Christmas is so much fun especially when it’s infused with a shot of fun games that the whole family can play. That’s why Christmas Jenga is the perfect holiday game to play. You have to work together as a team, it’s not uber competitive, it’s fun and pretty quick start to finish.
I love board games (and backyard games!) but I have learned that my family is not about to bust out a game of Settlers of Catan on Christmas day.
I might have tested this theory with a plethora of minute it to win it games on Christmas day. What happened?
About half way through my nephew lost interest to want to return to playing with the toys he received on Christmas day. Figures! Lesson learned, my minute to win it games are a hit at Christmas parties, but don’t even think about those on Christmas Day. Leave a comment below if you are interested in the minute-to-win-it games.
Enter, Christmas Jenga! We played a couple times on Christmas, and even after Christmas since my nephew loved it so much. Adding the actions and rules to the tiles gave it a fun twist he had not played before. Plus watching toddler push ups in the cutest thing in the world.
How to Make DIY Christmas Jenga:
Not to brag, but I consider myself a bit of an expert, one of our most popular posts as been Drunk Jenga. But obviously, not kid approved.
The best part about the way I created this version of holiday Jenga is that you can reuse it, use it for a Jenga Drinking Game, or for just a regular everyday jenga, with a twist.
What you need for Holiday Jenga:
- Jenga game
- Chalkboard Paint
- Paintbrush
- Chalk or Chalk Pens (these are my favorite chalk pens) **Chalk pens are permanent**
You can also opt out of this method and simply color direct onto a Jenga game with colored sharpies or felt pens. That’s the most economical option.
If you want to make this a DIY jenga that is reuseable, this method works the best. Super important to note, it’s resusable if you use chalk, if you opt for the chalk markers, like we have, it is permanent.
I used this chalkboard paint, the game took such a small amount of paint, I’ve now found that I love this paint for tons of other uses. I started reusing those pasta jars, adding a chalkboard label for kitchen storage and spices too.
If using regular chalk, make sure it’s shaped so it has a fine tip to allow you to get all your print onto the tiles. I like these fine tip chalkola white markers. They also come in handy for my recycle storage container project above. I also use them to write fun sayings on the windows when doing activities or hosting events.
Most importantly your Jenga game. There are many of these available, both online and at local retailers.
Instructions to make Christmas Jenga:
Apply the chalk paint to one side of each of the Jenga tiles. After each application, allow the paint to dry for an hour. Since the paint was going onto wood, I applied 3 applications of the chalkpaint to the tiles.
After the final coat, let the paint cure for 24 hours.
Christmas Jenga DIY: Step 2
After the paint has cured you, you can now write and draw the steps to each tile.
Christmas Jenga Tiles:
- Thumb War
- Cookie Time, we know there are always cookies around at Christmas!
- Tickle Me, tickle the person who pulled the piece
- Chicken Dance, you might find yourself teaching the next generation this humiliating wedding dance song.
- Joke, tell a joke!
- Sing a Song, sing a Christmas song!
- I need __________, fill in the blank.
- Rule Time, make a rule to be followed for the rest of the game
- Toast, make a toast
- Arm Wrestle
- Skip, skip your next turn
- Story Time
- Naughty or Nice
- Moo-Cow, make the sound of a cow
- Tell a secret
- 2 Truths, 1 Lie
- Floss
- Talk in an accent
- I’ve been ______________
- Put it back, that’s right, put the tile back where you found it
- Truth
- Thumb War
- Phone Off
- Name the reindeer
- Pull Another
- Christmas Movie, name your favorite christmas movie
- Put on Gloves, at winter time there’s always a pair of gloves around to make it just a bit harder.
- Push ups, the group can decide how many
- Dare
- Rhyme Time, the person who pulled the tile will say a word, and going around in a circle, say a word that rhymes with it, for example, rhyme, prime, time, slime, lime
- Worst Gift, what’s the worst gift you could get?
- Last to blink, staring competition!
- ________________, a tile of your choice
- Selfie, take a group selfie
- Whistle
- Twerk
- Silent x 2, silence to the player who pulled this tiel for the next 2 rounds
- Ho-ho-ho, laugh like santa clause
- Ask a question, everyone must answer
- 30 sec shake
- What’s your Christmas tradition?
- Cartwheel
- Change directions
- Hugz, give everyone a hug!
- Lefty’s, play with your left hand from now on
- Twirl
- 3 shouts
- Your out 🙁
How to Play Holiday Jenga
If you are knew to the game of Jenga, don’t worry the rules are pretty simple. There are only 3 rules to remember when playing Jenga:
1. The person who sets up the tower goes first.
2. You can only play with 1 hand. You may knock tiles to test before choosing which tile to remove from the structure. After the tile has been removed from structure, then place it on top. You cannot remove a tile from the top 3 rows.
3. The last person to take a tile before it falls is the winner!
” Robert Grebler, at one time a licensee of Jenga, built the tallest Jenga game in 1985 with over 40 2/3 levels. “
Did you make Christmas Jenga? Have another tile idea that was a hit? Leave it in the comments below.
Christmas games are so much fun! After you have put together your Holiday Jenga, also check our other Christmas games, 20 Christmas “Would you Rather” Questions games, and left right gift exchange game.
Check out our Christmas Games Lists:
