to wonder what Christmas day games I could get my teenagers to 'play'

[catshavefeelings]

Two of each sex, aged 15 to 20. I'd really like to get them doing something other than xbox and texting their mates.

AIBU to think they'd join in with games? Need some inspiration.

goldplated I mean!

Indoor cricket.

All you need is a box of matches, a knitting needle and a ping pong ball.

The box of matches is the wicket, needle the bat.

Divide everyone into 2 teams.

Hit the ball with needle is 1 run.

Hit any furniture is 4 runs.

Hit a wall 6.

Ball hits match box = out, ditto caught by fielder.

Need someone to keep score

Totally addictive, and got very competitive in our house. All ages joined in and will be passing on this tradition to our dc as soon as they are old enough

My step teenagers love our Christmas Day game. Loads of v.cheap pressies (Poundland. Stuff mainly) wrapped in put in a big sack. Each person takes turns to roll a dice - get a 6 and you pick and unwrap a present. Roll a 1 and you get to take a present off someone else. Thought DH was going to cry last year when he lost his candy canes for the 3rd time and DSS2 was desperately trying to persuade everyone to take an enormous pair of granny knickers from him!

kahlua each person picks another player, an object and a location out of three hats. You kill that person wth that object in that location.

For instance, I kill you with a banana in a doorway by either touching you witha banana or getting you to hold it. Or...I kill you by making you laugh in the bathroom. If you then have to kill Jane in the kitchen with a hairbrush - once you are dead, Jane becomes.my target.

If I kill you, and your task was to kill me, we both die and are out.

We play it every year on holiday (about 15 of us - can take days!!)

Articulate. Best game ever, so competitive and high pressured

Recently bought THe Cube board game for DH for Christmas day hijinx. I think it will be loads of fun. It was on special at WH smiths, I think?

Centre - I am SO doing that this year!

Guesstures

Simple one from our kids' school fair :

Fill a large deep bucket or washing-up bowl with water then carefully place a £2 coin in the bottom, in the centre. Everyone takes it in turns to drop pennies in and if they can land on top of the £2 coin they win it.

At the end we split the money inside between the little ones.

It is very hard to do and the older ones spend ages trying!

You just need to get some smaller cousins to jump on the incessantly with a whingey "Please, come and play, pleeeeeasecomeandplay, comeandplaycomeandplaycomeandplay...."

Twister everyone loves Twister! Even got my 84 year old Grandma to take part last year!

That's a brilliant link NotSpartacus, thanks! I'm now planning a game of snapdragon!

Original solar trader,

brilliant and you can add christmas commodities on squares around the board, such as the best chocolates in the box, so there are extra incentives.

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=solar+trader+board+game&hl=en&sa=X&tbo=d&biw=1167&bih=591&tbm=isch&tbnid=XRqYgZP-8tmlvM:&imgrefurl=boardgamegeek.com/image/42128&docid=gseUftFPqvRsAM&itg=1&imgurl=cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic42128_md.jpg&w=500&h=323&ei=wSXNUOHhBaTL0AX-tYCACA&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=4&vpy=290&dur=114&hovh=180&hovw=279&tx=91&ty=133&sig=116641978831872238702&page=1&tbnh=148&tbnw=241&start=0&ndsp=19&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:124" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">good fun at any age

goldplated, thank you for the explanation. I understand now and we will certainly be playing this year.

I've been teaching our older mindees some games we used to play as teenagers:
Murder in the Dark (they love that one!)
Killer (you sit in a circle and the Killer has to wink at people without being spotted - those winked at cross their arms over to show they're dead)
Heaven and Hell (another circle game: players are called Heaven, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 1, 2, 3 etc and lastly Hell. Heaven starts by calling "Heaven to ", John responds "John to ?" and the game carries on until someone slips up. They become the new Hell and everyone moves up to the vacated position and game starts again).

Not really a Christmasy game but still a good one. You all stand in a circle and one person is in the middle. The person in the middle walks up to someone and sings 'it is a very sad and solemn occaaaaasssssiiiioon, is it not brother ' To which the person sing replies 'yes it is brother .
If the person smiles or laughs, they are out. Repeat until everyone is out.

Also, splat. Where you stand in a circle and there is one person in the middle. The person in the middle puts their fingers like a gun and shouts 'splat' at someone. That person bobs down and the two people at either side 'shoot' each other and shout splat. The one that is last to shoot is out and sits down. Its really hard when there's only a few people left and you have to figure out who to splat. Then you're left with two people and they have a shoot off. They stand back to back, walk 5 paces and stop. The person that was originally in the middle shouts 'shoot' and the people turn round and shoot. The one who shoots first is the winner.

We play the wii, well everyone else does and I watch. We are all now adults so drink lots throughout the day so it's more amusing than normal.

We play Monopoly - but we scheme. People form hidden alliances and make pacts (sneak off to the kitchen together or whatever. Pass hidden notes. Have secret signs.)

It can last (glorious) hours!

beer pong :o

Shot roulette. Mum used to let us play this from 16+

Mum makes up a few shots in the kitchen. Some are just juice, pop or alcohol. The worst on there is a shot made up of 3 different alcohols or one shot of absinthe.

I'm the oldest so have been playing this longer then my brother's.

Last year me and my bother had a shot competition after dinner so about 3 pm.

Ticket to Ride
Articulate
Boggle (my brother hates that one!)

No to scrabble, trivial pursuit and monopoly.

Articulate - gets harder the more you drink.

Bop it, if you put it in party mode you can everyone joining in

A few years ago my younger brother got Lego Create-It board game for christmas. Me and my sister aged 18 and 25 (at a guess at that time) played it all night after he had gone to sleep. Something similar might work. We are still partial to playing with lego whenever it is around though.

Last year we had our teenage nieces over, who are going through that 'God you so-called adults are soooooooo embarrassing I can hardly bear to make eye contact with you' phase.

We got out the Wii and Just Dance 3. Cue almost-instant silliness - and great exercise!

Playing poker & roulette for chocolates also goes down well, as does Botticelli (which sounds like the Rizla game mentioned above).

I love the sound of Killer :)