PULTEVENT
Christmas dinner table games: 7 ideas to play between courses
Christmas Day in a split-level house in New Jersey. Two tables pushed together and still not quite long enough, sixteen chairs, three of them borrowed from the neighbors. The turkey has been carved and eaten, and there's a twenty-minute gap before the pie while the oven does its thing. On the TV at the end of the room a sentence appears: "This year, someone at this table cried at a car commercial." Everyone reaches for their phone to vote. Cousin Danny slowly puts his down and says, "Okay, fine. It was a very good commercial."
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The long dinner is the heart of Christmas and also its trickiest part. The first half hour is easy because everybody's busy eating. Then come the gaps between courses, when the kids get restless, two uncles drift toward a political argument and the teenagers disappear into their phones under the table.
Short games at the table fill those gaps without anyone having to stand up. Most of them run on a TV or a laptop at the end of the room with PULTEVENT: everyone scans a QR code and answers on their own phone in the browser, no app, and the phones need internet. Each game takes five to ten minutes. Then the phones go face down and the next course comes out.
7 games for the Christmas dinner table
1 True or false: Christmas edition
Statements about the holiday go up on the TV, and everyone taps true or false. Christmas crackers were invented by a London sweet maker (true). Mince pies once contained real meat (true). Electric Christmas tree lights are older than the telephone (false: the telephone came first). The first commercial Christmas card went on sale in 1843 (true).
How to run it. Read each statement out loud for the people without their glasses, and add one sentence of explanation when you reveal the answer.
It's the gentlest start there is. Nobody needs to know anything, and a coin toss wins half the time.
2 Who said it this year
Quotes from the family's year on screen: "I am never hosting again," "Does anyone know how to turn off the smart speaker," "It was a very good commercial." The table votes on who said it.
How to run it. Collect quotes all year in a note on your phone. The best ones are said in passing and forgotten by everyone except you.
It turns the year into a highlight reel, and it's always affectionate because the family chose the quotes together.
3 The wheel decides the toast
Everyone's name is on the guest wheel. Spin it on the TV and it lands on whoever makes the next toast, says one thing they're grateful for or tells the story of their worst Christmas.
How to run it. Let people pass once. A toast that someone was forced into is never as good as one they chose.
Families always have the same three people talking. The wheel gives the microphone to the quiet cousin.
4 Which Christmas was this?
Old family photos from past Christmases: the year of the bad haircut, the year the tree fell over, a grandparent's first Christmas in a new country. The table guesses the year and who's who.
How to run it. Ask the oldest relative to bring the photo albums and scan the best ones the week before. Put the photos in order so the story moves forward.
The oldest people at the table become the storytellers, and the kids find out their parents were once children too.
5 Messages from the ones who aren't here
A brother deployed overseas, a daughter spending Christmas with her in-laws, a godmother in Australia who's already asleep. Their short videos play on the TV while the table raises a glass.
How to run it. Ask for a one-minute message recorded a few days before, and name each file after the person so you can find it fast.
The family feels complete for a few minutes, even when it's spread over three time zones.
6 The table awards
Quick votes from every phone: best dish of the day, first to fall asleep on the sofa, the person who ate the most pigs in blankets, best Christmas outfit. The bars grow on screen and the winners are announced to applause.
How to run it. Put the cook's category first and make sure the cook wins something. Everyone knows it's deserved.
A thank-you to whoever cooked, disguised as a game, which is the only way some cooks will accept it.
7 The washing-up draw
Everyone scans the code and gets a ticket number. The raffle runs on the TV and the draw decides who's excused from the washing-up, who takes the leftovers home and who gets the last chocolate from the tin.
How to run it. Announce it at the start of dinner. People are strangely motivated by a chance to skip the washing-up.
It ends the meal with a laugh and solves the one argument every family has at the end of Christmas dinner.
Played sitting down
Nobody has to leave the table, the pie or the conversation.
Five to ten minutes each
One game per gap between courses, then back to the food.
Grandparents included
Pairs share a phone, and several games need no phone at all.
Each phone in its own language
Guest screens follow the phone's language, handy for a mixed family.
Phones at the table, but only briefly
A lot of families ban phones at Christmas dinner, and I understand why. These games use the phone for a few minutes and then put it away. Say it clearly at the start: phones come out when the game is on screen and go face down when it's over. Most families find the rule easier to keep with games than without them, because nobody's sneaking a look at something else.
"Is this just so you can check the football score?"
"I would never. The score is on my watch."
Where to put the screen
If the TV is in the dining room, you're set. If it isn't, turn the table so one end faces the living room, or put the laptop at the head of the table for a smaller group. For eight people, a laptop screen is big enough. For sixteen, you want the TV. Test it the day before, cable and all, not while the gravy is on the stove.
Grandparents and anyone without a phone
Pair them up. A grandparent and a grandchild on one phone make the best team at the table, because one knows the answers and the other knows where to tap. The wheel, the photos and the video messages don't need phones at all, so everyone plays those in the same way.
The phones need internet, so share the Wi-Fi password at the start of dinner. Put it on a card on the table, the same way you'd put out the salt.
A family with more than one language
Mixed families are common at Christmas: a Polish grandmother, a Mexican father-in-law, an Italian cousin. The screens on guests' phones follow each phone's language setting, so the buttons and instructions come up in each person's own language (the host can switch this off). The questions themselves are whatever you type, so write them in the language most of the table shares or add a translation in brackets.
Pacing the meal
A typical Christmas dinner has four gaps: before the starter, between the starter and the main, before dessert and over coffee. That's four games, maybe five. Don't try to play all seven. Pick the ones that suit your family and leave room for the conversation, since that's what everyone will remember.
If the cook needs the table cleared for the next course, that's your cue to start a game. It keeps people sitting down and out of the kitchen.
Relatives joining from far away
Family in another country can play along in real time. Start a video call on the laptop and share the stage window. They see the TV screen, scan the code from their own monitor and vote in the table awards with everyone else. For a grandmother on the other side of the world, being in the Christmas photo quiz is a lot better than a phone call.
Trying it before Christmas Day
Set it up with the free 3-day demo, no card required. That's time enough to build the true-or-false round, load the family photos and quotes, and try it on the TV one evening with whoever lives with you. The full version is a one-time licence with no subscription, and it's there for New Year's Eve and every birthday after. The price is on pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to play games at Christmas dinner
- 1
In the weeks before, collect family quotes, old Christmas photos and short videos from absent relatives.
- 2
Write the true-or-false statements and the table awards categories on the laptop.
- 3
The day before, connect the laptop to the TV and test it from your seat at the table.
- 4
At dinner, put the Wi-Fi password on the table and the QR code on the screen.
- 5
Play one short game in each gap between courses, then phones face down.
- 6
End with the table awards and the washing-up draw.
FAQ
Won't games ruin the conversation?
Does everyone need a phone?
Can we play without a TV?
Are the trivia facts ready-made?
Can relatives abroad take part?
How much does it cost?
See also
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