seasonal · charades · free printable
Free Printable Christmas Charades Cards
When the Christmas meal is over and nobody wants to be the first to stand up.
Made by the PaperCarnival team · Updated
24 prompts to act out · cut-apart cards · US Letter & A4
Somewhere after the Christmas meal, the room goes quiet and nobody wants to stand up. A deck of charades cards is the cheapest way to fix that. This one holds twenty four prompts built out of the day itself: untangling the lights, shaking a wrapped gift to guess what is in it, opening a present you very clearly do not like, and falling asleep in a chair at four in the afternoon.
Six cards fit on a page, the evergreen theme frames each one in deep green, and a pair of scissors turns four pages into a full deck.
Every prompt is a physical action rather than a phrase, which is what makes this work in a room holding both a four year old and a grandparent. The version your family remembers, though, is the one with your own jokes in it. Open the deck in the generator and write them in.
The prompts
Every card in the deck, or edit the list in the generator
- Decorating the tree
- Wrapping a present badly
- Building a snowman
- Untangling the lights
- Singing carols door to door
- Hanging a stocking
- Eating too many cookies
- Sledding down a hill
- Shivering in the cold
- Ice skating
- Reindeer pulling a sleigh
- Opening a present you do not like
- Stirring hot cocoa
- Putting the star on top
- Slipping on ice
- Wearing a scratchy sweater
- Shaking a wrapped gift
- Making a snow angel
- Roasting chestnuts
- Carrying too many parcels
- Waiting up to hear the sleigh
- Cutting down a tree
- Licking a candy cane
- Falling asleep after dinner
Ways to play
Family teams
Split the room by generation and let it get competitive. One minute per card, no talking, no pointing at objects.
After dinner
The hour after Christmas dinner is when the room goes quiet and nobody wants to move. This is the thing that gets everyone up.
Youngest first
Let the smallest child draw first and act with an adult. Every prompt is a physical action, so nothing needs reading skills.
All together
Skip the teams. One person acts, everyone guesses, whoever gets it right acts next. Good for a room where people drift in and out.
Questions
How many cards are in the deck?
Twenty four prompts, printed six to a page, so four pages you cut apart into a full deck.
Will young children manage?
Yes. Every prompt is something to do rather than something to say, so a four year old can act out building a snowman once an adult reads the card.
Can I add our own family jokes?
Yes, and it is the version people remember. Open the deck in the generator and rewrite any card.
What should I print it on?
Ordinary paper is fine. Card stock holds up if you want to keep the deck for next year.