Music games for Christmas and New Year's Eve (all ages)

Christmas is the one time of year when a six-year-old, a moody teenager and Grandad end up on the same sofa for hours. Music is one of the few things that works across all of them: Grandad knows Bing Crosby, Mum knows Wham!, the kids know Ariana Grande, and the moment someone hums half a chorus, the competition starts. Below are ten music games we've played at family gatherings, each with what you need, how it works and who it suits, plus tips for Christmas Day versus New Year's Eve and a list of Christmas songs with the years double-checked, so nobody can argue with the quizmaster.

Three ground rules

• Mix the teams. Never "kids vs grown-ups". Put every generation on every team, so the older players cover the 60s and the younger ones cover the last ten years.
• Short rounds. Four ten-minute rounds spread across the day beat one hour-long marathon. Between rounds people eat, clear up or open presents.
• One person runs it. Pick a host who controls the music, settles disputes and keeps score. Without one, every song turns into a debate.

10 music games for the family

1. Name that tune (with buzzers)

• You need: a screen with speakers and players' phones, or a Spotify playlist and something to buzz with (a bell, a spoon on a glass, a squeaky toy).
• How it works: a clip plays; the first to buzz names the song. Right answer, one point; wrong answer, you're out for that song.
• Best for: everyone aged eight or so and up. This is the backbone of the evening.

We play it with Track Attack: the TV plays the clips and everyone buzzes from their phone after scanning a QR code, with nothing to install. The first to buzz gets 20 seconds to type the song; a wrong answer costs a point while the music keeps going for everyone else. You can load any public Christmas playlist from Spotify or paste a link. If you'd rather run it by hand, our guide on how to host a music quiz at home covers the pen-and-paper version.

2. Hum it

• You need: slips of paper with well-known song titles and a bowl.
• How it works: a player draws a slip and hums the song, no words allowed. Their team gets 30 seconds.
• Best for: older relatives and screen-free afternoons. Small kids find terrible humming hilarious.

3. Song and year (the timeline)

• You need: a playlist spanning several decades and paper to note the years, or a game that does it for you.
• How it works: each player starts with one song and its year. A new song plays and you say whether it came before or after; as your line grows, you say where it fits. Get the slot right and you keep the card.
• Best for: wide age ranges, because the older players own the 60s and 70s and the younger ones own the recent stuff. It's the game where everyone is most evenly matched.

Track Attack has a "Song and year" mode that works this way, and the board game Hitster uses the same idea with printed cards and its own app, which plays the songs through Spotify. If it clicks with your family, read our music timeline game strategy.

4. Finish the lyric

• You need: a playlist of big sing-along songs.
• How it works: the host plays a song and cuts it dead. The team has to carry on singing the next line. Close enough counts.
• Best for: teens and adults; with carols, grandparents too.

5. The word game

• You need: nothing.
• How it works: someone calls a word ("snow", "love", "night"). Teams take turns singing a bit of any song containing it. Five seconds of silence or a repeated song loses the round.
• Best for: the long stretch after Christmas dinner, any age, no screens.

6. Musical statues

• You need: a speaker and floor space.
• How it works: dance while the music plays; freeze when it stops. Anyone who moves is out and becomes a judge.
• Best for: kids aged three to ten, and any adult brave enough. Ideal for burning off energy before pudding.

7. Song charades

• You need: slips with song titles.
• How it works: like film charades, but with songs. Fingers for the number of words; no singing or humming.
• Best for: all ages. Younger children can act out nursery rhymes or carols.

8. Three-second intros

• You need: a playlist of songs with instantly recognisable openings.
• How it works: only the first three seconds play. If nobody gets it, play three more, for half a point.
• Best for: the know-it-alls. Use it as the tie-breaker.

9. Whose song is it?

• You need: every guest sends the host, before the day, one song they loved at about 15.
• How it works: the song plays and everyone guesses whose it is. Then that person tells the story of where they used to hear it.
• Best for: bringing generations together. The grandkids find out Nan was a disco queen; Nan discovers what her granddaughter actually listens to.

10. Music bingo

• You need: bingo cards with 9 or 16 song titles (handmade or from a template) and a shuffled playlist containing those songs.
• How it works: a song plays and anyone with it on their card crosses it off. Lines and full house, as usual.
• Best for: people who don't want a speed contest. Slower buzzers love it.

Christmas Day isn't New Year's Eve

On Christmas Day the table rules: don't make people get up. Pick seated games, with paper or the TV in view, and avoid knockout formats, because a kid eliminated in the first minute gets bored and causes trouble. The crackers are out anyway, so put a forfeit in each one for whoever comes last.

On New Year's Eve there's a clock. Plan a 45-minute tournament with a final that ends before the countdown, and keep the singing and dancing games for after midnight, when nobody wants to think. If you need floor-fillers everybody knows, try our list of 80s songs everyone knows.

Christmas songs that work in a quiz

The year is the original release of the song, or of that particular recording as a single. We checked every one.

Two traps for year rounds: "Driving Home for Christmas" first came out in 1986 as a B-side and was re-recorded and released as a single in 1988, so accept either. And Boney M.'s hit is a cover: Harry Belafonte had the original "Mary's Boy Child" in 1956.

A nice UK bonus round: Slade and Wizzard went head to head for Christmas number one in 1973, and Slade won. Ask who got there first.

Carols (title-only rounds, no year): "Silent Night", "O Come, All Ye Faithful", "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", "Deck the Halls", "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", "Jingle Bells".

For New Year's Eve:

And "Auld Lang Syne" after midnight, obviously, whether or not anyone knows the second verse.

One tip: don't make the whole playlist Christmas songs. Twenty festive tracks in a row get old fast. Make roughly one in four festive and the rest hits from across the decades.

Grandparents and kids in the same game

This is the real challenge. What works for us:

• Handicaps by age, not by skill. Under-10s can answer with a line of the lyrics instead of the title. Over-70s can name the artist instead of the song. Agree it up front and nobody complains.
• Grandparent–grandchild pairs. The child handles the phone or the buzzer; the grandparent supplies the answer. The child feels essential and the grandparent doesn't wrestle with a touchscreen.
• Decade rounds. One round of 60s, one of 2010s. Each generation gets its moment.
• Big text. If you use the TV, make sure it's readable from the sofa; on paper, write titles in large capitals.
• Watch the volume. Many older people struggle to hear over background chatter. Quieten the room during each clip rather than cranking the music up.
• Silly prizes. First pick of the chocolates, skipping the washing-up, choosing the film. Money spoils it.

Common mistakes

1. Songs that are too hard. If the host knows every track because they're "their" songs, everyone else switches off. Test the list on someone from another generation.
2. Clips that start on the chorus. Far too easy. Start on a verse or the intro.
3. Not testing the sound. The Bluetooth speaker dropping out mid-game is a classic. Try it in the afternoon.
4. Playing hungry or rushed. Games come after the main course, not before.
5. Dragging it out. Stop while people still want more, and they'll ask for it next year.

Prepare two or three of these games and a well-mixed playlist and your evening is sorted. For more round ideas, have a look at our music quiz theme ideas.