Christmas party games for adults that everyone actually plays

The trouble with Christmas games is that most of them were designed for a living room in 1985 and a family that had nothing else on the telly. Some still work brilliantly. Some need a twist. And a few of the best ones aren't Christmas games at all, just good games with a Christmas coat on.

1. The Secret Santa steal

Ordinary Secret Santa is over in ten minutes and nobody remembers what they got. The steal version turns it into the main event. Everyone brings one wrapped present under a set budget and draws a number.

1. Player one opens any present from the pile.
2. Every player after that either opens a new present or steals one that has already been opened.
3. Anyone who gets robbed opens a new present instead.
4. A present is locked once it has been stolen twice.
5. When the pile is empty, player one gets one last steal, because going first is a curse.

Two tips. Wrap in plain paper, so nobody can guess the shop from the wrapping. And the best presents are useful and slightly ridiculous, because that is what gets fought over. A good blanket will change hands more times than a candle ever will.

2. Imposter with Christmas words

Imposter is the best sit-down game for a mixed crowd, because it works the same for a sixteen-year-old and a seventy-year-old. Everyone gets the same secret word except one player, the imposter, who gets nothing. Go round giving one-word clues, then point at your suspect on three. A caught imposter gets one guess at the word, and a right guess still wins. The full rules are here.

Christmas words are perfect for it, because everybody has a Christmas memory to give a clue from. Write the word on paper strips for everyone but one player, put Imposter on the last strip, and draw them from a bowl. Eight to start with:

3. The cracker joke deadpan

Pull the crackers, then go round the table reading your joke out as seriously as you can, like you are reading the news. Anyone who laughs, even a snort, does a forfeit. Cracker jokes are terrible, which is exactly why this is so hard. It works at a dinner table of twelve, and it's the one game the person who "doesn't do games" will always play.

4. The oven glove wrapping race

Two players, two oven gloves each, one box, one roll of paper and some sticky tape. First neat wrap wins, and the room decides what counts as neat. Run it as a knockout so everyone gets a go. It needs no explanation, works for any age, and the losing wraps are better than the winning ones.

5. Pass the parcel, adult edition

Wrap a proper prize in one layer per guest, and tuck a forfeit slip into every layer. Music on, pass the parcel, and whoever is holding it when the music stops unwraps a layer and does the forfeit inside. Keep the forfeits short and silly, for example "Sing the first line of a Christmas song the room picks" or "Give a ten-second Christmas speech to the room". There are more in our forfeit ideas.

6. Christmas Most Likely To and Would You Rather

Once it's just your mates, these take a Christmas theme with no new rules. For Most Likely To, everyone points on three and whoever gets the most fingers explains themselves:

• Most likely to fall asleep before the Christmas film ends.
• Most likely to still have the tree up in February.
• Most likely to regift a present from this room.
• Most likely to open a present and say "oh, I've already got one".

For Would You Rather, everyone votes at once, then the arguing starts:

• Would you rather give up roast potatoes or pigs in blankets?
• Would you rather wrap every present this year or write every card?
• Would you rather spend Christmas Day with your partner's family or alone with a microwave dinner?

Two free cards from the Antics decks hit differently in December. First, a Most Likely To for the couple who only got together in the summer:

• Get engaged after three months.

And a What Are The Odds dare, at the one time of year the fridge is full of cranberry sauce, bread sauce and a single cold sprout:

• You eat a spoonful of the weirdest edible thing in the kitchen.

7. Christmas charades with a timer

Charades dies when one person spends four minutes miming a film nobody has seen. Fix it with a one-minute phone timer and a rule that every title goes on a slip in a bowl before you start: Christmas films, Christmas songs, and things that happen every Christmas, like burning the gravy or losing the remote. Split into two teams, a point per title, and the winners pick the film everyone watches afterwards.

At the work Christmas party: keep it clean

The rule for the work do is simple: nothing you wouldn't want repeated in the office on Monday. Skip Never Have I Ever and Truth or Dare entirely. The Secret Santa steal, Imposter, the cracker deadpan and charades are all safe with colleagues. For questions, our free generators have a Clean deck with no innuendo and no swearing, built on forfeits: open the Would You Rather generator in clean mode on one phone and pass it round. The same deck works when your nan is at the table.

For the order to play everything in, and when to switch, see how to host a games night at home.

Christmas party games FAQ

What Christmas party games can adults play with no props?

Imposter needs only a pen and some paper, charades needs nothing at all, and Christmas Most Likely To and Would You Rather need someone to read the questions out. The cracker joke deadpan needs the crackers you already bought.

What games work at a work Christmas party?

The Secret Santa steal, Imposter, the cracker joke deadpan and Christmas charades are all safe for colleagues. Skip confession games like Never Have I Ever and Truth or Dare, and use a clean question deck with no innuendo and no swearing for anything else.

How does the Secret Santa steal game work?

Everyone brings one wrapped present under a set budget and draws a number. Player one opens a present. Each player after that either opens a new present or steals one that has already been opened, and anyone who is robbed opens a new one. A present is locked once it has been stolen twice. At the end, player one gets one last chance to steal.

What Christmas games work for a family with mixed ages?

Christmas charades, Imposter with Christmas words, the oven glove wrapping race and pass the parcel all work from teenagers to grandparents. Keep the forfeits gentle and the questions clean.