Guide · 6 min read
What activities can seniors enjoy in December?
In December, seniors enjoy activities built on lights, carols and familiar stories: a Christmas word search to open the month, carol bingo and two-choice trivia in the middle, one party with a gift story, and a quiet puzzle table after it. Plan one main activity a week, keep a backup that needs no paper, and print everything in large print.
Updated October 20, 2026 · Selenby Puzzles
December is the busiest month on any activity calendar. Families visit, choirs come through, the dining room fills with decorations, and then, after the party, the building goes quiet. A good December plan follows that shape instead of fighting it. This plan comes from the December page of our Activity Calendar for Senior Communities, where the month’s theme is “Lights, carols and the quiet after”, with our Christmas games added for each week.
December at a glance
Dates are for December 2026; Christmas falls on Friday, Dec 25.
| Week | Main activity | Also try | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1: Dec 1 to 6 | Christmas word search | Carol bingo | One puzzle page per player |
| 2: Dec 7 to 13 | Christmas Which Came First | Finish the phrase | Display cards once, Host Pack once |
| 3: Dec 14 to 20 | The party: a gift story in a circle | Picture bingo with visiting families | The story once, arrow signs once, one prize each |
| 4: Dec 21 to 27 | Gentle sudoku and quiet company | Christmas riddles read aloud | One puzzle page per player |
Every week also has a backup that needs no paper at all, for the day the printer jams and the room is already filling.
Week 1: the lights are up
The calendar’s note for this week: “the lights are up; the words should match”. Our Christmas Word Search has 20 large print puzzles with 20 pt letters, 14 words each, and no word runs backwards. Its nine-week Activity Planner gives each puzzle a question for the table. For The Tree Lot: “The tallest tree, or the little crooked one?” Let the room vote before the pens come out. The Tree Lot is also our free sample, so you can print it today from the free samples page.
For a music afternoon the same week, Christmas Carol Bingo has 100 different cards and 40 traditional carols, every title at 22 pt or larger. One line takes about fifteen minutes; a full card, about an hour.
Backup with no paper: “Name 3 decorations that were always on your tree.”
Week 2: songs and films everybody knows
Trivia with two choices suits a mixed room. Our Christmas Trivia: Which Came First has 40 questions in four rounds on display cards at 60 pt and up, answered with A and B paddles in Easy Mode. Play two rounds, about 25 minutes, and save the other two for later in the month.
The calendar’s advice for a mixed room with visitors is Which Came First or Finish the Phrase: “Both carry a visitor who has never been before.” Our Christmas Finish the Phrase has 60 lines from carols, “The Night Before Christmas” and holiday sayings, and its Gentle 20 runs about 30 minutes, all out loud.
Backup with no paper: “Which came first: the carol or the film?”
Week 3: the party
The party week is the one families join, so choose something everyone can do from a chair. The calendar’s pick is a gift story: our read-aloud Christmas gift story has four stories, including Short & Sweet, for a circle of 6 to 14 players plus a reader who doesn’t play. Every time the story says which way, the gifts move, and each story takes 2 to 5 minutes. Every gift ends at least two seats from where it started, so nobody unwraps the gift they started with.
If grandchildren come, add Christmas Picture Bingo: every square is a picture with its word underneath, so a child who can’t read yet and a great-grandparent play the same card. For a whole party already planned, the Christmas Games for Older Adults bundle comes with a ready 90-minute plan.
Backup with no paper: “Pass a wrapped box while somebody reads The Night Before Christmas.”
Week 4: the quiet after
The calendar’s note: “the week after the party is for a quiet table”. Families come and go, some residents are away, and the ones who stay often want calm company more than a game. Set out Gentle Sudoku, 60 of the fullest grids we make with 26 pt digits. Under every puzzle there are two boxes, “solved” and “helped to finish”, and both count. A free two-level sudoku sample is on the free samples page. For a few laughs at the table, read aloud from Christmas Riddles: 68 riddles at 30 pt and up, from easy to tricky, each with a hint.
Backup with no paper: “Ask what the quietest Christmas they remember was like.”
Small groups, big rooms and one to one
The calendar’s guide to choosing for the room you actually have:
- Quiet room, low energy: word search, sudoku, or cozy two-choice cards.
- Mixed room, visitors present: Which Came First or Finish the Phrase.
- A party: the gift story. It’s the only game here that moves something round a circle.
- One to one, at a bedside: Name Three Things or Finish the Phrase, one card at a time.
- A big room: carol bingo. With 100 different cards, up to 100 players each get their own.
Fitting December into your year
A month plan is easier when the whole year is mapped. The Activity Calendar for Senior Communities plans 12 months and 48 weeks, with 7 one-page run sheets you can laminate. Every run sheet ends with a line called “If it goes flat”, because sessions sometimes do. Its facility license covers one whole site, every member of staff and every volunteer included, with unlimited printing. The games themselves are separate downloads.
January comes next. Our Winter Word Search and Winter Picture Bingo have no Christmas pages in them at all, so they carry the calendar through the weeks after the decorations come down.
Printing for December
Print in November, before the month gets busy. Host pages, call orders and display cards go in a binder once; player pages are printed per person. Print one page at Actual size (100%) first; our guide on printing at actual size covers every app and printer. For more on running each session, see our weekly plan for activities for seniors and Christmas games for seniors. Browse all our games for seniors.
