Christmas with older teens

[TheThreeHeadedBeast]

We normally do a big family Christmas, which looks very unlikely this year. So thinking Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas day, there will be no cooking, beyond heating up mince pies, we will have cold ham, turkey a big cheese board, masses of chocolate etc.
So how do I keep the teenagers downstairs 16 & 19?
They quite enjoy a jigsaw puzzle, possibly a game of Exploding Kittens (but probably done to death), not really enough of us for Ultimate Werewolf.
Does anyone have any ideas? I'm prepared to spend some money, but not £370 on the Diagon Alley lego set - 4 buildings so 1 each. I would love it though.

My teenagers enjoy Telestrations, it always ends up in tears (of laughter).

Telestrations, good call and we already have it. Haven't played it for ages as well.

Would they enjoy an escape room type game. Compared to a board game they can be a bit pricey for something that you’ll only use once, but it would be a bit different.

The diagonal alley idea sounds brilliant but mad money. Would they work together on a jigsaw? I like to put out a Christmas puzzle in the living room and we tip away at it now and then over Christmas, with visitors sometimes doing a bit while they’re sitting chatting.

A huge thing in our family is a card game called twenty five which we always play at Christmas. It’s simple enough for dc to play from about 6, but can be very strategic as well. It’s a traditional game in parts of Ireland. It can be played for stakes, and in teams, but we just keep track with match sticks.

We have booked to go out for dinner on Christmas Eve with our neighbours (split into separate tables - hopefully will go ahead) then would usually go to my sister or MIL but if that doesn't happen I would cook dinner just for 4 of us then yeah probably a board game and/or a christmas film or tv programme. Mine are younger teens but we like Monopoly (Stranger Things version) but also Christmas version. Would they make a dessert or something? My dd would probably make cookies or a cake. Other thing I was thinking was a Murder mystery game I saw one in Argos xxx

We play a game of Mean Santa. You start with a pile of little presents, some nice, some mean. You take turns to throw a dice.
1 = take a present
2 = unwrap a present
3 = steal a present from someone else
4 = ask 2 people to swap a present
5 = give a present
6 = everyone pass a present to the left

You set a timer, usually about 45 mins. It's great fun, with some presents exchanging hands many times. Loads of ideas on Pinterest (also called the white elephant exchange).

The trick is to wrap something like a toilet roll to make it look like something special. Or a nice box of chocolates in scrumpled news paper. My teens love it.

An escape room game would be fantastic, just the thing that we all enjoy.
Also love the idea of mean Santa, that could be very successful, will have to start thinking about possible presents.
Will also be doing a jigsaw, as going to hobbycraft anyway and they normally have a good selection.
Card games another good idea, wonder if they would be up for nomination whist as well.
Thank you, feel that this could work well.

I'm actually looking forward to it the more I think about it. More relaxed and not the usual rushing around trying to fit everyone in & always someone driving. Why don't you ask the teens to be in charge of the after dinner entertainment and they could source games - come up with ideas as well xx

Do you have a dog? We will all be going on a long dog walk after breakfast- perhaps you could borrow one!
We will just have soup and a roll for lunch, then board games and a film in the afternoon, and our Christmas dinner in the evening.
We are going out for a meal on Christmas Eve - fingers crossed 🤞

Thinking of buying Christmas Monopoly this year, think my teens will love it

Mean Santa works well if everyone goes to Tesco/charity/pound shop in the month before and buys 5 small things priced 10p-£3, making sure to include one really cool thing, and one really crap thing.

I remember a particularly memorable year where we were desperately fighting over one present that was cunningly disguised as a candle (Old candle box) but was in fact a single solitary SCENTED sanitary towel

@TheThreeHeadedBeast
I spotted these 3d Diagonal Alley jigsaws and thought of this thread

wizards wheezes
olivanders
slugs and jiggers
madam malkins

We introduced a version of mean Santa about three years ago and it has worked brilliantly with older teens. I did all the shopping and made sure we had about 3x presents for the amount of people there. So, 5 people is 15 presents, 10 people is 30 etc seemed about the right number. Presents ranged from 50p to about £4, with most being £1-3.

We just played that a 1 meant you could take a present then a 6 meant you could steal. It worked really well, fairly short lived but everyone really enjoyed it and it caused much laughter and competition.