Holiday Parties and Traditions

have each family bring 1-2 prizes. 1 bout $20-$25 and one about $5. mix up into teams an play a bunch of minute to win it games:
http://oncloud8.blogspot.com/2011/01/not-so-silent-night....
if you search pinterest there are even more ideas. Have fun!

My sister just hosted thanksgiving and everyone got into cookie decorating. They gave each cookie a number and everyone voted for the best. Going for a walk after the meal is always fun, we sing xmas carols as we go. If you can put together a slide show on cd and play it to music (pics of everone) that can be a lot of fun too. You can hire a santa to come hand out candy canes. Act like you dont know who on earth he is or why he showed up..... The mystery will entrigue everyone!
Many years ago I did a funny questionair about everyone at the party. I called each person/ couple that were attending (about a month in advance). I asked them all kinds of personal questions, like, what's your favorite thing to do togther, favorite food, favorite clothing item, most weird job, knicknames, funniest thing every happen to you, etc..... then put together a questionair. To make it funny have silly and witty answers to pick from... I cant remember exactly what I wrote but It had everyone rolling with laughter. These are not as funny as my original ones but here are examples of some questions:
"what is Donna's idea of a favorite meal?
A. grilled cheese
B marshmallow chicks
C napkins all around

When greg was young, he had a job as a:

A. avon lady
B exotic male dancer
C. mouse
(it was a mouse, as he had worked at chuck E cheese and wore the suit! No one could figure this one out).

What are Dennis and Patty's favorite thing to do?

A hide under the bed
B hide eachother's underwear
C hang xmas lights in the dark
C hang out

(she didnt tell me it was a favorite thing to do, she just told me a funny story about when they hung xmas lights one year. )

What was Mom's knickname for dad's fly on his pants?:
A The terminator
B The hatch
C The patch
D none of the above. Dad didnt wear pants.

(Navy pants had a flap on the front that buttoned all the way around- it was known as the hatch! )
These arent the exact A-D answers but you get the idea. The neat thing about this 'game' is that as we went through and I revealed the answers,the people involved in that question would typically chime in and add all personal details to the event and everyone would just laugh and listen and it created a lot of conversation and laughter.

You can do a low-key game where you put a Post-It note w/a celebrity's
name on the back of each person as they enter the party. Each person
gets to go up to each other & ask 2 questions about who they have on
their back. For example, you would ask 1) Am I a movie star? 2) Am
I in a band? etc. Those who guess, win a sm token gift.

For the kids, you can have an area where they decorate cookies or build
a cookie house complete w/gumdrops & icing. You can either use ginger
bread walls or graham cookies.

You can go around the room and ask each person to share their favorite:
Christmas movie
holiday memory
holiday event (caroling, gift wrapping party, work party etc)
you can pile people in a car or two & drive around to look at lights for an
hour
have a bowl by the door where everyone drops in their holiday wish for
the season. You can read them aloud at the end of the night or keep
private if you wish

watch a holiday movie together coplete w/popcorn & hot cocoa
decorate ornaments
re-name the reindeer (there can be more than 9). Each person comes
up w/their unique name
hand each person a lottery scratch off ticket (if you hv that in your state)
hand out mini stockings w/a candy cane, a sm choc bar, your wish for
them in the new year etc.

Updated

You can do a low-key game where you put a Post-It note w/a celebrity's
name on the back of each person as they enter the party. Each person
gets to go up to each other & ask 2 questions about who they have on
their back. For example, you would ask 1) Am I a movie star? 2) Am
I in a band? etc. Those who guess, win a sm token gift.

For the kids, you can have an area where they decorate cookies or build
a cookie house complete w/gumdrops & icing. You can either use ginger
bread walls or graham cookies.

You can go around the room and ask each person to share their favorite:
Christmas movie
holiday memory
holiday event (caroling, gift wrapping party, work party etc)
you can pile people in a car or two & drive around to look at lights for an
hour
have a bowl by the door where everyone drops in their holiday wish for
the season. You can read them aloud at the end of the night or keep
private if you wish

watch a holiday movie together coplete w/popcorn & hot cocoa
decorate ornaments
re-name the reindeer (there can be more than 9). Each person comes
up w/their unique name
hand each person a lottery scratch off ticket (if you hv that in your state)
hand out mini stockings w/a candy cane, a sm choc bar, your wish for
them in the new year etc.

a couple of years ago, I just used a search engine & found all kinds of great family activities for Christmas parties. We did trivia pages, scrambled words, crosswords, etc....I made lots of copies for everyone to enjoy....& I had prizes for the winners! It was a huge hit!

If you do a "search", I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at the availability of fun games & activities. I'd share some links, but time is short tonight. :) Good Luck & Enjoy. We have found that games have greatly increased our Fun!

I've got one for you:

Print out the song, "The 12 Days of Christmas" so everyone can sing together.

http://www.allchristmaslyrics.com/12_days_of_christmas_ly...

I'd suggest you give the partridge part to the silliest or most outgoing person, or you can just have people pull a lyric strip out of a hat. What my family did was cut each of the days into strips and passed them out.

The only part you sing in unison is, "On the --- day of Christmas my true love gave to me..." Then each person (or couple) has to chime in with their part when it comes. It's fun especially when someone isn't paying attention to when it's their turn! Have a video camera handy and enjoy the moment for years to come. Merry Christmas!

My family always played cards after dinner.

I think it will be hard to come up with many ideas that everyone will want to do, but you can always do a white elephant. Those are always fun. You can either have it be a regifted item or some sort of wacky item people go out and buy, but set a limit like $10-20.

You could also set up an area to decorate cookies, the kids and teens would probably like that.

My family used to get all riled up to play Trivial Pursuit on Christmas. I wish we still played, but with 2 small kids of my own and my mom and aunt getting older, it doesn't get played much, but someone still usually schleps it around to the houses! ;) Other board games or card games are good too.

This is a response I wrote to another question but this is what we did last year.... So last year we had a gift exchange where everyone had to bring a $5-10 wrapped gift. Then you could either steal an opened gift or open a new gift. It was a blast and so much more memorable than exchanging cheap kid toys. My BIL ended up with a musical tie, my 13 yo nephew got a blow up guitar and glow stick necklaces. Someone ended up with a pumpkin mouth picture frame and I then put a picture of me and my siblings in it from our Halloween party. The gift everyone was stealing was a simple jar from the dollar store filled with Reese's peanut butter cups and Hershey Kisses. Lots of fun that I think made a lasting memory for our family.

My husband and I exchange gifts though and my parents and his parents give us money.