1. Christmas Tree Hop Cut out large Christmas tree shapes from colored paper.

Laminate them and cut them out. Place them on the floor and ask the children to hop from one tree to another. 2. Gift Hide and Seek Have all the children hide their eyes while you "hide" a gift in the room. (It should be

placed in plain view). Tell the children to find the gift but not touch it. Once they spot it they should sit back down in their spot. The first one to sit down again will get to hide the gift. *You could also play this game using "hot" and "cold". 3. Jingle Bell Tag Have the children sit in a circle and choose one child to stand outside of the circle. Give him a jingle bell. The children all sing together, "It's Christmas. It's Christmas. All our friends are with us. I'll choose the one to give my wish-A merry merry Christmas!". The over that child must drop the jingle bell behind one of the children that is sitting. That child gets up and chases him back to the spot in the circle. 4. Where is your Gift? Played like "Doggie ,Doggie Where's Your Bone?" Have one child sit in the middle of the circle, and hide their eyes. Give another child a Small Gift to hide behind their back. Have all the other children put their hands behind their back. Chant the following song: "Santa, Santa, Where's your gift? You better wake up and find it swift!". The child in the middle gets three guesses and then the child who had the gift goes into the middle. 5. What time is it Santa? The children all line up against a wall or fence. One person faces away from the children a good distance away from the children. The children yell, "What time is it Santa?" Santa answers 1 (or another number) o'clock, and the children all take one step toward Santa. The children yell again, "What time is it Santa?" Santa answers (fill in the blank) o'clock, and the children all take that number of steps toward Santa. This
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child outside of the circle walks around the circle as the song is sung. When the song is

continues until all the children are very close to Santa, then Santa will answer, "It's

midnight!" and chases the children back to the fence or wall that they started at. The first person Santa touches will be the new Santa. 6. Mistletoe Have all your children sit in a circle. Have them all pass mistletoe (use plastic or silk ones from the store) around the circle. Play music and when you stop the music everyone blows kisses to the person holding the mistletoe. 7. Pass The Christmas Fun Have all your children sit in a circle. Have them all pass something fun (candy, small toys, crayons, etc) Have them pass the item around the circle (once they have one mastered you can have them pass two, one clockwise and one counter-clockwise) Play music and when you stop the music the child that is holding the item gets to keep it and everyone has an item. 8. Santa, Santa, Reindeer Play just like Duck, Duck, Goose. The children sit in a circle and the person who is "it" walks around the outside of the circle and touches the heads/shoulders of the children in the circle, saying "Santa". When the person who is "it" gets to the child they wish to who is "it" around the circle to the empty spot. Continue the game until all of the children have had a turn. choose they say "reindeer" instead of Santa and that is their cue to chase the person then give one to another child that has not yet recieved an item. Continue the game until

9. Christmas Garland Limbo Turn on some Christmas music. Appoint two children to hold the limbo "pole" (garland). Have each child hold onto an end of the Christmas garland and stand next to one another, pulling the garland taut to create the limbo pole. The other children form a line and take turns seeing how low they can go. The child who is able to slide under the limbo pole at its shortest height wins.

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10. Ring The Bell Cut a large bell shape out of a large piece of cardboard. Attach bells to a piece of

ribbon and then attach the ribbon to the top of the bell cutout. Let children throw beanbags or balls through the hole and ring the bell. 11. Chase Santa

Play just like Red Light, Green Light but you are Santa and the children are racing to reach you. For more fun provide dress up materials (elf hats, Santa hats, reindeer antlers, beards, boots, etc.) 12. Don't Touch the Bows Put bows all over a large room (floors, chairs, etc). Play music and have children run around without touching the bows.

13. Frosty Snowball Toss Game Make a snowman cutout from cardboard. Cut a hole in his tummy. Have the children children and space you have available) and have them toss the snowballs (socks, wins a prize! 14. Santa's Toy Shop Put different spots on your floor (use tape, paper bags, hula hoops, etc.). Put different toys on each spot. Tell your kids that they need to test out new toys for one the music stops they move to the next area. 15. Big & Little Christmas Trees Call out big, medium, and little and have your children to be that size of Christmas Tree. Big: stand up with feet together and put hands above head in a point. Medium: Squat knees together and put hands above head in a point. Little: Sit down with legs crossed and put hands above head in a point.
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stand a distance back from Frosty (you can determine this depending on the age of the beanbags etc) into Frosty's tummy. The first one to get all 3 snowballs in the tummy

them. Play music and tell the children they have one song to play at an area and then

