15 Christmas Drinking Games for Adults
The snacks are out, the Christmas playlist is going, and someone has already arrived in a sweater covered in tiny bells. All your holiday party needs now is a game that gets everyone laughing.
These Christmas drinking games for adults bring a festive twist to trivia, guessing games, and friendly competition. Some work around the dinner table, while others are perfect for a cozy night with friends. Most use paper, a phone, or things you already have around the house.
Keep drinking optional: players can take a small sip, use a nonalcoholic drink, or simply keep score. Skip shots and chugging, let anyone pass, and set out food and water alongside the festive drinks.
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1. Christmas Movie Bingo
Turn your Christmas movie night into a game without making everyone memorize a long list of rules.
What you need: A Christmas movie, pens, and homemade bingo cards.
How to play: Make 3-by-3 bingo cards with moments such as a snowy scene, a wrapped present, an awkward family dinner, a holiday sweater, or someone mentioning Santa. Give everyone a different arrangement.
Players mark a square when its moment appears. The first person to complete a row calls “Bingo!” and wins the round. Everyone can raise their drink for one optional small sip before starting a fresh card.
Festive twist: Add a prediction square, such as “the couple kisses” or “someone learns the meaning of Christmas.”
2. Name That Christmas Tune
You might know every word of your favorite holiday song—but can you recognize it from the first few seconds?
What you need: A phone, speaker, and Christmas playlist.
How to play: Choose a host to play a three- to five-second clip of each song. Players write down their guesses, then reveal them together.
Award one point for the correct title and a bonus point for the artist, if that’s part of your rules. After five songs, the player with the fewest points can take one optional small sip.
Festive twist: Mix classic carols with holiday pop songs so different generations get a chance to shine.
3. Christmas Never Have I Ever
This holiday version gets people sharing the stories behind their seasonal mishaps.
What you need: A few prepared prompts.
How to play: Everyone holds up five fingers. Take turns reading statements beginning with “Never have I ever…” Anyone who has done the thing lowers a finger.
Try these prompts:
- Regifted a Christmas present.
- Finished wrapping gifts on Christmas morning.
- Peeked at a present before opening day.
- Forgotten where I hid a gift.
- Left the Christmas tree up until February.
- Bought myself something while shopping for someone else.
After one trip around the group, pause for an optional small sip and invite anyone to explain their funniest answer. Reset fingers as needed so everyone stays involved.
Festive twist: Ask guests to contribute one anonymous prompt before you begin.
4. Santa’s Forbidden Word
A single everyday holiday word becomes surprisingly difficult to avoid.
What you need: Paper tokens or a score sheet.
How to play: Pick one forbidden word, such as “Christmas,” “gift,” or “Santa.” Give each player three tokens and run a ten-minute round.
If someone says the word, another player can call it out. The speaker gives up one token. At the end, the person with the most tokens wins, and everyone can take one optional small sip.
Festive twist: Display the forbidden word on a little sign so nobody can claim they forgot the rule.
5. Christmas Trivia Showdown
Find out who knows their holiday movies, traditions, and festive facts.
What you need: Ten prepared questions, an answer key, paper, and pens.
How to play: Divide guests into teams and read questions aloud. Each team writes down an answer before the host reveals the correct one.
Include questions such as:
- What plant is traditionally associated with a Christmas kiss? Mistletoe.
- What is the name of the Grinch’s dog? Max.
- How many ghosts visit Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, including Marley? Four.
Award one point per correct answer. At the end, the losing team can take one optional small sip or perform a dramatic “we demand a rematch” toast.
Festive twist: Give the winning team first pick from a plate of Christmas cookies.
6. Guess the Christmas Character
A sticky note on your forehead turns everyone into a festive mystery.
What you need: Sticky notes and a pen.
How to play: Write a holiday character on each note: Santa, Rudolph, the Grinch, Frosty, Scrooge, or Buddy the Elf. Players place a note on their forehead without reading it.
Go around the group, allowing each person one yes-or-no question per turn. After three rounds of questions, everyone makes a guess.
Reveal the notes, award points for correct guesses, and offer one optional small sip to anyone who wants it.
Festive twist: Include characters from your group’s favorite Christmas movies.
7. Two Christmas Truths and a Lie
Holiday memories make this familiar icebreaker especially entertaining.
What you need: Nothing beyond a few good stories.
How to play: Each player shares three Christmas statements about themselves. Two must be true and one invented.
For example: “I once dropped the turkey,” “I’ve spent Christmas on a beach,” and “I’ve never owned a Christmas stocking.”
Everyone votes for the lie. Award one point to each correct guesser. If nobody identifies the lie, the storyteller earns two points. After everyone has had a turn, finish with an optional small sip.
Festive twist: Funny gifts, cooking disasters, and childhood traditions make excellent material.
8. Naughty or Nice: Who Said It?
See how well your friends can recognize one another’s holiday confessions.
What you need: Paper slips, pens, and a bowl.
How to play: Everyone anonymously writes a harmless Christmas confession, such as “I ate the stocking candy before Christmas” or “I wrapped an empty box as a prank.”
