Christmas Questions
Cookies, lights, gift tags and snow days, one easy question at a time for everyone around the room.
- Time
- 10–30 min
- Players
- Two or more people
- Best for
- Work holiday parties, family dinners and tree trimming
- Deck
- 150 questions in 6 categories
How to use these Christmas questions
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the top card aloud and let everyone answer it, going around the group.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next question”, for the next one. Questions do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save a question on this device, or tap “Make a 10-question list” for a list you can copy.
When to ask Christmas questions
December is full of in-between moments: waiting for cookies to cool, sitting at a long table, standing around at a party with a plate in your hand. A cheerful question gives everyone something easy to talk about, whether they have known each other for years or met an hour ago.
The office holiday party
Movies and music and Food and treats are light enough for coworkers who only know each other from meetings, like which holiday song would sound good in July.
A long family dinner
Between the main course and dessert, Traditions and Gifts bring out stories about holiday mornings, odd gift swaps and the best hiding spot anyone ever used.
A snowy evening in with friends
Winter fun and Decorations suit a couch, blankets and lights on the tree, from naming the first snowstorm to what scene would sit inside your own snow globe.
Ways to play with Christmas questions
Pass the phone with the cookie plate
At a holiday get-together, the phone travels with the cookie plate. Whoever takes a cookie reads the top card aloud and answers first, then anyone else can chime in before the plate and the phone move on.
One card per ornament
While two or more of you trim the tree or hang the lights, read a card each time someone hangs an ornament or finishes a string. Decorations and Traditions fit the job, and the tree is done before the questions run out.
Five-minute warm-up at the team party
At the start of a work holiday party or the last meeting before the break, the host picks Food and treats or Movies and music and reads three cards. A few people answer each one in a sentence, and the room is talking before the food arrives.
Tips for a good round
- Pick the category to match the moment: Gifts while wrapping, Food and treats while baking, Winter fun on a walk or a snowy drive.
- Keep answers short in a big group, one or two sentences each, so the card goes all the way around before anyone gets bored.
- Heart the questions that got the longest stories, and start next year’s get-together with them.
All 150 christmas questions by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and play there.
Traditions
Habits, outings and small rituals that make December feel like December.
- Which holiday tradition would you keep if you could keep only one?
- Which small December habit tells you the season has truly started?
- In Iceland, many people give books on Christmas Eve and read late into the night. Would you join in?
- What’s a tradition your friends or family started by accident and now never skip?
- What did December 25 morning look like where you grew up?
- Which holiday job is always yours, year after year?
- What’s the funniest thing that ever happened while someone was taking a holiday photo?
- What’s the best part of the quiet week between Christmas and New Year’s?
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- If you ran your town’s holiday parade, what would lead it down Main Street?
- Who in your circle starts celebrating first every year, and how early?
- What one moment makes Christmas Day feel complete for you?
- Name a holiday tradition you love that costs nothing at all.
- Have you ever spent the holidays somewhere new? What surprised you there?
- Which holiday tradition would you happily do twice a year?
- What’s the best holiday tip anyone ever taught you, from cooking to wrapping?
- Which workplace holiday tradition do you look forward to most?
- What holiday tradition should every workplace have, in your opinion?
- How do you mark the first day of December?
- How do you spend the last hour of Christmas Eve?
- What’s the most memorable place you’ve ever been on Christmas Day?
- Which holiday tradition would puzzle a visitor from another planet the most?
- If the holiday season gained one extra day, how would you spend it?
- Which of your holiday traditions has a friend borrowed because they loved it?
- Is there a holiday tradition you’ve always wanted to try but never have?
- Which holiday event in your town is worth putting on the calendar every year?
Food and treats
Cookies, cocoa, holiday breads and the last cookie on the plate.
- Which holiday cookie would you bake if you could bake only one kind all season?
- Which treat only tastes right in December?
- Candy canes: do you eat them, hang them on the tree or keep them for months?
- What’s the best thing to dunk in a mug of hot cocoa?
- If you could frost cookies in only one color this year, which color would it be?
- What’s the most ambitious holiday baking project you’ve ever tried, and how did it turn out?
