Get everyone off the sofa this Christmas! It can be a long wait for Father Christmas whether you're big or small. The playing experts are here to help! Here are our favourite Christmassy games to pass the time while you're waiting for Father Christmas.
When everyone's stuffed themselves with Christmas dinner, it is time for the most important competition of winter: to find out who is the best in the family - or even the neighbourhood!
The sports day is like a normal sports day, but some things are more fun to do in the winter.
If there's snow children can run up a little hill with a black bin liner and slide down. Adults can do the same. You change over at the bottom of the hill
Sounds easier than it is! Measure out two tracks. The participants start at one end and run to the other with a potato balanced on a spoon. When the participant has reached the end of the course, they take off the potato, put the spoon on the ground and run around it three times, pick up the potato again and run back and exchange with one of their teammates.
Exactly what it sounds like. Find some snow, let each team take an end of the rope, mark the middle and get started. The first team to pull the other team over to their side wins. Tug of war is fun even if there isn't any snow.
Arrange ten cans or sticks in a row and measure a line a good distance from the jars Participants are given five snowballs each to try to knock down as many cans as possible If there isn't any snow you can use tennis balls instead. The team that knocks down most targets wins. If the participants are different ages you can give them different lines to stand behind.
Make a pile of snow that's twenty to thirty metres long. A participant from each team runs along it. The runners stand at each end of the and then run back and forth once. The first one to the goal wins. The runners have to try and keep their balance even though they meet in the middle and must have to go past each other.
If you fall down, just get up and continue.
The Christmas tree is so green and just waiting for Christmas games. If nothing else you can get rid of some excess energy! But old-fashioned musical chairs is, well, a bit old-fashioned. Try a different version, around the Christmas tree.
You can even dance around the house. Choose an adult leader and give them a whistle. Put on the music, hold each other's hands and start dancing. When the leader blows the whistle once, everyone has to stand as still as icicles. Anyone who moves goes out. The game starts again the next time the leader blows the whistle and continues until the leader blows the whistle again, when someone new goes out. The game continues until just the leader and one child is left.
Make it more fun and a bit harder by adding more elements to the dance that you have to keep track of. For example:
Father Christmas works on Christmas Day every year. That's why the Christmas family celebrates Christmas a few days before or after Christmas day. Everyone who can find the party is welcome! The only problem is that the Christmasses are a bit shy, so their celebrations are usually secret.
So the question is, are they hiding under the bed, in the wardrobe, in the kitchen cupboard, in the gingerbread house or maybe in a shoe in the hall?
You need a little Christmas family with decorative figures. Someone hides the Christmas family in a clever place and arranges them so that they look like they're having a wild party that's great fun if you can find it. Then everyone else looks!
If you have small people who need a bit of help on the way, you can use Father Christmas props - for example, fluff from cotton beards, little red hats or little shoes - as clues to follow towards the hiding place.
Another good clue is to place a mobile phone playing quiet Christmas music right next to the party, so that you can follow the sound.
The glittering snow outside holds treasures. Gold, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and other jewels. All these gems are hidden in the snow. Time to gather the gold digger gang and go on a treasure hunt!
Prepare the gems the day before, by mixing water and caramel colour and freezing into ice cubes. Gold cubes are gold, red cubes are rubies, green cubes are emeralds and blue cubes are sapphires.
You can also fill a small yoghurt pot (or something else that makes a gemstone that's a bit bigger) with water and freeze it into a large transparent diamond that will be the hardest to find and the most valuable!
Hide the gems in the snow the day after you've made them. If you put the gems in newly fallen snow it'll be easier for small children to see where they are. If you're playing the game with older children you can stamp on the snow a bit to hide the gems.
Now you can start hunting for the missing gems. May the best adult or child win!
The dizzy family puts on an annual party and each time it becomes more and more confusing Uncle Fred has forgotten his children's names and Aunt Angela always mixes up Bill and Bob. Simon calls all the children James and whose Grandma is whose?
Write the names of the members of your own family on each piece of paper. Fold them up and put them in a box or bowl. The oldest begins by picking a piece of paper and acting like the relative on the paper. Pinch someone's cheek like Grandma, talk as loudly as Grandpa or stand on your head like your little brother. Then everyone else has to guess who you're pretending to be. The first one to guess goes next.
Get out some clothes and items for props. Maybe a flat cap, Mum's old jacket, a pair of reading glasses or a coffee cup.
It's not just children who love Christmas, dolls also go a bit crazy when Christmas is coming. They really want to celebrate for several days and not just on Christmas Day. They'll love it if you surprise them and celebrate Christmas any day!
Find little things the dolls might like for Christmas like a hair grip, a small car or a piece of fruit. Wrap the presents in lovely wrapping paper and pretty ribbons. Then you can surprise your dolls with their Christmas presents, drink some hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music together.
When the dolls have opened their Christmas presents they might like to sing some Christmas carols with you…
Dress up like Father Christmas. If you don't have any Father Christmas clothes you can use a red jumper or a hood. Put the small presents in a sack and leave them under the tree for the dolls. Have the dolls been good this year?
