Christmas Party Games for Adults: 10 Ideas (Drinking Optional)

Christmas party games for adults work best when everyone can play, whether they're holding a beer, a soda or nothing at all. This guide gives you 10 games that need few props, suit a living room or an office party, and are scored with points and prizes instead of drinking forfeits. A few use the bottle caps your party will produce anyway, including a launch game with our Beer Mortar. Each one comes with the setup, the rules and what makes it work.

Key Takeaways

• Score with points and prizes, never with drinks: anyone can play, drinking or not.
• The best adult party games need almost no props: caps, paper, a pen, a timer.
• Pick games that fit the room. Knowledge and skill games are safest at work; teasing games belong with close friends.
• Any cap-launching game goes upward into open space, never toward people, pets or lights.
• Play early in the evening, while everyone is fresh and the room is still tidy.

How to pick Christmas party games for a group of adults

Start with the room, then the crowd. A cramped apartment suits word and guessing games; a garage, a yard or a big kitchen opens up the cap games. At an office party, stay with games about skill or trivia rather than personal questions, and keep the forfeits silly ("sing the next chorus", "wear the paper crown") rather than embarrassing.

Then decide how you'll keep score. A notepad, a whiteboard or a stack of paper stars works. Points make it easy for someone who arrives late or steps out to join the next round, and a small prize at the end gives the evening a finish line.

Bottle cap games

Bottle caps are free, they're already on the table, and they make satisfying game pieces. Pour drinks into glasses or keep the bottles on the side, and keep the caps.

Photo: Ohene okai / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

1. Bottle cap flick

Players take turns flicking a cap across a table with a finger. In the version shown in the photo above, players try to flick their cap so it lands on top of someone else's, and whoever manages it wins. For a longer game, let the winner of each round keep the cap they landed on, and count caps after a set number of rounds.

What makes it work: it takes a minute to learn and stays competitive, because a lucky flick can turn the game around. Use a smooth table and mark a "play zone" with tape so caps don't end up in the cheese dip.

2. Cap toss into a bowl

Set a bowl, a mug or a Santa hat on the floor a few steps away. Each player gets five caps and throws them underhand, one at a time; one point per cap that stays in. Move the target back after each round. Keep it underhand and low, which keeps caps away from faces and ornaments.

This is the modern, cleaner cousin of a very old party game. At ancient Greek drinking parties, guests played kottabos by flinging the last drops of wine from their cups at a target, and the winner got a prize of cakes or sweets (Wikipedia: Kottabos). Same idea, minus the wine on the walls: aim, score, win cookies.

3. Where will the cap land?

This one needs a Beer Mortar and space: a yard, a garage or a room with a high ceiling. Each guest puts a coaster or a sticky note with their name on the floor where they think the cap will come down. Someone rests the mortar on top of a bottle's cap, aims straight up, and opens it with one palm strike. The cap flies upward, and whoever's marker is closest when it lands wins the round.

The rules that keep it fun:

• Launch straight up into open space, never toward people, faces, pets, lights or anything breakable.
• Everyone stands back, and nobody tries to catch the cap.
• Keep it away from children, and pick up every cap afterwards.
• Only open a bottle someone actually wants. Glass-bottled sodas, root beer and alcohol-free beer open the same way, so nobody has to drink to have a turn.

Our guide on what a beer mortar is and how to use it covers the motion step by step, and the physics of a bottle cap trick shot explains why the cap flies the way it does.

Gift exchange games

4. White elephant swap with dice

A white elephant gift exchange, also called a Yankee swap or Dirty Santa, is a party game where guests open wrapped gifts or "steal" ones that others have already opened; the aim is to entertain rather than to win something valuable (Wikipedia: White elephant gift exchange). Dice speed it up: everyone picks a wrapped gift from the pile, then players roll in turn. A six means swap with anyone, a one means pass your gift to the left, and anything else passes the dice on. When a timer goes off, everyone opens what they're holding.

Photo: GeoTrinity / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0), cropped

Set a spending limit in the invitation so nobody feels awkward. For gift ideas that people actually fight over, see our lists of white elephant gift ideas for men and funny Secret Santa gifts. A keyring opener such as the CapBlast is a classic swap gift: small, useful and easy to wrap.