- Which holiday food do you love that most people around you don’t?
- Gingerbread: soft and chewy, or crisp enough to snap in half?
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- What would be on the holiday breakfast table if you set the whole menu?
- Which holiday flavor do you wish the stores sold all year?
- What’s your go-to dish to bring to a holiday potluck?
- If you opened a holiday bakery for one day, what would be in the window?
- Invent a holiday treat and name it after yourself. What’s in it?
- What’s the strangest candy cane flavor you’ve seen, or would like to try?
- Who taught you your favorite holiday recipe, and do you still make it their way?
- Which holiday dish could you skip without missing it at all?
- If a cookie swap gave out prizes, what should the categories be?
- Which holiday treat would you happily give away in a little tin?
- Fruitcake: a treat, a joke or a very sturdy doorstop?
- What’s your rule for who gets the last cookie on the plate?
- If the holiday table could hold only one dessert, which should it be?
- Panettone, stollen or a mince pie: which would you try first?
- How many kinds of cookies make a proper holiday cookie plate?
- Which treat do you reach for while the decorations go up?
- Besides cocoa, which warm drink tastes most like the holidays to you?
Gifts
Giving, wrapping, hiding and swapping, from tiny stocking finds to gift tags.
- What’s the most thoughtful gift you’ve ever received that cost almost nothing?
- Which gift from when you were little do you still remember unwrapping?
- Which gift you gave made someone laugh the hardest?
- How would you wrap something awkwardly shaped, like a bicycle or a beach ball?
- In a white elephant swap, do you steal early or wait it out?
- What small gift is always welcome, no matter who opens it?
- What makes someone hard to shop for, in your experience?
- Where’s the best hiding spot you’ve ever used for a gift?
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- What’s a gift you didn’t expect to love that you’ve now kept for years?
- If you could give everyone in this room the same gift, what would it be?
- What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever taken home from a gift swap?
- Are you a wrapping paper person or a gift bag person, and why?
- What’s the best message you’ve ever written or read on a gift tag?
- What gift would you leave under the tree for your younger self?
- If you ran a gift-wrapping booth, what would be your signature finishing touch?
- What toy was on your wish list year after year when you were younger?
- What gift would you give a snowman to help it through the winter?
- What’s the most surprising thing you’ve ever found in a stocking?
- What would you put in a gift basket for the coziest night in?
- If you were a toymaker for one day, what toy would you build?
- What’s a gift for a coworker that nobody has thought of yet?
- Have you ever spoiled a surprise gift by accident? What gave it away?
- If pets could go shopping, what would a dog pick out for its owner?
- What kind of book makes the best holiday gift, in your opinion?
- If you could wrap up one moment from this year and give it to someone, which would it be?
Decorations
Lights, tree toppers, wreaths, tinsel and the box that comes down from the attic.
- Which decoration has been in your family the longest?
- What goes on top of your tree: a star, a bow or something unexpected?
- If you could decorate any building in town for the holidays, which would you pick?
- What’s the most over-the-top light display you’ve ever seen?
- How long does it take you to untangle the lights each year?
- Which decoration would you put up in every single room if you could?
- If your desk at work had to look festive by Monday, what would go on it?
- When is the right day to take the decorations down?
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- Which room in a home looks best with holiday lights?
- What’s the tallest decorated tree you’ve ever seen, and where was it?
- If an ornament could sum up your year, what shape would it be?
- What would a holiday wreath made only from kitchen things look like?
- Which decoration makes you smile the moment it comes out of the box?
- How many strings of lights do you think your home could hold?
- What’s the funniest decoration you’ve seen that sings, dances or talks?
- What’s one decoration you’d add to the outside of your home this year?
- Giant inflatable snowmen on the lawn: what’s your honest opinion?
- Which holiday scent would you bottle and keep all year?
- Do you decorate a little or a lot, and who taught you that?
- What would you hang on a tree that has nothing to do with the holidays?
- If you had a snow globe made, what scene would be inside?
- Who do you know who decorates with the most enthusiasm, and what does it look like?
