Christmas! The season which celebrates the birth of Jesus; when we spend time with family and friends, indulging in too much good food, and attending endless parties. It’s a time of great joy yet it can also be a time of great stress. One of these stresses may be the organisation of a church, office or club Christmas party. Here are six of the best Christmas games for groups, if you have the task of planning a party for a large group.

You may like to start with a Christmas icebreaker game where people can be introduced to each other and everyone can begin to enter the joy of a party. “All I Want for Christmas” is one example, where players sit in a circle. One player starts by saying “My name is… All I want for Christmas is…” The next player states their name before saying “All (name of first player) wants is… All I want for Christmas is…” Players continue around the circle. Any player who cannot repeat the list of everyone’s name and gift is out. You may like to restart the games when the list gets to about 10-12 names to make it a little easier.

Another element of many Christmas parties is a time to exchange gifts where each person brings one gift to a required value (say $5). This can be done by conducting a simple raffle, but why not make it into a game? One of the most popular and fun Christmas gift exchange games is the “Left Right Christmas Game.” Again, players sit in a circle, each holding a gift. The games leader narrates a story. Each time the word ‘left’ is mentioned, players pass their gift to the left. Similarly when the word ‘right’ is spoken, gifts are passed to the right. At the end of the story, each person opens the gift they have at that time.

One of the more active Christmas games for groups is “Balloon Relay.” Two teams line up at one end of the room. One team is given a red balloon and a wooden ruler. The other team has a green balloon and ruler. Team players must bat their balloon, using only their ruler, around a chair at the other end of the room and back in a relay.

Younger children may enjoy “Christmas Card Hunt”, where each child is given half a card. They must find the matching halves of the Christmas cards which have been scattered around the room. The first child to find three matching halves wins the game.

A Christmas carol game is an interesting way of testing your knowledge of Christmas carols in a team game format. There are a number of games you could play. One example involves one player from the team who is given the name of a carol and must draw a picture. The rest of the team must guess the carol and sing the first verse within a one minute time limit.

Finally, “All Tied Up” is another one of the active Christmas games for groups. Each team forms a circle and is given a ball of twine (one red, one green if possible). The first player winds the twine once around their waist and passes it to the next player who does likewise. The first team to wrap themselves completely in twine wins.

For further details on these and more Christmas games for groups please visit our website.

Andrew owns Family Games Treasurehouse which has over thirty ideas for Christmas party games. Visit http://www.family-games-treasurehouse.com and sign up for our free newsletter to download our ebook, “25 Family Dice Games”. This article is copyright but may be freely republished provided the text, author credit, site links and this copyright notice remain intact.

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The nativity and the birth of Jesus Christ are the fundamental part of Christmas. It’s the story of Mary and Joseph travelling to Bethlehem to be counted for the census. Poor Mary was heavily pregnant and had to ride on a donkey. When they got to Bethlehem all the inns were full, and Mary and Joseph spent the night in a stable, where Mary gave birth to Jesus, the Son of God. Angels, shepherds and three wise men from the east came to visit Jesus, who was lying in a manger. This is the traditional image we have of the nativity scene.

To make a cardboard nativity scene all you need is…
Loo roll tubes or other tubes, scarps of paper and coloured card, glue, scissors, felt tip pens, cotton wool, and a few sequins for decoration.

To make the figures…
The loo roll tubes for the main body of the figure. Wrap coloured paper around your tube so that it completely covers one half of the tube. This becomes the body and the bare tube becomes the figure’s head.

Cut out two small rectangles from some card, these become the arms. Stick them into place n the figure’s body, towards the top of the coloured paper. Stick a ‘D’ shaped piece of flesh coloured card on the end of the arm to form a hand.

Draw on the figure’s face with felt tip pens. You can also draw on clothing details or patterns.

Extras…
The shepherd holds a crook, its a hooked tool which shepherds use to put around a sheep’s neck as a sort of temporary lead to guide the sheep where the shepherd wants it to go. Cut a long hooked shape tool from card and stick it standing upright in the shepherds hand as though he was holding it.

The three wise men wear crowns or a turban. Cut these out of coloured paper and wrap them around the top of the wise men’s heads. Decorate them with sequins to make them look jewel encrusted.

Joseph holds a lantern. Cut a long stick with a ‘V’ shape at the top. Stick this into Joseph’s hand so that it is standing upright. This pole is to suspend the lantern from.

To make the lantern, take a small, rectangle piece of card and fold it in half so that the top and bottom of the lantern are together. Cut slits along the folded edge. Open up the card and now curve it round so that the two side edges meet and slightly overlap stick these two side edges together. When the glue has dried off a little, give the lantern a little squeeze so that the lantern forms ‘< >’ Shape. Insert a roll of flame coloured paper into the lantern, glue and trim so that it fits snugly into place. This makes the lantern glow as though it were lit. Stick on some threat or a thin strip of card so that the lantern can be hung from Joseph’s pole.

