Here are 10 fun filled Christmas games to play in your Kid’s Church during the Christmas season.  From well-known favourites like Christmas Musical Chairs to the lesser known Donkey Kick, there’s a game to suit any sized group, indoors or outdoors.      

Musical Christmas Clothes

You will need:

A bag of Christmas costumes

Christmas music

How to play:

Children stand in a circle.  When the music plays the bag of costumes is passed around from child to child.  When the music stops, whoever is holding the bag must pull out a Christmas costume and put it on.  When the music starts the bag of costumes is passed around again, until all the bag is empty.

Catching Stars

You will need:

A large open space

How to play: 

Put children into two teams.  The teams line up facing each other, forming a chain by holding hands. The team decides who from the other team they want to call over, and shout, ‘Twinkle, twinkle little star, send (name) as they are!’ The chosen child then runs toward the other team, trying to break through the clasped hands of two teammates. If they don’t, they have to join that team. But if they do, they get to bring back to their team one of the two people from the broken link!

Stuck in the Snow

You will need:

A large open space

How to play:

Choose one child to be ‘it’.  The child must run around and tag as many other children as they can.  When tagged a child becomes ‘stuck in the snow’ and must stand like a Christmas Tree with legs apart and arms forming a triangle above their head.  The only way to be freed from the snow is for a non-tagged child to crawl between their legs.  Children cannot be tagged if they are crawling under the legs of a child stuck in the snow.  The game is over when all the children have been tagged and are stuck in the snow.

No Room at the Inn

You will need:

Newspaper pages (or large sheets of paper)

Christmas music

How to play:

Place the pages of newspaper on the floor.  There should be a smaller number of pages than children.  Tell the children that each page is a room in an inn.  When the music plays the children wander around the space between the pages.  When the music stops the children must find a page to stand on.  More than one child can try to fit on the page.  Children who cannot find a page to stand on are out because there is no room for them in the inn!  Remove a page from the floor after each child is out.

Bauble Bounce

You will need:

Buckets of various sizes

A ball (which is decorated to look like a bauble)

Masking tape or chalk to mark a baseline

Pen and paper for point tallies

How to play:

The object of this game is to make the bauble bounce a single time and land inside buckets of different sizes.  Set the smaller bucket a metre and a half away from the base line, set the second smallest bucket directly in the back of it and touching it.  Set the next three sizes in back of them with the largest bucket the farthest away.  A child stands at the baseline and tries to bounce the bauble and get it into any of the buckets.  He scores one point for a fit into the first bucket, and two, three, four and five points for the second, third, fourth and fifth buckets.  The child is allowed three tries before his points are totalled.  The child with the highest total wins the game.

Donkey Kick

You will need:

A small piece of timber

Measuring tape

Pen and paper to record distances

How to play:

A child holds their leg up with the bottom of their shoe held up behind them.  The game leader balances the piece of timber on the upturned sole.  The child now kicks their foot backwards and tries to send the stick as far from their back as possible.  The longest kick wins! 

Christmas Musical Chairs

You will need:

Christmas music

Chairs

How to play:

Set up one less chair than the number of children playing in a circle or line. Start the Christmas music and the children walk around the chairs until the music stops. Then the children rush to sit on a chair as quickly as possible. The last child standing is out, and then another chair is removed before the next round begins. Play until only one child is standing.

Pin the Nose on Joseph’s Donkey

You will need:

A large drawing of a donkey

A ‘tail’ for each child

Blindfold

Sticky tape or similar

How to play:

Draw a simple donkey onto a large piece of paper and stick it up onto a wall with free space in front of it. Prepare a paper ‘tail’ for each child and label it with their name. Each tail will also need a small square of tape so it sticks to the donkey.  Blindfold children one at a time, spinning each around in a circle a few times before letting them try to stick their tail as close as possible to where the donkey’s tail should be.  The closest wins.

Pass the Christmas Parcel

You will need:

A prize

Christmas wrapping paper

Sticky tape

Christmas music

How to play:

Buy a small, inexpensive prize and then wrap it in lots of layers of Christmas wrapping paper.  You’ll need at least one layer per child.  Have the children sit in a circle, passing the wrapped parcel around the circle while you play Christmas music. When the music stops, the child holding the parcel removes the outer layer of paper. Start the music again and continue until one child unwraps the final layer of paper to reveal their prize.

Search for the Star

You will need:

A small golden star

How to play:

All children leave the room except for one. The remaining child hides the star somewhere in the room. The star should be hidden so that it is fairly difficult but not impossible to find. To avoid too much destruction to the room, the star should be hidden so that it can be seen without moving anything else.  Once the star is hidden, all the children are called back into the room to look for it.  The winner is the first child to find the star and return it to the child who hid it. The child who finds it then has a turn at hiding the star.

So, there are 10 Christmas games you can play with the kids in your Kid’s Ministry this Christmas.  May they bring all of you lots of laughter!  God bless you and Merry Christmas.