Christmas Activities and Games for Seniors
December is the easiest month of the year to plan for older adults and the easiest to overdo. Everything on the calendar is festive, everyone wants to visit at once, and a resident or a parent who loves Christmas can still be worn out by it. The ideas here are paced for that: a few good sessions a week, each with something to do with the hands and something to talk about.
The printable part is 46 large print Christmas word searches across nine pages, from 10×10 grids of short words up to 18×18 grids for people who find most puzzles too easy. They are set in Atkinson Hyperlegible, a typeface designed for low-vision readers, and every PDF has its answer key as page two. Print and photocopy them as often as you like.
Christmas sheets for a mixed group
The middle of the range, for a table where most people enjoy a puzzle. Each page has its own word lists, so a room can work on different sheets without anyone finding the same words twice. The carol and film sheets double as the start of a conversation, because nobody finds WHITECHRISTMAS without saying something about Bing Crosby. For a room that does not all celebrate Christmas, the December and Hanukkah sheets cover the rest of the month.
Gentler sheets for in-room visits and tired afternoons
Fewer letters and words that run across and down only. The easy Christmas page uses 10×10 and 12×12 grids at about 33-point type on the smallest size. The nativity and Advent puzzles are built from words most people have known since Sunday school, and that familiarity makes them easier than their grid size suggests.
For the residents who want a proper challenge
Every activity room has two or three people who finish a standard puzzle before the coffee arrives. These are for them: longer words hidden in all eight directions, still printed large.
Christmas activities that work for older adults
A carol singalong. This is still the most reliable session of the season. Print the words in large type, keep to carols everyone knew as children, and sing them in a comfortable key, not the original one. Hand out the carol word search while people settle; finding SILENTNIGHT in the grid tends to start the singing on its own.
A Christmas film afternoon. Pick one film from the residents' own decades rather than a recent one, and show it with subtitles on and the volume up. An interval halfway through for tea is not an interruption, it is half the point. The Christmas movie word search covers the films, their stars and their characters, so it works before or after.
Baking or decorating cookies. Even people who no longer cook enjoy icing a biscuit, and the smell of baking does a lot of work in a room. Ready-made biscuits and tubes of icing keep it safe and quick. For the people who would rather watch, the Christmas Kitchen puzzle on the main Christmas page covers the same ground: SHORTBREAD, PLUMPUDDING, the ROLLINGPIN.
Writing Christmas cards together. This is an underrated session. Many older adults have sent cards to the same people for fifty years and are anxious about falling behind. Bring cards, stamps and a good pen, and offer to write while they dictate. It gets a real job done, which is worth more than most activities.
An old-decorations table. Ask families for one old ornament each, or bring a box from a charity shop, and lay them out to pick up and talk about. Glass baubles, paper chains and tinsel from a particular decade tend to bring out stories that a quiz never would.
Christmas games for seniors
Keep games team-based, so that nobody can be wrong in front of the room. Christmas bingo with pictures instead of numbers, called slowly. A finish-the-carol game, where the host sings the first line and the room sings the next. Name that Christmas film from one well-known line. A puzzle race with two tables working on copies of the same word search and the first table to finish choosing the next carol.
For a gentler version of any of these, take away the clock. A puzzle race without a winner is just a table finding words together, and for a lot of people that is the better game anyway.
Christmas with a parent or grandparent at home
If you are hosting an older relative rather than running a room, the most useful thing is a quiet place to go. A chair away from the noise, in good light, with a puzzle and a cup of tea, gives someone a way to step back without it looking like they have left the party.
Print a few sheets before the day and leave them where they can be found. A grandchild and a grandparent finding words in the same grid is one of the few activities that works across eighty years of age difference, and the easy Christmas sheets are pitched so both of them can manage it.
Plan the day around the person's usual rhythm. Lunch at the normal time, a rest in the afternoon, and visitors spread across the week instead of all arriving at once are more welcome than a bigger celebration.
Christmas for someone living with dementia
Familiar beats new at Christmas more than at any other time. Decorations from the person's own past, carols they knew as a child and the same few traditions every year are easier to enjoy than a houseful of new things. Flashing lights and very loud rooms can be unsettling, so keep at least one room calm and lit normally.
For puzzles, the nativity and carol word searches are the ones to try first, because the words are decades old. Cross off half the word list before you hand it over, read the rest aloud together, and treat finding three words as a good result. There is more on adapting puzzles on the word searches for dementia patients page.
Planning December in a care home
December fills up quickly, so it is worth deciding early which sessions matter most and protecting them. A workable rhythm is one music session, one hands-on session, one film or story session and one puzzle table a week, with the printables changing as the month goes on: Advent sheets for the first weeks, the main Christmas and carol sheets for the middle, and the 12 Days of Christmas for the quiet week between Christmas and New Year.
For the rest of the year, memory care activities lays out a printable calendar month by month, and activities for nursing home residents covers mixed groups where only some residents are living with dementia.
Frequently asked questions
What are good Christmas activities for seniors?
A carol singalong, a classic Christmas film with an interval for tea, decorating biscuits, writing Christmas cards together, a table of old decorations to talk about, and large print Christmas puzzles. A few good sessions a week work better than something every day.
What Christmas games can elderly people play?
Team games where nobody is singled out: picture bingo, finish-the-carol, name that Christmas film, and puzzle races with two tables working on the same word search. Take the time limit away for a gentler version.
Are these Christmas printables free for care homes?
Yes. Every Christmas word search on this site is free to download, print and photocopy in any quantity, with no sign-up or licence. The answer key is page two of every PDF.
Which Christmas puzzle is easiest?
The easy Christmas word search: 10×10 and 12×12 grids of short words that run across and down only, printed at up to about 33-point. The nativity and Advent puzzles are a good next step, because the words are so familiar.
How can I make Christmas easier for someone with dementia?
Keep to familiar traditions, decorations and carols, keep one room calm and normally lit, spread visitors out across the week, and keep meals and rest at their usual times. Short, familiar activities with no right or wrong answer, such as a carol or a simple puzzle done together, work best.