How2Day: Christian Games for Christmas Parties With 9-Year-Olds

There are many Christian-themed Christmas games that you can create for children and adults to enjoy together. Nichola Evans/Photodisc/Getty Images
For Christians, Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. With the increasing secularization of the holiday, however, it can be difficult to find Christmas-themed games for children that also teach the important lessons from the Biblical Christmas story, such as love and humility. Rather than search stores and the web for such hard-to-find games, create your own Christian Christmas games that are fun for 9-year-olds and yet also highlight important Christian values.

Make several bingo cards with Biblical Christmas symbols instead of numbers. These symbols can be anything that recalls the story of the birth of Jesus, such as a manger, a baby Jesus, the Three Wise Men, a star or farm animals. Tell the children the Christmas story from the Bible, in which an archangel tells Mary to "fear not" the news that she will deliver the son of God. Have each player take a bingo card. Draw pictures that match those on the bingo cards from a hat, calling out the pictures as you go along. When one of the players gets bingo, he calls out "fear not!" instead of "bingo."

Tape a large piece of butcher paper securely to a wall and place a pile of crayons on a nearby table. Have the kids line up in a straight line. When you call "go," the first player runs to the table, gets a crayon and begins drawing a scene from the Bible's Christmas story on the paper. After one minute, call "next." The player must put down the crayon and the next person in line runs up and continues the same drawing. Keep up this process until all of the players have had a chance to add to the drawing. Start again through the line if you need more turns to complete the drawing. Afterward, gather the children and entertain them with a telling of the Christmas story.

Arrange the players in a seated circle. Hand all but one player a paper cut-out of an object relating to the Christmas story, such as a star, manger, wise man, shepherd's crook or angel. The player who does not receive an object is "it" and must stand in the center of the circle. Call out two objects, such as "star" and "angel." The two players holding these objects must run to switch places with one another in the circle. At the same time, the "it" tries to tag either of these players before they sit back down. Once the players are sitting down in their new seats, they are "safe" from being tagged. If the "it" successfully tags one of these two players while he is standing, that player becomes "it" and hands his object to the previous "it," then takes his turn chasing the next two kids after you call our two new items. If the "it" kid does not tag either of the players in time, he has to continue to be "it" in subsequent rounds until he does tag someone.

Make a mix tape or CD with Christmas songs such as "Away in a Manger," "Silent Night" and "Little Drummer Boy." Play a few seconds of the first song before turning off the music. When a player recognizes the song, he raises his hand to be called on to guess. If he guesses correctly, he gets a point. The player with the most points wins. If nobody correctly guesses the song after a few seconds, play the song until someone raises his hand. You can also play this game with teams.

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