Christmas game night doesn’t have to mean pulling out the same games you play the rest of the year and putting Christmas music on in the background. There are actually quite a few games built around Christmas movies, Santa’s workshop, decorating the tree, holiday trivia and even an ugly Christmas sweater murder mystery.

I wanted a mix here instead of eight versions of basically the same party game. Some of these are easy family games, some have a little more strategy, and a couple are better suited to a Christmas party with adults or teens.

If books are more your thing, I also have lists of Christmas romance books that feel like Hallmark movies and Christmas thrillers and murder mysteries for very different kinds of holiday reading.

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CLUE: Home Alone

This is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: classic Clue dropped into Home Alone.

The McCallister family has returned from their Christmas trip and Kevin has some explaining to do. Players are trying to figure out who discovered what Kevin had been up to, which booby trap they found and where they found it. The game uses nine rooms from the house and six different booby traps. It is made for 2 to 6 players and takes around 30 minutes.

I like that this isn’t just regular Clue with Christmas artwork on the box. The mystery actually uses the movie.

A Charlie Brown Christmas: Christmas Journey

If A Charlie Brown Christmas is part of your yearly Christmas routine, this gives you a way to bring it to game night too.

Players join Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the rest of the Peanuts gang on a Christmas journey while helping Charlie Brown find the true meaning of Christmas. Players make their way around the board and try to get back to the Christmas tree to light the star.

This one is much more of a traditional family board game than something like Santa’s Workshop, so it could be a better choice if you don’t want a long explanation before everyone can start playing.

Christmas Is Coming

This one is all about decorating the Christmas tree before everything that can possibly go wrong does.

Each player gets their own tree and needs to add decorations, lights, a tree skirt and a star. On your turn, you draw a decoration and then a Naughty or Nice card. Some cards help you, while cats, squirrels, naughty elves and even a family of Yetis can mess with everyone’s trees.

The first player to finish decorating their tree wins.

It sounds simple, but I like that there is enough Christmas chaos built into it to keep it from just being a race to collect decorations.

12 Days of Christmas

12 Days of Christmas takes the song and turns it into a card game.

Players pass Gift cards to each other and compete for the twelve Day cards. The twist is that the lowest Gift card wins the round, not the highest, so hanging onto all your big cards won’t necessarily help you.

At the end, you score the Day cards you’ve collected along with bonuses for having the most cards of certain gifts, including the familiar golden rings, French hens and turtle doves from the song.

This is one of the smaller games on the list, so it would also be easy to bring along if you’re spending Christmas somewhere else.

Santa’s Workshop: Second Edition

This is the one I would pick if you want something that feels more like an actual strategy board game rather than a Christmas party game.

Players run teams of elves at the North Pole. You have toys to build, materials to collect, reindeer to take care of and even the Christmas tree to decorate. Your elves act as workers, and deciding where to send them is a big part of the game.

The second edition includes both a standard family game and a more advanced version, so you don’t necessarily have to start with the more complicated rules. It plays with 2 to 5 players and generally takes about 30 to 60 minutes.

Christmas Festive Trivia Quiz Game

Not every Christmas gathering needs a full board game spread across the table.

This little trivia game has 50 cards with questions on both sides covering holidays, celebrations and Christmas traditions. It is made for two or more players and is recommended for ages 12 and up.

Because the box is only a little bigger than a deck of cards, this is the kind of thing that would be easy to pull out after dinner or while everyone is sitting around waiting for something else to happen.

And yes, depending on your family, Christmas trivia can get weirdly competitive very fast.

Last Christmas: The Naughty or Nice Holiday Party Game

This one is less about knowing Christmas trivia and more about knowing the people sitting around the table.

Everyone takes a card, secretly fills in the blank and puts the answers together. Players then try to guess who wrote each answer. Whoever makes the most correct guesses wins. The answers can stay pretty innocent or get considerably more “naughty,” depending on who’s playing.

This seems better for a Christmas party than a serious game night because most of the fun comes from everyone’s answers.

I would probably save the naughtier version for after the younger kids have wandered off.

Office Christmas Sweater Party Murder Mystery Game

And then there is the Christmas party where somebody gets murdered.

Thankfully, only pretend.

This murder mystery takes place during an office ugly Christmas sweater party at Romanage International. The company president is discovered dead in the copy room, and everyone at the party becomes a suspect.

The game comes in versions for different group sizes, from 4 players up to 20, and includes character guides, evidence, a host guide, invitations and detective material. The current version can also secretly choose the murderer so even the host can play along.

This obviously takes more planning than pulling out a deck of trivia cards, but for an actual Christmas party, it could turn the game into the whole event.

Which Christmas Game Would You Pick?

I think there’s a pretty good mix here depending on what kind of Christmas game night you’re having. Some of these are easy to pull out after dinner, while others could pretty much become the whole night’s entertainment.

Personally, I think CLUE: Home Alone may be the most immediately tempting just because Home Alone and Clue make an almost ridiculous amount of sense together.

And if your Christmas plans involve more reading than board games, you can always head back to my Christmas book lists and find something to read once everybody finally goes home.

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