Keep Your Christmas Party Lively

With the arrival of the Christmas season comes many well-known Christmas festivities-caroling, shopping, and Christmas plays, just to name a few. It is also during this time of the year that many people decide to throw their annual Christmas parties, filled with food, friends, and lots of laughter. Besides the regulars of wassail and gingerbread and all of the other traditional treats of a Christmas party, here are a few fun ideas for activities while you snack during your party.

1) Decorate a gingerbread house. Whether you choose to grab a pre-made house and all chip in a few gumdrops or if you decide to all make mini-"gingerbread" houses with graham crackers, you are guaranteed a good time. Even if you or your guests get frustrated while trying to get the goodies to stay together with the icing, you'll still have plenty of laughs and icing to lick away from your fingers.

2) Play Christmas Carol Charades. Have fun and include traditional caroling songs, along with newer versions of Christmas songs, such as those from today's pop artist's Christmas albums. Put all of the song titles into a stocking and have different team members draw one before attempting to act out the song title.

3) Actually go caroling. Make sure your guests are appropriately bundled up to face the weather outdoors, print off several sheets of song lyrics, and you're ready to go. Try to go to houses with lights on inside, as these will most likely have people within who will enjoy your cheerful caroling voices. You may wish to bring along a few flashlights, just in case the porch lights aren't strong enough for everyone to read the words on their lyric sheets by.

4) Have a Christmas cookie decorating contest. Supply your guests with a variety of color icings/glazes and smaller candies (like mini-mnm's or nerds) to work with. Prizes could go to the most creative, best looking, and best tasting cookies.

5) Act out the Christmas story. Give your guest a few limited, random props that you can easily find around your house, such as a broom, dish pan, and teddy bear. Split the guests up into groups of two or three and tell them to act out the Christmas story using all of the props in their production. Award prizes to the most creative performance or to the performance that elicits the most laughs from the audience.