Tim, Rudolf, Frosty, etc. Then put one on each person’s back. They have to go around the room and ask other attendees questions that could be answered with a yes or no to find out who they are. When they guessed their own "identity" they get a prize.

1. Ask "yes" or "no" questions only.
2. Answer yes or no to questions only.
3. No removing your own name tag to find out. If you ask, anyone will help you find out your identity.
4. If you need people seated or grouped up this may be a good way to do it. Have place cards at the seat of each item. Or have a few different categories of item to guess. Then when it comes time to group up have the cartoon characters go here, vegetables there, etc.

[Bonnie Flanagan]

This game is not very "seasonal" but can be lots of fun.

Kevin Bacon Game

See how quickly you can tie a movie star back to Kevin Bacon.!

List of 10 movie stars

Divide into teams and give each team a list of 10 well known movie stars. Take each star and link that person to Kevin Bacon through movies in the least amount of steps possible.

Example:

Dustin Hoffman was in Hook with Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts was in Flat-Liners with...Kevin Bacon!!
Bacon factor is 1. Don't count the direct connection.

You should be able to do this with just about any actor or actress from any time. The challenge is knowing all of the right movies and who was in them.

[Bonnie Flanagan]

You're Welcome.

[Christmas Carol Pictionary]

We do a co-ed exchange, funny how the guys REALLY get into the baking

A game that works well for us is pictionary. We have a big writing tablet on the wall and plenty of colored markers, divide the guests into two teams and have at it. I try to do a variety of carols and have candy canes for the winning teams. Always a hit for us.

Hope that's helpful

[Bonnie Flanagan]

I love the pictionary game idea.

[joann]

my 4th year hosting my party and what we do is everyone buys a $10.00 gift and wraps it up...then we put them on the floor in the middle and we draw numers from 1 to how ever many ladies there are. #1 picks a gift opens it up. then #2 can either pick # 1's gift or grab from the gifts and so on..the only rule is that any one gift can only be picked three times total. so if guest #1, 2 and 3 all picked guest #1's gift it is no longer up for grabs. Its alot of fun and its something else to do instead of playing a game. I hope you try this

[Liz]

I hosted last year and posted a photo on Robin's Website (I was so excited), and was disappointed that no one dressed in holiday attire (except myself) OR made Christmas cookies. So I came up with a raffle game for participants:
1 ticket if they are on time
2 tickets if they wear holiday earrings
3 tickets if they make christmas cookies
4 tickets if they wear Christmas attire
5 tickets if the cookies are on a holiday platter
One neice got so excited, she stated she could earn all of the tickets! We'll raffle for wrapped Christmas gifts.
Everyone is looking forward to our 2nd exchange! Thanks, Liz

[Bonnie]

Hi Liz,

Don't be disheartened with your first exchange. The first one is always the toughest. I did view your photos (Liz from Indiana - right) and everyone looked like they had a great time.

The one of mine posted is actually my second exchange even though it says first exchange. Anyway, my first one was a little rough too. There were only 7 or 8 and we did play a few games, chat and exchange. It was nice but not what I expected.

Yes thank goodness for Robin's website! The second one was so much better and some of the ladies did dress in the Christmas spirit and others just wore red (like me even though I was wearing a Santa pin).

I love the raffle idea! Thanks for sharing.

[lizcraig]

Hi Bonnie from Georgia
Yes, I am from Indiana~ We did have a nice time, I was just expecting everyone to be excited like I was. Last year my daughter and her friend played keyboard and violin Christmas music and someone would have to guess the name of the tune to win a small gift of their choice. You could also use a Christmas CD, playing it until someone can name it. (or sing it).

[Kyle Smith]

I am having my 2nd cookie swap this December but I attended 2 in previous years. I usually have 12-14.

Game #1 Reindeer ring toss
Divide group into 2 teams. One person is picked from each team. The person picked from each team puts on reindeer antlers the reaming persons on their team are given rings and they have to toss them onto the antlers. Which ever team collectively gets the most rings WINS!! You could also do it without the teams and the person who gets the most rings wins!!

Game #2 TEXT search
We played this at my friend Joy's exchange. While everyone is sampling the cookies and voting you go around your house and hide candy canes EVERWHERE! Divide into 2 teams and say go, you can time it with a couple of minutes or not but the team with the most candy canes wins!! You could also do this one as an individual game.

