Top Tips for Hosting Game Nights during the holidays

February 27, 2024

Regardless of the holiday season, special occasions are ideal for bringing people together and having some fun. Whether it’s close family or friends you haven’t seen for a long time, there are plenty of great ways to host a holiday-themed game night.

Game nights don’t have to all follow the same rules and patterns! After all, the point is to simply let your loved ones get the chance to kick back and enjoy themselves.

Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter, here are some top tips for hosting a holiday-themed game night everyone will remember for the right reasons!

Choose games everyone wants to play

We all have different preferences when it comes to our favorite games and what we expect from parties. The way you celebrate Christmas, for example, might be very different from the way your in-laws celebrate!

Take the time to consider the season and think about the games your guests like the best. For instance, if you have a family member who enjoys a bit of holiday gambling, you might want to serve up some fake-money fun with Monopoly or The Game of Life.

Beyond your guests’ different tastes, it’s a good idea to try and set up some board games and party favorites that match the holiday. Could a fun game of pin the carrot on the snowman be in the cards? What about a variation on passing the parcel?

You could get creative with a quiz or two. Why not ask some holiday-themed questions?

Set the atmosphere with decorations

Naturally, one of the best ways to get people in the mood for some holiday games is to go all-out on decorations. If it’s Christmas, you might already have the tree decorated and ready to go!

However, if you’re solely dressing up your home with a game night in mind, think carefully about decorating the different rooms of your home. Consider your main game area, your dining room if people are stopping to eat and drink, and even your bathroom!

A little bit of artificial snow and glitter during winter sets the tone. For Easter, you might prefer to splash some color around with painted eggs — you do you!

Create a theme

Nothing is saying you must decorate your home and theme your game night around the season! Why not make it a speakeasy event and have your guests attend in 1920s attire?

Alternatively, if you’re planning to play video games such as Mario Kart, you could ask everyone to attend as their favorite characters. You could even create some decorations or print off a poster or two to set the scene. Setting a theme isn’t mandatory, but it can help to make game nights more memorable!

Consider a tournament

Tournaments are super fun — especially for those people who love to get competitive. Even if you’re just playing a couple of rounds of Uno, or you have the Nintendo Switch set up and ready to go, you can set up a tournament.

The first thing to do is to think about how many guests you’re inviting over. Is it just a couple of friends, or maybe a few rounds of players? Do you potentially want a knockout event to spice up the competition? You could even announce a prize for whoever comes out as the winner in the end or have prizes at a variety of stages.

Tournament evenings are great fun because you get to see the competitive sides of your loved ones. Hopefully, things don’t get too messy! An argument over who won can occasionally be the staple of family game night.

Get into virtual games

During the pandemic, we all discovered new ways to have fun and socialize from afar. There’s no reason this needs to stop, especially if there are people you want to invite to game night who can’t make it for whatever reason.

Consider hosting a quiz night, for example, with people over Zoom or Google. You could play host, and much like our tournament idea, you could offer prizes for the winners.

Zoom quizzes are likely to be defining moments of this decade. Regardless of the holiday season, you could bring them back and connect loved ones near and far.

Make the holidays all about games!

The holidays should always be about taking time off from work and the stresses of everyday life. For many people, that means playing board games, and card games and spending time with loved ones. Whether it’s Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Easter, or New Year’s, everyone deserves a break once in a while.

So, why not invite a few people over and become the game master for the evening?

Top Tips for Hosting Game Nights during the holidays