Christmas games for the classroom

Since Christmas is just around the corner I thought it might be nice put together a few ideas for games that can be easily played in the classroom or at home.

1. Pin the nose on the reindeer: A variation on the classic game ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. Simply draw a big outline of a reindeer (if you aren’t the best artist, then you can print out an outline here) and then give each child in the class a circular piece of paper with their name on it and some double-sided tape on the back. Put the children in a line and take turned blindfolding them and seeing how close to Rudolph’s nose they can get.

2. Dress up game: Aim of the game is to throw a six (a tray with a dice and cup or a large rubber dice is passed around the circle). When a six is thrown the child then has to dress up in the scarf, gloves hat before anyone else throws a six when he has to stop. If they manages to put all the clothes on they can pick up a sweet or another treat but they must wear the gloves to do it. If you have a large number of children in the circle you will need more than one dice (you can use a dice to suit the children, using numerals or spots or numbers 1-3 only).

3.Father Christmas’ Scavenger Hunt: For this you will need to have some kind of Christmas bag or stocking, which you can usually pick up very cheaply from a supermarket (or Poundland if you’re in Britain). Split the children into teams of 4 and give them a list of items they have to find. You can make up your own items (such as something for Santa to drink out of or something for Rudolph to wear on his head). We have prepared an editable Christmas scavenger hunt template for you to use.

4. Spoon and snowball race: As the name suggests, this is a play on the well-loved egg and spoon race. You will need to make some kind of snowballs for this game, the easiest way is to scrunch up some white paper and secure it with sellotape, perhaps with something in the middle to weigh it down. Line your class up in two teams and place two containers at the other end of the classroom. The aim of the game is to get all the snowballs from one end to the other, but one at a time and only using the spoons. There is a lot of scope for cheating here so watch out!

5. Christmas Card Jigsaw: This is a much quieter game that can be played in smaller groups. Simply cut up a couple of Christmas cards into pieces and mix them up, then ask the children to put them back together. The fastest one wins!

6. Around the Christmas Tree: Place a Christmas tree in the middle of the circle. The children sing the song- ‘dance, dance around the Christmas tree’ and on the edge of the circle is a tray with a collection of Christmas tree ornaments. When the song stops, whoever is standing by the tray chooses an ornament to put on the tree and then chooses an action for everyone to do around the tree e.g jump, hop, crawl, run and of course, dance!

7. The Singing Bag: This one is very simple, just fill a bag with different Christmas items (decorations, soft toys, ornaments etc.) and ask each child to pick out an item. You then have to come up with a songs about the item, they can be made up or well-known tunes. We have a nice selection of festive songs that might come in handy.

If you don’t fancy quite such a hectic games session, then try our Christmas board game or Christmas bingo. Our editable Christmas word cards could also be adapted to create some fun and engaging bespoke games