The 5 Best Christmas Gift Exchange Games

Growing up, every year we would visit my grandparents for Christmas they would bring out a pile of gifts – one per child in attendance – and we would all play gift exchange games to end up with a present!

It is still my favorite memories from Christmas’ now long past.

I now carry on the Christmas gift games tradition in my own family, switching up the game each year, and it’s something I look forward to every year!

Affiliate links are used in this post. 

5 Christmas Gift Exchange Games

Get a sneak peek of our Gift Exchange Games in this quick video!

Roll For It

Start 1-3 dice around the room, depending on the number of guests. Each player rolls once, and then passes the dice.

If they roll a 6, they get to pick a gift from the center pile, or they can choose to “steal” a gift from someone already holding one.

The person who was stolen from can select a new gift from the center. This game continues until the last gift has been picked up from the center.

Right / Left

Read a classic Christmas story, such as “The Night Before Christmas”. Select two keywords that appear frequently in the story.

Let all the guests know that one word means pass your gift to the right while the other word when spoken means to pass your gift to the left.

Read through the story until the end, and then let all the guests open the present they ended up with.

Hot Potato

Have all the guests form a circle and start with a 30-second countdown timer. Start passing one or two unwrapped gifts, depending on the size of the group.

Whoever ends up holding the gift with the timer dings keeps that gift and is out of the game until everyone ends up with a gift.

Musical Chairs

Set a present on each seat around the room and play a favorite Christmas song. Have all the guests circle around the room until the music ends. They can then open the gift at the seat they stopped at.

Hop over to see our printable lists with prompts and questions to play this Musical Chairs Gift Exchange game combined with the truth be told prompts below!

Truth Be Told

Make a set of 10-20 “If you are a…” or “If you have ever…” sayings. Pull one of the slips at random and read it aloud.

Any guest that fits the description has to get up, leaving the gift at their spot, and switch places with someone else who also fit the description.

You can include things like: grandparent, blond, teacher, female, visited another country, gone on a blind date, rode on a motorcycle, etc.

Continue through all of the slips until the last one has been read, then have everyone open their gifts.

Christmas Gift Games Shopping Made Easier

While I love playing gift exchange games, picking out and coming up with a variety of gifts to fit the unique personalities of all of the participants while still keeping the gifts open ended to work for anyone.

I always turn to amazon to find a variety of gifts at affordable prices. Best of all, they ship right to my door!

A few of my favorite gifts for gift exchange games include:

• Over the Door Basketball Hoop Game
• Phase 10 Card Game
• Nesting Bowls with Colander and Measuring Cups
• Nerf Gun & Darts
• Codenames Game
• Eyeshadow Pallet
• Flashlights
• Bath Bombs

All of these gifts are only $10-20! Very affordable and actually things people would like that you can include in your Christmas gift exchange parties!

Once the gifts arrived, it was as easy as wrapping up all the gifts and grabbing a set of dice and a baking dish for this year’s Christmas gift exchange game! I can’t wait to get my family together this year for our gift exchange!

What are your favorite Christmas gift exchange games?