• Games can relax guests at a holiday party.christmas-tree and christmas gifts image by Maria Brzostowska from <a href='http://www.fotolia.com'>Fotolia.com</a>
  
  At a holiday party, games can get guests in a festive mood and encourage mingling between strangers. As you plan a holiday party around Christmas, choose games that will have guests moving, mixing and chatting with each other. Make changes to games to suit your party theme and guests' personalities.
  
  

Match the Guest

• At parties where guests will not know each other well, create a matching game. Before the party, ask each guest to email you a baby or childhood photo. Print out each photo and pin to the wall. As each guest arrives, take pictures of each guest and place on the wall beneath the baby photos, in random order. Throughout the party, guests can try to match the adult photo to the childhood photo, which will encourage discussion and spark conversations and laughter.
  
  

Carol Relay

• Combine Pictionary with a relay for an active, funny game. Divide party guests into two teams and give each team a cup with slips of paper containing the names of Christmas carols; make sure that each team has different songs. Place stacks of blank paper and the cups on two chairs and have the teams sit facing them. The first person must come up to the chair, pick a slip of paper, and draw a picture that represents the Christmas carol in order to get their team to figure out the song and sing a line. Then, the next person goes. The first team to finish wins, and guests will have a good time trying to concentrate and sing over the commotion of the other team.
  
  

Gift Unwrapping

• Have guests unwrap a challenging gift to create a funny party game. Depending on the number of guests at your party, wrap three or four boxes in many layers of wrapping paper. On the back of each layer, write an activity or command. Split the guests into teams and instruct the first person to tear off the first layer of wrapping paper and perform the action inside. You might instruct the guest to sing a favorite carol, perform a quick Christmas jig, kiss a member of their team on the cheek, or do five push-ups. Then, the next guest goes, and so on, until the first team to reach the empty box wins the game.
  
  

Snowman Tag

• For a game that lasts throughout a party, play snowman tag. Make a snowman out of paper and place a piece of double-sided tape on the back. Have a family member start the game by discreetly sticking the snowman to a guest's clothing as they arrive. When the guest finds the snowman, he or she must place it on another person without being seen, and so on. This game is fun for parties with children, who will follow the progress of the snowman and giggle as guests realize where it is.