Christmas Charades: 100 Ideas to Act Out for All Ages

Published · 6 min read

Spin the Christmas charades wheel
Five Christmas charades ideas, one each for kids, families, adults, movies and songs: a reindeer, untangling the lights, assembling a toy, Home Alone and Jingle Bells

Christmas charades is the classic acting game with festive prompts: act out a reindeer, Santa stuck in the chimney or Home Alone with no words while your team guesses. Here are 100 ideas in groups, from easy ones for kids to hard ones for adults, all fine for a classroom.

Easy Christmas Charades for Kids

Things young children can picture and act with their whole body. Let them go first, or put the Christmas charades wheel on a tablet and let a spin choose from 30 of them.

  1. A reindeer
  2. A penguin
  3. A snowman
  4. An elf
  5. Santa’s belly laugh
  6. Building a snowman
  7. Making a snow angel
  8. Throwing snowballs
  9. Sledding down a hill
  10. Opening a present
  11. Licking a candy cane
  12. Hanging a stocking
  13. Ringing a bell
  14. Catching snowflakes on your tongue
  15. Putting on mittens
  16. Going to sleep on Christmas Eve

Christmas Charades for Families

Everyday December jobs that every age knows, so a grandparent and a six-year-old can both guess them.

  1. Decorating the tree
  2. Wrapping a present
  3. Baking cookies
  4. Building a gingerbread house
  5. Sipping hot cocoa
  6. Untangling the lights
  7. Writing a letter to Santa
  8. Leaving cookies for Santa
  9. Hanging lights on the roof
  10. Posing for the family photo
  11. Singing carols at the door
  12. Ice skating
  13. Shoveling the driveway
  14. Making a paper chain
  15. Setting the table for Christmas dinner

Funny Christmas Charades for Adults

Small scenes every grown-up has lived through in December. They’re clean, and the harder they are to act with a straight face, the better.

  1. Opening a present you don’t like
  2. Assembling a toy with no instructions
  3. Finding the end of the tape
  4. Wrapping a present shaped like a bicycle
  5. Hiding presents from the kids
  6. Stuck in holiday traffic
  7. Last-minute shopping on Christmas Eve
  8. Falling asleep after Christmas dinner
  9. Finding the one bulb that’s out
  10. Dragging a tree through the front door
  11. Wearing a very itchy sweater
  12. Pretending to like fruitcake
  13. Returning a gift the next day
  14. Answering the door in reindeer pajamas
  15. Stepping on a toy in the dark

How to Play Christmas Charades

Split into two teams. One player gets a prompt, acts it out with no words or sounds, and their team has one minute to guess. Hold up fingers for the number of words, tap your arm for syllables, and cup your ear for “sounds like”. For a film, wind an old movie camera by your ear; for a song, open your mouth as if singing. Teams take turns, and the team with the most right guesses wins.

Run the clock on the 1 minute timer so everyone can see it, and give young children a little longer. About 20 turns fill half an hour.

Christmas Movie Charades

Famous films most families have seen. Show “movie” first, then the number of words, and act the whole title or one word at a time. Afterward, let the Christmas movie wheel choose what to watch.

  1. Elf
  2. Home Alone
  3. The Polar Express
  4. How the Grinch Stole Christmas
  5. The Santa Clause
  6. Miracle on 34th Street
  7. It’s a Wonderful Life
  8. A Christmas Carol
  9. A Charlie Brown Christmas
  10. Arthur Christmas
  11. Klaus
  12. Jingle All the Way

Christmas Song Charades

Carols and Christmas songs, acted with no humming. If the team gets stuck, the actor may point to one word in the title, such as bells or snow.

  1. Jingle Bells
  2. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
  3. Frosty the Snowman
  4. Deck the Halls
  5. Let It Snow
  6. Jingle Bell Rock
  7. Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town
  8. We Wish You a Merry Christmas
  9. The Twelve Days of Christmas
  10. Up on the Housetop
  11. Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree
  12. White Christmas

Christmas Action Charades

Scenes with a little story in them, for players who have warmed up.

  1. Santa stuck in the chimney
  2. A reindeer learning to fly
  3. Santa’s sleigh taking off
  4. An elf making toys
  5. A toy soldier marching
  6. A snowman melting
  7. A penguin sliding on the ice
  8. Ice skating backwards
  9. Shaking a present to guess what it is
  10. Hot cocoa that’s too hot
  11. Waking up on Christmas morning
  12. Riding in a sleigh
  13. A nutcracker cracking a nut
  14. Feeding the reindeer
  15. Santa checking his list twice

Hard Christmas Charades

Ideas, places and names that take a few clues strung together. Save them for teens and adults who know the signals.

  1. The Grinch’s heart growing
  2. Rudolph guiding the sleigh through fog
  3. Living inside a snow globe
  4. The night before Christmas
  5. Jack Frost nipping at your nose
  6. A Christmas market
  7. Midnight on Christmas Eve
  8. Santa’s workshop on December 23
  9. The northern lights
  10. An advent calendar
  11. A Yule log
  12. Tinsel
  13. A wreath on the door
  14. Elves on a tea break
  15. A snow day

How the Wheel Picks the Next Prompt

With a wheel, nobody has to think up the next prompt, and nobody can say they got the hard one on purpose. The actor spins where the guessers can’t see, reads it, and starts acting.

Open the wheel on a phone or tablet the actor can hold, then:

  1. Press SPIN with the screen turned away from the guessers
  2. Read the prompt, then lock the screen or pass it face down
  3. Act it out while the clock runs
  4. Click Hide & Respin before the next turn, so no prompt comes up twice
Spintastico’s Christmas charades wheel with 30 things to act out, such as Building a snowman, Santa stuck in the chimney and Home Alone

How to Write Your Own

A good prompt is something you can show with your whole body, in one short line. Skip anything you’d have to point at in the room, and test a tricky one on one person first.

To put yours on the wheel, click “Create your own Christmas charade picker” on its page and type them in. Family in-jokes and this year’s films work especially well. For more acting games, see our charades ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are good Christmas charades for kids?

Things they can picture and act with their whole body: a reindeer, a penguin, building a snowman, making a snow angel or opening a present. The kids’ list above has 16.

How do you play Christmas charades?

Split into two teams. One player acts out a festive prompt with no words or sounds, and their team has one minute to guess it. Teams take turns, and the most right guesses wins.

How do you show a Christmas movie or song in charades?

For a movie, wind an old film camera by your ear. For a song, open your mouth as if singing. Then hold up fingers for the number of words.

Are these Christmas charades fine for a classroom?

Yes. Nothing here is rude or scary, and the films are family ones. If some of your class don’t celebrate Christmas, use the snow and winter ones, and let anyone sit out.

Can I put my own Christmas charades on the wheel?

Yes. Click “Create your own Christmas charade picker”, change the entries and save your copy to use next year.

Spin the Christmas Charades Wheel

Let the actor spin in secret on a phone or tablet: 30 festive things to act out, from a snowman to Home Alone.

Spin the Christmas charades wheel

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