No one will feel left out with these Reindeer Games! These 10 Reindeer Games are perfect for Christmas Parties and family fun! My kids and I came up with these fun Christmas Games that all kids and adults will love. We didn’t even need a special occasion to play them either- because there is very little prep involved, we just played them one Saturday in December when we were all home!
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Reindeer Games for Christmas Parties and Family Fun
1. Reindeer Ring Toss
Reindeer Ring Toss is the most fun of all the games we played! You start by putting one person in reindeer antlers. Next we needed to make candy cane rings to throw around the antlers. It is important that they are soft, of course, so we used red and white pipe cleaners and twisted them into large circles.
After you have your candy cane rings and your reindeer wearing his antlers, it is time to start taking aim! Depending on the height difference of each participant, we had to do some bending and moving around to try to catch the rings on our antlers, but that just added to the level of fun! The Reindeer Ring Toss was a big hit and definitely our favorite Reindeer Game!
2. Reindeer Hide and Seek
This Reindeer Game can be played as a daytime or a nighttime game. If you play during the day (inside or out), the people who hide have to wear antlers when they hide. With some of the taller pairs, it’s hard to hide them! But a Christmas game that would be even more fun would be Rudolph Hide and Seek at night! You can use flashing antlers or flashing noses to hide in the dark or even better? Add some of the famous fog that Santa talks about with a fog machine!
3. Reindeer Says (Simon Says)
Simon Says is a simple direction following game. But you can change it to a Christmas version of Simon Says by calling it “Reindeer Says”. The person who is the “Reindeer” giving the directions has to wear antlers!
4. Reindeer Tag
You can play this as a regular game of tag or freeze tag. Just have the person who is “it” wear reindeer antlers! =)
5. Reindeer, Reindeer, Rudolph (Duck, Duck, Goose)
Santa is looking for Rudolph to fly his sleigh! If you have a Santa Hat, the tapper could wear it and be Santa. The people sitting in the circle could wear antlers. Or just have the tapper wear the antlers, there are truly so many different variations of this game!
And I would feel remiss if I didn’t explain the game on the off chance there is someone who has never played Duck, Duck, Goose before! The simple version is the children sit in a circle. One person is “it” and they walk around the circle and tapping the players gently on the head. With each tap, the child says “Duck” or “Reindeer” in this case. When they get to the player they want to chase them, they tap them and say “Goose” (or “Rudolph” for this game). That person runs around the circle trying to tag the original player until they get back to their spot. Whoever gets to the empty spot first gets to stay there. The person who didn’t make it, gets to wear the antlers, be “it” and walk around the circle tapping other people. There is an added level of a “mush pot”, but we usually skip that part with little kids.
6. Race to Rudolph (Red Light, Green Light)
This is definitely an outside game or a place with lots of running room! One person stands at the end of a room or lawn wearing reindeer antlers. They call out “Green Light” when they want the other players to start walking toward them. When the players start to get a little close, the reindeer calls out “Red Light” to get them to stop. They continue this pattern until one person reaches them and tags the reindeer. The winner now gets to wear the antlers and call out the colors. Everyone else goes back to the beginning and starts all over again. (Want to kick it up a notch? Have the “red light” be Rudolph’s flashing nose!)
7. Hide Rudolph
Hiding and finding a stuffed animal Rudolph with a blinking red nose would not only be a fun Reindeer Game, but it would also make for fun Christmas dramatic play! The kids could be the other reindeer or even Santa as they look for Rudolph and ask him to “drive their sleigh tonight”.
8. Rudolph Relay Race
Divide up into teams. Stand across from each other in a line. Take your stuffed Rudolph and balance it on a long wooden spoon (or even your head!). Walk as quickly as you can without letting Rudolph fall! If he falls, you have to go back to the starting line and try again. When you reach the other side, tag another member of your team, transfer Rudolph and let them have a turn! The first team to get through every player wins!
9. Hot Reindeer (Hot Potato)
This is a classic! Start by having the kids sit in a circle, knee to knee. Turn on some upbeat Christmas music and have the kids pass a stuffed reindeer around as if he is “hot” to the touch and they don’t want to hold him (or get stuck with him) too long! Next, stop the music at random times and whoever gets stuck with him is out. Truth be told, I often skip that part. Or I let the person who is out be in charge of the music so no one feels bad. But depending on the age, some kids don’t mind at all!
10. Flying Reindeer
We all know that without reindeer, Santa wouldn’t be able to get around the world in one night! ;) So for our last reindeer game, it’s time to see which reindeer flies the farthest! You can launch the reindeer any way you want- ranging from a water balloon launcher to scoop ball tossers to just launching them through the air with your hand. Make it a competition by grabbing some masking tape and a Sharpie Pen and record how far each reindeer flies! Add an educational element by grabbing a tape measure or a yard stick and measuring which reindeer flew the furthest!
There you have it! 10 easy Reindeer Games! They are all based on classic childhood games, but when planning a Children’s Christmas party, how could you resist playing “Reindeer Games”?!
Got any to add? Comment below!
How does one fine a reindeer game with hoops?