The host reads each slip aloud. Players write down who they think submitted it before the author reveals themselves. Correct guesses earn one point.
At the end, the lowest-scoring player can take one optional small sip or read the final confession in their best Santa voice.
Festive twist: Let guests submit a second slip featuring a particularly thoughtful holiday deed.
9. Christmas Emoji Challenge
Can you decode a festive phrase from a handful of tiny pictures?
What you need: Prepared emoji clues on a phone or printed sheet.
How to play: Show one clue at a time and give teams 30 seconds to write an answer.
Try these:
- 🏠👦😱 — Home Alone
- 🦌🔴👃 — Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
- 🔔🔔🔔 — Jingle Bells
- 🎅🏘️ — Santa Claus Is Coming to Town
- ❄️👨 — Frosty the Snowman
Award one point per correct answer. After the last clue, everyone can take one optional small sip while the winning team explains its most creative guess.
Festive twist: Accept reasonable alternate answers when a clue is ambiguous.
10. Holiday Categories
This one starts easily, then suddenly nobody can remember a single Christmas dessert.
What you need: A list of holiday categories.
How to play: Choose a category and go around the circle naming something that belongs in it. Allow about ten seconds per turn.
Categories could include Christmas songs, stocking stuffers, holiday desserts, Christmas movies, or things you might hang on a tree.
A repeated answer or missed turn ends the round. That player can take one optional small sip or choose the next category. Start fresh so everyone stays involved.
Festive twist: Try “terrible gifts for your boss” for a round of deliberately ridiculous answers.
11. Christmas Charades
Give the usual charades bowl a holiday makeover.
What you need: Paper slips, a bowl, and a timer.
How to play: Split into teams. One person draws a prompt and silently acts it out while their team has 60 seconds to guess.
Use actions such as:
- Untangling Christmas lights.
- Carrying a tree through a doorway.
- Wrapping an awkwardly shaped gift.
- Discovering an empty cookie tin.
- Trying to put a star on top of the tree.
Correct guesses earn one point. After each team has taken three turns, the team with fewer points can take one optional small sip.
Festive twist: Add “posing for the family Christmas photo” and watch everyone immediately recognize the struggle.
12. The Christmas Price Guess
Holiday shopping becomes a friendly guessing contest.
What you need: Five to eight festive items and a record of what each cost.
How to play: Display items such as a chocolate Santa, an ornament, wrapping paper, a gift bag, and a box of candy canes. Use the actual purchase price before tax.
Players write down a price for each item. The closest guess earns a point; ties each earn a point.
Reveal all prices at the end, then offer one optional small sip to the lowest-scoring player.
Festive twist: Include one surprisingly expensive ornament or unusually cheap bargain.
13. Pass the Present: Left or Right
A wrapped surprise travels around the circle while everyone tries to follow a silly story.
What you need: One wrapped prize and a short story containing the words “left” and “right.”
How to play: Sit in a circle and give one guest the present. The host reads the story aloud. Every time guests hear “left” or “right,” they pass the present in that direction.
The person holding it when the story ends wins. Everyone can celebrate with one optional small sip.
Start with something like: “Santa left the workshop and turned right. Right away, he realized he had left his gloves behind…”
Festive twist: Use a chocolate bar, funny ornament, or pair of Christmas socks as the prize.
14. Christmas Pictionary
Drawing a reindeer sounds manageable until your team guesses “holiday potato.”
What you need: Paper or a whiteboard, markers, prompt slips, and a timer.
How to play: Divide into teams. A player draws a Christmas prompt while teammates have 60 seconds to identify it. No words, letters, or spoken hints.
Try mistletoe, a gingerbread house, Santa’s sleigh, a snow globe, or a Christmas cracker. Award a point for each correct guess.
After three rounds per team, offer one optional small sip to the team with fewer points.
Festive twist: Add tricky prompts such as “last-minute Christmas shopping” or “a cat climbing the Christmas tree.”
15. The Christmas Memory Tray
Put everyone’s powers of observation to the test with a tray of festive odds and ends.
What you need: A tray, a cloth, paper, pens, and 12 small Christmas objects.
How to play: Arrange items such as an ornament, ribbon, candy cane, gift tag, pinecone, cookie cutter, mini stocking, and jingle bell on the tray.
Give guests 30 seconds to study it, then cover the tray. Players have one minute to write down every item they remember.
Each correctly remembered object earns one point. The lowest-scoring player can take one optional small sip or help arrange the next tray.
Festive twist: For the second round, remove one item and ask everyone to identify what disappeared.
How to Plan Your Christmas Game Night
Choose two or three games that suit your group instead of trying to squeeze in all fifteen. Start with an easy icebreaker, move into a team game, and finish with a quieter activity or a Christmas movie.
Set out the supplies beforehand and explain the rules before each round. Mocktails, soda, and sparkling water should feel just as welcome as cocktails, and everyone should have a ride home arranged.
A few simple games, good snacks, and a room full of people willing to attempt terrible charades can make a Christmas party memorable long after the decorations come down.