16. Pin the Nose on the Reindeer

Play just like Pin The Tail On The Donkey but use large red office circle stickers for noses on a Reindeer head cut out. Tree. *You could also play, Pin The Beard (or hat) On Santa or Pin The Star On The

17. Pass The Candy Cane Have the children sit in a circle. First explain to the group that we are going to be

passing 2 candy canes around the circle and not to stop passing it until the music stops. Pick one child to start passing the 2 candy canes and play some fun Christmas music. Now stop the music and whoever is holding the candy should find a friend to give one to and say Merry Christmas and he/she gets to eat one too. Now get 2 more candy canes and start the game again until everyone has had a turn. 18. Pass the Snowball Use an oversized white pom-pom or balled up socks as the snowball. The children sit in a circle quite close together. At first, practice passing the "snowball" to each other keeping your hands behind your backs. Then the parent or teacher sits outside the circle on a chair and closes and covers her eyes. When parent or teacher is ready to open her eyes and guess who is holding the snowball, she should tell the children so they can all be sure to have their hands behind their backs. After parent or teacher guesses who is holding the snowball, that person became the "guesser". 19. Feed Santa Draw or paint a Santa face on a piece of wood or stiff cardboard. Cut an opening where Santa's mouth goes, and then lean it against a wall so that there is open space behind Santa's mouth. Have the children take turns feeding Santa by tossing sandbags, beanbags, or Christmas candy into his mouth. The child who gets the most items into Santa's mouth is the winner.

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20. Snowballs Give each child a Santa hat. Have them stand in a circle, holding their hats, and the have a grown-up spill out a box of snow (Styrofoam packing peanuts) into the middle of the circle. All the children must scramble to pick up the snowballs and fill their hats with it. The first child to fill their hat and holler out Snowman! is the winner. 21. Christmas Word Find Take a Christmas related word such as: Christmas, Poinsettia, Candy cane, etc. and find as many smaller words from it as possible before the timer runs out. Example: Christmas !Words: sit, is, his, miss, rat, tar, this, math, chair, rim... Example: Candy Cane! Words: candy, cane, and, dance, day, nay, can, dye, an, any... 22. Whats In The Stocking? You can use an actual Christmas stocking for this one and fill it with a dozen or so commonly used Christmas items. The child is asked to put his hand into the stocking and guess what the contents are. The child who identifies best by feeling; and guesses correctly the highest number of items contained in the stocking wins! 23. Christmas Carol Freeze Dance Party Play Christmas music and then let the children dance, jump and gyrate to their hearts the elimination until such time as you have a winner. 24. Candy Cane Match. Purchase several different color/designed candy canes. Give each child one candy cane (a different designed candy cane for each kid). Mix the rest of the candy canes together and pile them in a pile on the floor. Have the kids look for the candy canes that match the one you gave them. The first one done with all the right candy canes wins. If they grab someone else's candy cane, simply throw it back and have them continue looking.

content. When the music stops, they must as well. Anyone that moves is out! Continue

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25. Rudolph Dash Have child put Vaseline on their nose and then put the red circles on their nose. Relay race to the finish with each new person adding their red nose. If nose falls, go back to bowl and add more Vaseline and reapply nose. 26. Gift Unwrap Relay Divide the children into teams. Put a stack of presents at the end of each team's

course. The first child in each team runs to the presents, unwraps one, and races back to the next person in line. First team finished unwrapping wins! Note: To make cleaning a little easier, parents may wish to adapt this game to where the child unwraps, throws away the paper, then runs back! 27. Santa in the Snow This game is played the same as The Farmer in the Dell. One child stands in the middle of a circle of children and wears a Santa hat. Begin by singing, Santa in the snow. Santa in the snow. Heigh ho the derry o, Santa in the snow. Let Santa choose a wife, the wife picks an elf, the elf picks a reindeer, the reindeer picks a sleigh, the sleigh picks a gift etc. 28. Melting Snowman The children dance to a Christmas song such as Frosty the Snowman. When the music sticker to keep them happy and let them help you. 29. Holly Wreath Toss Make 3 snowballs from white crepe paper or cotton wool per person playing. Hang a stops, they must melt to the floor. The last one to melt is out. Give the one who is out a

large Christmas wreath in the doorway and let each child in turn try to throw their three snowballs through the wreath. The players who successfully throw three balls through the wreath receives a prize.

30. Christmas Twenty Questions Adult starts by choosing a Christmas related person, place, or thing. The adult says,
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"I'm thinking of something". The children try to guess what it is by asking no more than

twenty questions that can be answered "YES", "NO", or I DON'T KNOW". The child who guesses correctly is next up.