Word and guessing games

5. Christmas movie charades

Write Christmas movie, song and book titles on slips of paper and split the room into two teams. One player draws a slip and acts it out without speaking while their team guesses against a one-minute timer. Charades started as a parlor game in which a player acted out each syllable of a word, and today players usually mime without saying anything (Wikipedia: Charades). Agree on a few gestures before you start (number of words, "sounds like", "movie", "song") and the rounds go faster.

6. Finish the carol lyric

The host reads or plays the first line of a Christmas song and stops. The first team to sing the next line correctly scores a point. It works with any group size, needs only a phone or a printed list, and is one of the safest picks for an office party because it's about memory, not about anyone personally. Mix famous carols with a few pop songs so everyone gets a chance.

7. "Who am I?" with sticky notes

Everyone writes a Christmas character on a sticky note (Santa, a reindeer, a famous movie elf, the Grinch) and sticks it on another player's forehead or back without showing them. Players ask yes-or-no questions in turn to work out who they are. First to guess wins; the last one standing wears the paper crown. It mixes groups well because people have to talk to each other.

8. Two truths and a lie, Christmas edition

Each player shares three short statements about their Christmases past (the worst gift they received, a tradition, a kitchen disaster), and two of them are true. The others vote on the lie. This one suits friends and family better than a work party, because it invites personal stories. Let people pass if they'd rather.

Active games

9. Oven-mitt wrapping race

Give each player or pair a small box, a sheet of wrapping paper, tape and a pair of oven mitts. On "go", they wrap the box while wearing the mitts. The neatest package after two minutes wins, and the funniest one gets a special mention. Keep scissors out of the race: pre-cut the paper and tear the tape strips in advance.

10. Blind taste test

Pour small samples of three or four drinks into numbered cups: different sodas, juices, hot chocolates, or alcohol-free beers. Players taste and write down what they think each one is. One point per correct answer. If your guests want to compare beers, keep the samples small and the evening slow; our guide to a beer tasting flight at home shows how to run a proper tasting, with water and snacks between samples.

Which game for which party?

For more ways to entertain a table, our bar tricks and bets you can win has six tricks that work with a bottle, a glass and a coin.

What about Christmas drinking games?

If you searched for Christmas drinking games, here is the case for swapping drinks for points. Drinking games have existed since antiquity and have been banned at some institutions, particularly colleges and universities (Wikipedia: Drinking game). The usual problem is the rule itself: when a drink is the penalty, the people losing drink the most, and they drink faster than they would otherwise.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines binge drinking as a pattern that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08% or higher, which for a typical adult means five or more drinks for men, or four or more for women, in about two hours (NIAAA). A fast game can get there before the food is served.

Every game in this guide avoids that: the loser does something silly, the winner gets a prize, and drinks stay separate from the score. People who want a beer pour one at their own pace; people who don't want one play the same game.

Hosting tips for an adult Christmas party

• Put food out before the first game. Snacks on the table keep people in the room and give the cap games something to compete for.
• Make the alcohol-free options as visible as the beer. Sodas, sparkling water and alcohol-free beers in the same cooler mean nobody has to ask. If you want them cold in a hurry, see how to chill beer fast; the same tricks work on any bottle or can.
• Keep one opener where everyone can find it. A wall opener or a keyring opener like the CapBlast left on the bar saves the "who has an opener?" hunt.
• Play the active games early. Cap launches and wrapping races need steady hands and a clear floor.
• Plan the ride home before the party. Share a taxi number, set up a group ride or offer the couch.

Alcohol is for adults of legal drinking age: 21 in the US under the National Minimum Drinking Age Act, and 18 to buy alcohol in the UK (GOV.UK). NIAAA's Rethinking Drinking site has practical tips for keeping a get-together relaxed.

The bottom line

The best Christmas party games for adults are easy to explain, quick to play and fair to everyone in the room. Mix one cap game, one gift game and one guessing game, keep score with points, and give the winners cookies, crowns or a small gift. For the moment everyone stops and watches, the Beer Mortar turns opening a bottle into a round of "where will it land?". Our gifts for beer lovers page has more ideas for prizes and swap gifts.