So much time is spent during the holiday season cooking lavish feasts and shopping for perfect gifts that making time to have simple fun with the family can fall off your list of priorities. Show your kids there is more to the season than one big day of unwrapping presents with these five family games! No matter how you celebrate, these holiday games have you covered. A little DIY magic and Cash Back at Ebates is all it takes to make your holidays that much happier.
What’s in Santa’s Hat?
This simple guessing game is great for school-age children. Fill a Santa hat or Christmas stocking with small objects from around the house, such as dice, Legos or magnets. Give each player a pencil and a piece of paper. Pass around the hat and have each player guess what’s inside by feeling the outside of the hat without looking or reaching inside. The players write down their guesses, and the person with the most correct guesses wins.
Hanukkah Bingo
This picture-based bingo game will keep it simple for preschoolers who are still learning their numbers and letters. The best part? It’s available for instant download, and you can print it out in minutes. Etsy has a ton of cute printable games for all occasions. Keep your eye out for a promo code from your favorite Etsy maker to save big on holiday games and goods.
White Elephant
Part gift-giving, part straight-up thievery, this game is perfect for households with teenagers since they’re old enough to buy their own small gifts. Stores like Michaels and Cost Plus have a great variety of stocking stuffers. To play, place all wrapped gifts in the center of the room and choose someone to kick off the game by unwrapping one of the presents. The following players can either steal an unwrapped gift from another person or choose a new gift from the pile. Each gift can be stolen only three times. The game is over when everyone has a gift.
Mancala
For those celebrating Kwanzaa, there is a variety of games to play with African roots. Mancala, however, may be the most popular here in the United States. Mancala is actually a category of count-and-capture games, but the version Americans know best is the wooden-board-and-glass-marble variety. Each player picks up a section of marbles and distributes them one by one into the sequential sections, including their own “pot.” The turn is over when you place your final marble in a space with no other marbles. The game is over when all the marbles make it into the players’ pots. This is a two-player game, so make sure to get enough boards for everyone to play at once.
Match the Bells
Chocoholics of any age will love this one. Simply take a black marker and write a number, letter or symbol on the bottoms of two wrapped chocolate kisses and repeat until you have enough pairs to play a game of match. Unlike regular match games, you eat your pairs once the game is complete. Everyone wins!
