Christmas Word Scramble

Christmas Word Scramble
Supplies: Sheet with scrambled words, pens, fast thinking

Take common Christmas or Holiday items and scramble up the letters of the words on a document and print. Then have guests try to figure out what the Christmas / Holiday word is. Change this up and use Christmas Songs, Christmas Movies or even cartoons to make the Word Scramble a little different.

DIY Christmas Word Scramble – Version 1
Place 15 – 20 Christmas item word scrambles on a page. Depending on how difficult the words are give your guests 3 or 5 minutes or play until the first person brings the completed sheet to the host.

FYI – Make sure people continue to play while the host checks to see if the 1st person to hand in their sheet got them right. If yes, the Win and if not then the next person has a chance to win.

Examples:
Christmas tree = scahmrtis reet
ornament = narotnem
wreath = etwrah

To extend the Christmas Word Scramble game or have more rounds – create several word lists based on:
Things people do during the holidays – Like: shopping, caroling, baking, gift exchange,  wrapping, decorating…
Or use the suggestions of Christmas Movies and Songs from above.

Christmas Word Scramble – Version 2
Once your guests have arrived, randomly divide them up into groups of two or three. Pick numbers from a hat or just name team, the goal is to mix everyone up so people meet each other.

Now give each team a sheet of paper with the Christmas Party name on it and let them know that they will have 5, 7 or 10 minutes to come up with as many Christmas holiday related terms by using only the letters found in the letters at the top of the page.

So if you are hosting a “White Elephant Party” or “Jones Christmas Party” or and “Sarah’s Ugly Sweater Party” then place the words at the top of the page. Guests, if played as individuals, and teams can only use these letters to form their words. Words must be at least 4 letters long and the longer the words the higher they score. Guests cannot use the words in the phrase as words in their answers, so if you use the word Christmas then no one can use that word in their words.

Note: You can only use the letter as often as it is used in the name, so if there is only one “i” in “White Elephant party” that is all you can use in a word.

Once time is up, have guests trade sheets for scoring.
Single Words Scoring
4 & 5 letter words = 1 point, 6 & 7 letter words = 2 points, 8 letters = 3 points, 9 letters = 4 points, 10 or more letters = 6 points

Two Word or Longer / Phrases Scoring
8 – 10 Total Letters = 2 points, 11 – 14 Total Letters = 4 points, 15 – 20 Total Letters = 7 points, 21 or more Total Letters = 11 points

Review all words, if something is questionable you must make a ruling to allow or not allow, once done.
Add up all the points and Player or Team with the highest score wins.

* Variation – Want to be really difficult. Play the game for 3 or 5 minutes and then only allow words that no one else write down to earn points! This way if 4 players write down “Christ” as a term, then none of them receive a point. The scores will be lower but it does increase the competitiveness of the game.