- What’s the best decoration you’ve ever made with your own hands?
- Where do the decorations live the rest of the year, and how organized are they?
- Tinsel on the tree: yes, no or just a little?
Movies and music
Holiday movies, songs and specials, talked about without naming a single title.
- What kind of holiday movie do you enjoy most: funny, cozy, animated or black-and-white?
- What holiday song gets stuck in your head for days?
- Is there a holiday movie you’ve seen so often you can quote whole scenes?
- If your life were a holiday movie, what would the opening scene be?
- Pick a holiday song for a sing-along with this group right now. Which one?
- What holiday movie plot has never been made but should be?
- In a holiday movie, would you play the hero, the grump or the helpful sidekick?
- Which holiday song do you secretly love even though everyone else is tired of it?
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- Would a holiday movie set in your town be a comedy, a mystery or a musical?
- Sleigh bells, a big brass finish or hand claps: what makes a holiday song for you?
- Which holiday TV special did you watch every year when you were younger?
- If you wrote a holiday song about your job, what would the chorus be about?
- What’s the cheesiest holiday movie moment that still works on you?
- Name the holiday song that sounds best with a whole car singing along.
- What makes a holiday movie a classic, in your opinion?
- How many holiday movies could you watch in a row before needing a walk?
- Which holiday tune would you hum to get through a long line at the store?
- If a holiday soundtrack followed you around, what would play when you walked into a room?
- Without naming the movie, describe your favorite holiday movie scene and let us guess.
- Which holiday song would you happily hear in July?
- Which holiday movie would you show someone who has never seen one?
- What’s the best holiday song for decorating, and the best one for wrapping gifts?
- If this group made a holiday movie, who would play which part?
- Which holiday song could you sing start to finish without the lyrics?
- What would be playing on the radio in your perfect holiday kitchen?
Winter fun
Snow days, cold walks, sledding hills and warming up afterward.
- What’s your perfect plan for a surprise snow day?
- What’s the coldest place you’ve ever been, and what did you wear?
- Which winter sport would you try if you had a free lesson tomorrow?
- What’s your secret for staying warm on a freezing walk?
- If you could name this year’s first big snowstorm, what would you call it?
- What would you pour into a thermos for a long winter walk?
- What’s the most fun you’ve had in the snow as a grown-up?
- Where would you go for a winter vacation if you could leave tomorrow?
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- What’s the first thing you do when you come in from the cold?
- What’s your favorite sound on a cold winter morning?
- Which winter activity looks easy but turned out hard when you tried it?
- If you had a winter cabin anywhere, where would it be?
- What winter skill could you teach someone in five minutes?
- What’s the best winter walk you’ve ever taken, and where did it go?
- If you ran a winter festival, what would be the main event?
- What’s the best thing you’ve ever slid down a snowy hill on?
- How do you handle the commute on a snowy workday?
- Which winter animal would you be for a day: a polar bear, a penguin or a snowy owl?
- What winter memory from long ago still makes you laugh?
- If your town held an ice sculpture contest, what would you carve?
- What’s the best board or card game for a long winter evening?
- What’s your honest opinion of shoveling snow?
- What does a perfect winter Saturday look like, from breakfast to bedtime?
- How can you tell winter is finally over where you live?
- Which outdoor winter game from your younger days would you play again today?
Frequently asked questions
How many Christmas questions are there?
There are 150 questions, 25 in each of six categories: traditions, food and treats, gifts, decorations, movies and music, and winter fun. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Are there Christmas games for couples?
Yes. Christmas would you rather is a two-player game on one phone, with festive dilemmas you each pick in secret before both answers appear. For planning the season together, Christmas date ideas has outings, baking and cozy nights in for two.
Can we use these at a work holiday party or a family dinner?
Yes. Every card is about traditions, food, gifts, decorations, movies, music or winter weather, with nothing personal or private in it. Coworkers can start with Food and treats or Movies and music, and a family dinner table often enjoys Traditions most.
What should we play after Christmas questions?
Try would you rather questions. Instead of open questions, each card offers two made-up choices, so the whole room can answer at once with a show of hands and then hear the reasons.