31. Three-Legged Stocking Race Pair up kids. Have each pair put a leg in the oversized stocking and tie it at top so that it won't fall off. Make sure you have plenty of space. Put all the pairs at one end and line. mark a finish line at the other. On your mark the kids race to be the first pair over the 32. Pass The Gift Before this game starts place enough gifts in a large box for all of the kids and make all of the kids sit in a circle and play music. The kids must pass the gift to the person gift gets to unwrap one layer. 33. Shake and Guess You will need to buy enough small inexpensive gifts at your local dollar store so that each child has a gift. Keep them simple and things that will be easy for a child to figure the game. Wrap the gifts in boxes that are large enough for the gift to shake around a they can hear the gift inside it will be easier for them to make a guess. This will help keep any frustration down that might occur.To play the game have the children sit in a circle on the floor with the gifts in the middle of the circle. Have one child pick a gift from the middle. They can shake it up and down, back and forth for as long as you will allow before making their guess. Usually a minute or two is enough for the children to correct they can keep the gift or pass it to the person on their left. If the person on were just passed. Then they take the other gift and pass it to the person on their make their guess. Once they have made their guess they can open the gift. If they are their left already has a gift they can choose to keep the one they have or the one they left. If the guessing child guesses incorrectly they must pass the gift to the person on their right who then chooses whether to keep the gift or give it back to the person on their left. Play continues until everyone has opened a gift and has a gift for themselves. out. You can even give the children hints if you feel its necessary to help them along in little. You dont want to give them too much leeway in their shaking and guessing, but if sure to wrap it repeatedly until you have enough layers for every child to unwrap. Have sitting next to them until the music stops. When the music stops the person holding the

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34. Oh Where, Oh Where has Santa Claus Gone? Cover one child's eyes with a blindfold and let the other kids sing the Christmas verse. Oh where oh where has Santa Claus gone? Oh where Oh where can he be? With his beard so white and his hat so red, oh where ,oh where can he be? Then point to a child and have him pretend to laugh like Santa, Ho! Ho! Ho! The blindfolded child has to guess who was laughing. Remind Santa to try to change his or her voice. Let everyone have a chance to be Santa. 35. Christmas Shape Match Up -Cut out Christmas shapes from different colors of paper. Give each child one shape.; OR Christmas shape. Ask the children to find one person with the same color Christmas -Cut out Christmas Shapes from different colors of paper. Cut the Christmas shapes in half using a puzzle type cut, like zig-zag or interlocking pieces. Give each child one half of a Christmas shape, and ask them to find the person with the other half. ; OR -Cut the Christmas Shapes from one color of paper. Label one set of Christmas Shapes with numbers, i.e. if you have 20 children, label the Christmas shapes with the numbers one to ten. The other half, draw one dot on one, two on another, and so on until ten. Give each child one Christmas shape and have them find the child with their match. 36. Christmas Musical Chairs Set up enough chairs in a circle for all the kids except one. Have the kids walk around the chairs until the music stops. Stop the music at different times so the kids don't know when it's going to stop. All the kids have to try and sit down on a seat, the one kid without a seat is the one that has to stand out. Take another chair away and repeat the process until there is only one child in a chair left, that child is the winner. 37. Play "Who Stole The Cookie?"

Kids: Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Adult: (Ann) stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Kids: Who me? Adult: Yes you! Kids: Couldn't be!
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Adult: Then who? Ann: (Tommy) stole the cookie from the cookie jar? Tommy: Who me? Kids: Yes you! Tommy: Couldn't be! Kids: Then who?
38. Reindeer Pass Have all the children sit in a circle and hand one child a plush reindeer. Tell the children when the music is playing that they must pass the reindeer around the circle. Play Christmas music and have them pass the toy around the circle. When the music stops, the child holding the plush reindeer is out of the game. The last player left in the game wins the plush reindeer toy. 39. Jingle Sheet Place small bells on a bed sheet. Have children grab a part of the sheet. Everyone picks up the sheet and the bells are in the middle. As you all sing Jingle Bells move the sheet to jingle the bells. At the end of the song everyone raises their arms quickly which sends the bells flying.

40. Santa Says This game is played the same as Simon Says. The teacher or parent can be "Santa". The teacher says "Santa says hop" and all of the children have to hop. Teacher says stop". Repeat for other actions such as jump, run, turn around, sit down, stand up, hands up/down, star jump, etc. "Stop and all of the children should continue hopping on until "Santa" says "Santa says

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