Christmas party games for large groups, adults and the office

A Christmas party game for thirty people has one job, and it is to keep all thirty playing. Most party games were made for a living room. One person acts, draws or answers while the rest watch, which is fine with eight people. With thirty, twenty-nine of them are an audience, and the back of the room starts a party of its own.

So this list starts with the games where everyone plays at once, with one big screen at the front and a phone in every hand. Then come the best picks for a big group, for adults, for the office and for a party on a video call. The classics that need only paper and a pen come last, because plenty of them still work.

The ice breakers that aren't cringe page has the research on why a queue and a spotlight are what spoil an opener. A Christmas party is the same problem with tinsel on it.

Christmas party games the whole room plays on their phones

Every game in this section runs the same way. A laptop puts the game on a TV or a projector, and everyone joins by scanning the QR code on the screen. They play in their phone's browser, with no app and no account. Only the host needs a Decka account, and it is free.

Each game has a ready-made Christmas version, so there is nothing to write before the party.

1. A Christmas quiz on everyone's phone

Make a live quiz and pick "The Christmas Quiz" from the ready-made quizzes. It has fifteen questions from the Christmas trivia questions page, from Home Alone to Die Hard, with one about Hanukkah for a mixed room. Every phone answers against a countdown. A right answer scores more the faster it comes, and the leaderboard on the big screen settles the night.

On the trivia page, the office Christmas quiz deck runs the same fifteen questions, then a picture round of four.

2. A Jeopardy-style Christmas quiz board, for teams

Questionable! is a Jeopardy-style quiz board that the whole room plays at once. Pick "Christmas trivia" from its ready-made boards: six categories of five clues, from Christmas at the Movies to Not What You Heard. The team in control votes for a clue on their phones, everyone answers it, and the team's most popular answer is the one that counts.

If a team misses, another team whose players mostly got it right can steal the points. Every team bets before the final clue. That suits a room seated at tables, because each team has to agree on every answer. The Christmas quiz board deck on the Christmas trivia questions page is set up for four teams.

3. The rarest answer game, Christmas edition

In Squadrillion, everyone answers the same prompt at once, and the rarer the answer, the deeper their submarine sinks on the big screen. Pick the ready-made Christmas party game. It asks for a Christmas film, a toy, a sweet or candy, a cookie or biscuit, a board game, a fairy tale character and a type of tree.

"Common answers barely sink," as the free game's opening screen puts it. Two players with the same answer share it, at half the depth each. A bigger room collides on more answers, which makes the reveal louder. The rules and the scoring have a page of their own, and anyone can try a round alone first in the free game.

4. The ugly sweater draw

Everyone designs the ugliest Christmas sweater they can on their phone, with ninety seconds on the clock. Then the drawings come up on the big screen one at a time, the phones ask "Who drew this?", and the reveal names the artist. It is a game of Guess the Doodler, and the ugly sweater draw deck on the Christmas charades ideas page has it ready.

In Britain, call it a jumper, and play it on Save the Children's Christmas Jumper Day, which falls on Thursday 10 December 2026.

Nobody needs to draw well, because a rough sketch is what makes the guessing funny. It works best where people know each other's names, since guessing the artist is the whole game.

5. Christmas this or that, and would you rather

A round of quick pairs gets a room talking before anything competitive starts. The Christmas this or that deck for the office party, on the Christmas would you rather questions page, runs six pairs on phones with no right answers. It ends on one live poll, so the room gets a split to argue about.

For children, the same page has a deck of four questions asked as live polls, and the bars fill on the big screen as the votes land. It has questions for the office party and for adults too.

6. Holiday imposter

Every phone shows the same Christmas word, except the imposter's, which shows only the word's category. Each player types a one-word clue, and the clues go up on the big screen as they arrive. Then the room talks and votes on their phones. A caught imposter still gets one guess at the word, and a right guess steals the round.

Make an imposter game from the ready-made "Holiday party" game, or tick the holiday words yourself, because Decka never deals them unless you do. The imposter game words page has a holiday imposter deck ready, and lists every Christmas, winter and New Year word the game can deal.

7. Christmas charades

In Decka's Charades room, the word goes to the actor's phone and nobody else's. The big screen shows who is acting and the clock. Pick the ready-made "Christmas" game for things anyone can act. The Christmas charades deck on the Christmas charades ideas page has films and songs typed in as well.

Guesses come two ways. With "Shouted out", the room shouts and the host taps whoever got it, which suits a table. With "Typed in", the first phone to type the word wins, which suits a room too big to hear the guesses. A typed guess has to match the word apart from capitals and spacing, so keep typed rounds to short, plain words.

The Christmas charades page has 202 ideas in all, sorted by how hard they are to act.

8. White elephant, with the board on the big screen

Decka's White Elephant room runs the gift swap with a phone in every hand. The host presses "Draw numbers", and every phone shows its own number. On your turn, your phone offers the choice: open a wrapped gift, or steal one already opened. The big screen keeps the board, with every steal counted and a lock on each gift that freezes.

The house rules are settings, from the steal limit to the final swap. The ready-made games include Yankee swap, Dirty Santa and an office version, which allows three steals at most in one turn and puts a minute on the clock. The white elephant rules page has the full rules, the arguments every group has, and a deck with the room ready.

Christmas party games for large groups

For a room of forty or more, pick games where nobody waits for a turn. The quiz, the quiz board, the rarest answer game and this or that all ask the whole room the same thing at the same moment. A bigger room makes them louder, not longer.

