Office Christmas Party Games: A Ready 30-Minute Plan for Teams

Good office Christmas party games have a tricky job to do. They need to work for people who barely know each other, for colleagues who don't drink, for the quiet ones and the loud ones, and they need to fit between the food and the speeches. This guide shows you how to run Race to the Table, a quick print and play party game, with a whole team, how to use it to settle real team decisions, a ready 30-minute plan and a bonus list of icebreakers that need no materials at all.

Why a short card game works at a work Christmas party

• It is fast. A game takes 5 to 15 minutes, so it fits into a lunch break or between courses.
• The rules start with "The game in 1 minute". Nobody has to sit through a long explanation.
• It works for big groups. Up to 10 players can join, and with 7 to 10 people you play in teams.
• It is inclusive. No drinking, no performing, no trivia that only one department knows. Everyone plays the same cards.
• There is a little bit of mischief. You can push someone else's pawn back, which gets people laughing very quickly.

How the game works

Each pawn carries one written choice, originally food (pizza, sushi, grandma's soup…). Cards push the pawns from START towards THE TABLE.

1. Everyone writes one choice on a paper pawn.
2. On your turn you hold 3 cards. Play 1 and do what it says to any pawn, yours or someone else's, then draw back up to 3.
3. Cards include Rush! (move 2), Smells Yummy (two pawns move 1), Long Queue (back 2 spaces), Closed! and Shortcut; the full edition adds more, such as Road Works and Taxi!.
4. After every round the clock moves one space. When it reaches the red space, the pawn furthest ahead wins.
5. If a pawn reaches THE TABLE, the game ends at once.

Playing in teams (7 to 10 players)

With 7 to 10 players, split into teams. Each team has one pawn, one hand of cards and one turn per round. Teammates take turns choosing the card and may talk it over quietly, and that short huddle is where most of the fun (and the team-building) happens. For a whole department, simply run more than one game side by side.

Office Christmas party games that settle real decisions

The pawns don't have to be food. You can write any choice on them, which makes the game a light-hearted way to decide things the team keeps putting off. A few ideas:

• Where the team lunch in January will be
• Which charity the team supports this year
• Which game you play next at the party
• Who picks the music for the rest of the evening
• Which film goes on for the team movie afternoon
• Which Christmas activity you do together (secret Santa, a quiz, a walk to see the lights)

One rule tip from the game is worth taking seriously at work: only write options everyone can live with. The game's decision is final, so leave the controversial ones off the pawns.

A ready 30-minute plan

Set aside some time the day before to print and cut the game. You need a printer, thick card (250–300 gsm), scissors, a little tape and a washable marker for the pawns.

1. Minutes 0–5: Set up. Lay out the board, shuffle the cards, form teams and hand each team a pawn.
2. Minutes 5–8: Write the pawns. Each team writes its choice, for example a lunch spot or a charity.
3. Minutes 8–10: Explain. Read "The game in 1 minute" from the rules aloud. Hold up a card or two as examples.
4. Minutes 10–25: Play. One game takes 5 to 15 minutes. If the first one ends quickly, play a rematch with new choices.
5. Minutes 25–30: Announce the result. Read the winning pawn aloud, take a photo of the board and move on to food or speeches.

If you want more ideas for grown-up gatherings, our main guide to Race to the Table and Christmas party games covers family and friends' parties too.

Bonus: quick icebreakers with no materials

For the first few minutes, while people are still arriving, these need nothing but voices:

• Two truths and a festive fib. Each person shares three Christmas facts about themselves; the others guess the fib.
• Best and worst present. Everyone describes the best and the strangest gift they have ever received.
• Christmas would you rather. "Would you rather spend Christmas on a beach or in a snowy cabin?" Go round the room.
• Line up. Without talking, line up by how early you put up your Christmas tree.
• One-word review. Each person sums up their year at work in a single word.
• Christmas charades. Act out a Christmas film, song or tradition without words while the others guess.
• Hum that carol. One person hums a Christmas song; whoever names it first hums the next one.
• Christmas A to Z. Go round the room naming one Christmas word for each letter of the alphabet. Whoever gets stuck starts the next round.

Free or full edition?

The free edition has 27 action cards, the Lunch Break board on two A4 or US Letter sheets, 6 write-on pawns, Closed tokens, a clock marker and 8 pages of rules with "The game in 1 minute". The full edition (€4.90) has 63 cards, including 8 role cards with special powers such as the Boss, the Foodie and the Gossip, plus six boards, among them Christmas Feast and The Big Decision.

Free print & play Full edition · €4.90

A few cards, a paper table and a handful of colleagues: that is a Christmas party people will actually talk about on Monday.

The files are for your own family, or for your own class or group if you are a teacher or group leader. Small printed parts are not suitable for children under 3. The photo scenes are AI-generated.