Adult Family Activities at Christmas
When adult members of a family gather for Christmas, plan a few games and activities to get everybody interacting and enjoying their time together. Focus on activities that take advantage of a family's shared history and close relationships, while still making those who have married into the family feel welcome. Does this Spark an idea?
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Gift Exchange Game
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Adult family members getting together for Christmas can each bring a wrapped gift to play a gift exchange game together. Set a price limit for the gifts and specify whether they should be gag gifts or things people actually might want. Families might enjoy gag gifts because they can give gifts that relate to family traditions or memories. To play a game, randomly decide on the order in which family members will select gifts. On each person's turn, he can unwrap a wrapped gift or steal an opened gift from someone else. A person who has his gift stolen gets to steal a different gift or unwrap a wrapped gift.
Caroling Contest
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Family members are sometimes said to be able to finish each others' sentences, so play a game to put them to the test. Pair up family members and see which pair can sing the most coherent Christmas carol. The challenge is that teammates have to alternate who sings each word. If desired, let teams look at a printed copy of the lyrics to help out. When every team has had a chance to sing, give family members secret ballots and have everybody vote for a favorite team.
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Family Memories
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Challenge family members to think of the most outrageous holiday story from their childhood and have everybody share their memories. Families will enjoy laughing about these events years after their occurrence and might even learn something new about each other. Put a time limit on this activity so nobody dominates the storytelling. Two to three minutes per person should be enough time to tell stories, or shorten it to just one minute per person at a gathering of more than about 20 people.
Communication Test
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Divide family members into pairs for a test of their communication. Try to pair married couples together or pair siblings together for the funniest results. Sit a pair of people down back-to-back, have them close their eyes and give them each a tray of Christmas-themed objects. The trays should contain an identical set of about 20 objects, but in different arrangements. Have them open their eyes and have one team member describe to the other how to arrange the items on the tray. Set a time limit of two minutes to add some pressure to the task. When the time is up, compare the trays and give a point for each correctly placed item. Repeat the task with a new arrangement for another team and see if they can beat the score. If you have enough items, make two sets of trays for a simultaneous challenge.
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