How do you play Christmas charades with the whole family?

Charades is the Christmas game that needs no board, no batteries and no reading glasses. One person stands up (or doesn’t), acts out a wintry moment without a word, and the whole family leans in to guess. It works with a four-year-old and a great-grandfather at the same table, and the laughter usually starts before anyone guesses right. Here is how to run it at home, with twenty free ideas you can print or read aloud tonight.

How to play Christmas charades, step by step

1. Split into two teams. Mix the ages on each side, so every team has a fast reader and a patient actor.
2. Write the ideas on slips of paper, fold them and drop them in a bowl, a stocking or a hat.
3. The first actor draws a slip and reads it silently. A child who can’t read yet gets a whisper from a grown-up.
4. Act it out with no words. No talking and no mouthing. Sound effects are a family choice; for little ones, a “ho, ho, ho” or a “brrr” is fine.
5. The actor’s team guesses within about 60 seconds. Close counts: “wrapping a gift” for “wrapping a present” is a point. The host decides.
6. Then the other team acts. Play an agreed number of turns, or until the cocoa is gone, and add up the points.

That is the whole game. Everything else in this guide is about making it work for every person at your table.

The classic hand signals

Charades has its own little sign language, and teaching it in two minutes before the first turn saves a lot of frantic pointing later. These are the signals most families use:

For a family game, you only need the first two and the last two. Add “sounds like” when the older cousins start showing off.

Twenty Christmas charades ideas to act out

Here are twenty ideas we wrote for this guide, in three levels. None of them needs a movie, a song or a famous character: they are moments from a real December that everyone in the room has lived. Copy them onto slips of paper, or simply read one into the actor’s ear.

Little ones (ages 4 and up)

1. Zipping up a puffy coat
2. Stomping footprints in fresh snow
3. A bunny hopping through the snow
4. Shaking snow out of your boots
5. Hugging Grandma at the front door
6. A cat chasing a curly ribbon

Everyone

7. Hanging a stocking that keeps falling off the hook
8. Rolling out dough with a rolling pin
9. Stirring a huge pot of soup for the whole family
10. Peeling an orange you found in your stocking
11. Licking stamps for a big stack of Christmas cards
12. Climbing a ladder to hang lights on the roof
13. Trying on a sweater three sizes too big
14. Walking on an icy sidewalk without falling

Bold (teens and grown-ups)

15. Wrapping a present that won’t stay closed
16. Building a snowman in a strong wind
17. Finding one more gift under the tree after everyone is done
18. Carrying a tower of presents up the stairs
19. Hunting for the end of the tape roll
20. Sneaking a taste of the pie before dinner, then getting caught

Making the slips. Write each idea in big, dark letters on an index card or a strip of paper, one idea per slip, and keep the three levels in separate bowls. Then a child draws from the little ones’ bowl and an uncle who loves the spotlight draws from the bold one, and nobody gets a card that’s wrong for them. Leave a few blank slips: the family’s own jokes (“Dad looking for the remote”) are usually the biggest hits of the evening.

Charades for little ones

Children under six love to act and often struggle to read the card. Two small changes fix both:

• Pair a young actor with a grown-up reader. The grown-up whispers the idea, the child acts it out, and the child gets all the applause.
• Use pictures instead of words. A drawing of a mitten or a snowman tells a four-year-old exactly what to do. Picture cards also help anyone who would rather not read in front of the room.

Keep turns short for small children and skip the timer. If a little actor freezes, let them pick a different slip or act it together with a sibling.

Seated charades for grandparents

Nobody has to stand up to play charades well. Acting from a chair is just a smaller stage:

• Act from the waist up: hands, arms, face and shoulders say almost everything.
• Running or walking: pump your arms or pat your knees.
• Jumping or popping up: throw your hands up high.
• Tiptoeing: walk two fingers across your lap.
• Bring the slip to the actor, so nobody has to cross a crowded living room.

Many grandparents enjoy guessing more than acting. Invite, never insist: a grandparent who passes on acting and then calls out three right answers in a row has had a very good game.

Keeping it kind: passes, scores and timers

Charades only works if every person feels safe standing (or sitting) in front of the family.

• A pass is always allowed. Anyone can put a slip back and draw another, with no reason needed.
• Keep the score light. One point for each right guess, written on a sheet the host keeps. For a mixed table with small children, drop the score entirely and let the whole room guess together.
• Use the timer for grown-ups only. About 60 seconds on a kitchen timer or a phone keeps teens and adults moving. For little ones, let the turn run until someone guesses.
• Celebrate close guesses. A “close!” from the host keeps the actor going and the room cheering.
• End on a favorite. When energy dips, finish with an easy idea everyone can guess, so the last moment of the game is a shout of joy.

A ready deck of Christmas charades

If you’d rather not write slips, our Christmas Charades game has 120 large print cards in six decks: 24 Picture Cards with a drawing and an acting hint, 24 Easy Actions, 24 Tricky Actions, 24 Carol & Story Titles, 16 Characters and an 8-card Nativity Bonus for church groups. Every Picture Card and every Easy Action works sitting down, and a Chair Charades page shows how. The card words are 22 pt and up.

It also comes with a poster of 13 classic signals for the wall, big YES! and CLOSE! signs for a noisy room, blank cards for your own family jokes, a card list for a game with no cutting, a team score sheet and three certificates. It prints in color or in an Ink Saver version in black ink, on US Letter or A4. You’ll find it on Etsy as Christmas Charades. For a November table, Thanksgiving Charades is the same kind of game with 120 Thanksgiving cards in six decks.

More games for the same evening

Charades is loud and lively, so pair it with something calmer:

• Picture bingo after dinner: Christmas Picture Bingo has 30 pictures, each with its word under it, on 46 different cards, including 16 large print cards for younger players and grandparents.
• Riddles by the fire: Christmas Riddles has 60 riddles in three levels plus 8 Nativity riddles, with a hint for every one.

Hosting a bigger crowd? Our guide to Christmas party games for large groups shows how to run charades with table teams, and Christmas games for seniors has more ideas for a seated, gentle afternoon. For every game we make for the season, see our Christmas party games.

Draw the first slip, and let the youngest actor go first.