[Bonnie]

I know what you mean Liz - I was the same way. Even the second year when I was verbally inviting some of the ladies that had come the first year they were like "yeah I guess - sure." But when they left they were singing a different tune. I think it was because a lot more people showed up the second year and they were probably glad I invited them again. I really don't know many people here that do Cookie Exchanges. I would love to go to someone else's (plus still have my own) just to see what it would be like.

A friend of mine does a neighborhood one and she invites around 50 women. She leaves it optional to bring cookies to exchange and then before they leave she just says "take whatever" to those who are participating in the exchange. I don't think I would like that very much. What if you brought 4 or 6 dozen and went home with only 2 and they were the ones that no one really wanted.

She told me last year that one lady came with no cookies but left with some. That would not go over at my party. I also like to find little gifts to give the participants. I watch for after Christmas sales. Two years ago at Williams-Sonoma they had their cookie cutters (the huge ones) on sale for 9 cents each. I bought a bag full. I put each one in a cello bag with a cookie recipe (you can view my 2003 photo). The left over ones I used to hang on Christmas gift bags.

I try to make each exchange as nice as possible so the ladies will feel special and want to participate each year.

[Robin]

This game was sent to me by email. It looks like a good one. I will assume there is a time limit, I would do 5 minutes.

******************************
A game I have played at cookie/ornament exchanges that is fun is a hunt. Candy canes or red bows are hidden around the house or in a room and everyone gets a certain amount of time to count the items and whoever is closest gets a prize.

Dawn

[Shawna]

I came up with a unique idea for my party. I have this very unusual ornament that I bought at Hallmark umpteen years ago--it's a bronzed statue of Elvis playing his guitar. I've always been very proud of it and I get a lot of funny compliments on it. Anyway, I am going to offer a prize to the first person that can locate it on my Christmas tree. I thought it would be a quick and fun game!

[millie]

I created a game book & includeda pencil. trivia questions, history of Christmas traditions, movies, etc.
A popular "game" was my version of Baker's 12 days of Christmas" (i.e. first day of Christmas my true friend gave to me a "cookbook w/Christmas recipes", 2nd day, 2 doz. eggs, etc.) I made name tags w/cookie picture BUT...12 had a picture of "baker's gift"-picture of cookbook, egg cartons, sugar, etc.the gifts that were on the song. Before starting the singing-I also included parodies of 4 Christmas carols in the game book-I called out those with the appropriate picture & had them each stand on the stairs-the 1st standing at the top. Oh yeah, before, calling them out, I had everyone turn to that page w/the song. Of course, I had to have each one sing her"gift day". What a riot! We had to sing it several times becuase we laughed so hard!!! Then we all sang. What a riot!! Everybody took home their game books. What I thought would only take a few minutes , wound up being the hit of the party. Needless to say, that song along with the other carol parodies is a definite every year.
The games were also lots of fun- amazing how much you think you know until you have to answer. I started out asking different women to give their answers & b4 you knew it, they were all shouting out the answers!! moans & groans when they got 'em wrong. Ihave hosted 3 cookie exchanges & every year it seems to grow. However, some women don't like to bake but WANT TO COME-which is OK. they don't participate in the cookie exchange.
My small cookie exchange has evolved to an annual Christmas party as well as an outreach for all women-I encourage my friends to bring a friend. We have a potluck, too. I try to hold it the Sat. after Thanksgiving. I discovered that for some of the women, this was their only Christmas party-so I really try to make it a festive & happy time. I really enjoy hosting this event. It really is an incentive to have my home decorated & really put me in the Christmas mood.

[Buzy Millie]

Liz, I LOVE your raffle idea.
I'ts July & I'm already working on this year's cookie exchange. I thought I'd include 2 raffle tickets with the invitation.
I look for Christmas "goodies" throughout the year.
I'm hoping to make my own rafle tickets(wish me luck!).
Anyway, thanx for the great idea.
Millie

[Pam]

???I don't have a party game to suggest but I do have a question. I have for years wanted to host a cookie exchange. I've decided to have one this coming December 2005. In doing some research on how many cookies one is to bring, and have come up with a question. Why would one website tell me to have attendees bring 1 dozen for each guest, where Robin's site states that 6 dozen would be good. Doesn't everyone take home the same amount of cookies they bring no matter how many people attend? If all guests bring the same amount of cookies then everyone should return home with that same amount (assuming none are sampled at the party). Have I misread the suggestions?
Pam

[Pam]

In looking further into your website I found my answer. Thanks and happy baking-Pam