How many phones one game takes depends on your plan, and the pricing page has the numbers.

Play a big room in teams. Questionable! is built for teams, and can balance people across them as they join. The quiz and the rarest answer game score each player, so for a team game, give each table one phone and have it join under the team's name.

In the rarest answer game, choose "Free for all". Everyone then plays the seven prompts at their own pace, and a big room never waits for its slowest player.

Turn-based games need a change or two. Charades holds up in a big room on "Typed in", because nobody has to hear the actor. In a very big room, the imposter game's clue wall gets long and its lobby warns the host, though it never turns anyone away.

White elephant is the slow one. Decka's room estimates more than a minute a turn, so thirty players need well over half an hour. Set the turn clock, which closes stealing when it runs out, or split a big room into two games.

Christmas party games for adults

Adults want a game with an edge: a bluff, a steal or an argument about who was right. The imposter game is the bluff, and the vote is where friendships get tested. Play white elephant as Dirty Santa, with the steal limit raised or switched off, and the stealing turns ruthless. The rarest answer game rewards the person who knows something odd, and its reveal is where the room argues.

The Christmas charades ideas page has a list for adults, from pretending to love a present to explaining your job to a relative. The Christmas would you rather questions page has a set for adults too.

Leave drinking games off unless you know the room well. In Gallup's 2025 poll, 54% of US adults said they drink alcohol, the lowest share in its records. A game built on drinking leaves out close to half of an American room, and every game on this page plays as well with a soft drink in hand.

Office Christmas party games

An office party has a rule the others do not: nobody chose this crowd. Pick games that anyone can play without performing, and keep faith, drinking and pay out of the questions.

In a US office, most of the room will celebrate Christmas, though not always as a matter of faith. Pew found in 2017 that nine in ten US adults celebrate it. In 2013 it found that eight in ten non-Christians in America celebrate it too, most of them as a cultural holiday. So keep the games about snow, food and presents, which suits everyone, and leave belief out of them.

Three games suit almost any office:

• The office Christmas quiz, whose questions are about films, songs, food and customs. For a mixed workplace, the office round on the Christmas trivia questions page takes in Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the winter solstice and New Year as well.
• Christmas this or that, whose office deck leaves out drinking, pay and faith.
• The ugly sweater draw, where everyone draws at once, so nobody stands alone in a spotlight.

If the team swaps gifts, the office white elephant keeps a big game moving. Set a low price limit, and put it on the invitation.

Keep the games optional, and keep them short. A game people choose to join goes down better than one they are told to play, and three games are plenty for a work party. This running order works for most teams:

1. While people arrive: a round of this or that on the big screen.
2. The main game: the quiz, or the quiz board if people are sitting at tables.
3. To close: the ugly sweater draw, or white elephant if everyone brought a gift.

Virtual Christmas party games

On a video call, the big screen is your shared screen. Share the window the game is on, and everyone joins from their phone by link, as they would in a room. The quiz, the quiz board, the rarest answer game, the ugly sweater draw and the imposter game all play this way.

For charades, the actor stays on camera and everyone else types their guess, so the whole call races on equal terms. A hybrid party works the same way, as long as the people at home can see the shared screen. With typed guesses, the people at home are as fast as the people in the room.

White elephant needs a different method on a call, because the gifts are not in one room. Everyone buys a gift and keeps it hidden. On your turn you open one by choosing a player whose gift is still hidden, and they show it on camera. Steals work as usual, and after the final swap everyone posts the gift they brought to whoever won it. The white elephant rules page has the details, including digital gifts for a team spread across countries.

Classic Christmas party games that need no tech

Some of the best Christmas games need nothing but paper, a pen and a loud voice. These work at a family table, and in a room where the Wi-Fi has given up.

• Secret Santa. Everyone draws a name in private and buys one gift for that person. Do the draw with slips or by email, never on a shared screen, because the secret is the point.
• Pass the parcel. A prize wrapped in many layers goes round while music plays, and whoever holds it when the music stops takes off one layer. The gift exchange games page has the rules for this one, the left right game and the plastic wrap ball.
• Name that carol. One player hums a carol with their mouth closed, and their team has thirty seconds to name it.
• Finish the lyric. Read out the first line of a Christmas song and stop. The first team to sing the next line wins the point.
• A Christmas pub quiz. Read a round aloud from the Christmas trivia questions page and have each table write its answers down.
• Christmas charades on paper. Print a Christmas list from the free charades generator, cut it into slips and draw them from a hat.
• The drawing game. One player draws a Christmas word while their team guesses, much like Pictionary. The free drawing prompt generator deals Christmas words sorted by how hard they are to draw.
• Christmas bingo. Type thirty Christmas words into the free bingo card generator and print a different card for each player. Call the words from a hat, or mark them off as they turn up in a Christmas film.
• Who am I. Write a Christmas character on a sticky note and press it to someone's forehead. They ask yes-or-no questions until they guess who they are.
• The imposter game on one phone. The free imposter game generator deals a Christmas word and the imposters on a single phone that the group passes round.
• The paper snowball fight. Everyone writes a fact about themselves on a sheet of paper, screws it into a ball and throws it. Each player picks up a snowball, reads it out and guesses who wrote it.
• One-minute challenges. Give each player sixty seconds for a silly task: stacking cups into a tower, moving sweets with a candy cane, or unwrapping a present in oven gloves.