Sheep are made by covering a loo roll tube in cotton wool. Cut out a face shape from card to stick on one end of the tube. Cotton buds form the sheep’s legs and feet. Cut a cotton bud in half to form two legs, glue all the legs into position.

Jesus is made from a rolled up piece of card, with coloured paper covering his body.

The manger is made from a loo roll tube. Cut the tube in half lengthways to form two guttering looking parts. Cut one into leg type shapes on each side and stick the two half tubes together, back to back.

Arrange all the figures on a table to recreate the nativity scene.

You could also attach a thread from your figures and hang them from

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There’s no doubt that Christmas is one of the most celebrated holidays in America. But how did the Christmas celebration begin? This look at Christmas from it’s origins to the celebrations of today reveals an informative and eye-opening look at this popular holiday.

Like many American traditions, the Christmas holiday can be traced back to Europe. During the fourth century, Romans celebrated a “Feast of the Nativity” held on December 17th. This celebration was based on the Christian observance of the birth of Jesus. Pagan feasts and rituals were also popular during this time period. Many Romans paid homage to their deities during a week’s long celebration held from December 17 through January 1st.

Concerned by the increasing popularity of pagan worship and the annual pagan festival, the Roman Church changed the official date of the Nativity Feast to December 25th in an effort to curtail rampant pagan celebrations.

Over the next thousand years, the observance of Christmas followed the expanding community of Christianity. The spreading Christian community took the holiday far Northward into England. From the 13th century on, nearly all of Europe observed Christmas.

These Christmas celebrations involved heathen indulgences that were discouraged the rest of the year. The annual celebration included over-eating, dancing, singing, card playing and gambling; pleasures which escalated to magnificent proportions over the years.

In 1607, King James I insisted that a play be acted on Christmas night along with the playing of Christmas games. In another account of the secular nature of the holiday a feast noted 16 different dishes for the first course. In 1626, the Duke of Buckingham charged the entire crew of three ships, including the ship’s captains, with abandoning their service in favor of Christmas revels, leaving their vessels preys to any enemy.

As the magnitude of the Christmas celebration grew, religious institutions of the day struggled to gain control of the holiday. However, it continued to be a religious event celebrated through the pleasures and indulgences that went against the holy teachings of the day.

During the 1600 and 1700′s Puritan Reformers took aim at changing the lack of religious activities of the Christmas celebration. They declared it a day of mourning rather than a day of rejoicing. This along with the economic and social upheavals of the day began to alter English life and the way Christmas was celebrated. The spread of the Puritan Reformers movement took hold and its policies continued to chip away at the pagan nature of the celebrations. In 1642, Parliament outlawed seasonal plays and ordered monthly fasts which fell on Christmas day during December. Christmas celebrations were “strongly prohibited” and in 1652 fines were imposed on businesses that decorated or closed in observance of the holiday. There was some resistance to the law but the largess of previous celebrations was drastically reduced to small reverend observances.

It was within this turbulent era that English Christmas customs entered early Virginia and New England. Though most settlers observed the holiday, the types of celebrations varied throughout the regions. Some celebrated it as a feast and some as a purely religious holiday. While most observed Christmas there were some that didn’t such as the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony. And in some areas the hardships and challenges of the land did not permit the settler’s free time for celebrations of any kind.

The observance of Christmas was recorded in non-English settlements as being more religious in nature. The French settlers of St Croix Island off the coast of Maine held religious observances and spent the remainder of the day playing games.

As the first settlements grew into more established colonies patterns of Christmas observances began to form that were unique to the geographic area. The distance from European homelands, the disparate religious and ethnic groups and the hardship of the new beginnings disrupted old habits and holiday traditions.

Pennsylvania was home to a large group of Quakers who, like the Puritans, were against observance of the holiday. They believed that most Christmas revelers spent the day in riot and drunkenness. Though Quaker areas did not celebrate Christmas, the Moravians, Dutch Reformers and Anglicans all held observances in their own way. By and large, most settlers in the New World welcomed Christmas as a day of respite from the routines of work and hardship that came with establishing new lands.

The disparate Christmas observances continued until the American Revolution. The next hundred years following the Revolution shaped the way Americans celebrated the holiday. During the 1800′s as areas grew in population and prosperity Christmas observances began to resemble the Christmas celebrations as we know them.

Today it is observed as a family centered celebration complete with traditional foods, Christmas tree, decorations, parties and gift-giving. Many celebrate by attending religious ceremonies and participating in religious practices. Much like its origins, today’s Christmas celebrations remains to be an observance of a religious event with much festivity and merriment. As America’s most popular holiday, it is celebrated as a season of joy, peace and hope for humankind.

Terri Hunziker founded GamesAndLetters.com. Games and Letters provides hundreds of print-and-play games — Christmas party games, bridal shower games, baby shower games, Christmas party games and more! For immediate access to hundreds of fun games and ideas for your next party, visit, gamesandletters.com.

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