Christmas bingo cards
Forty squares that actually happen at Christmas, so every card has something to mark before the pudding. 40 squares are loaded below — enough for more different cards than anybody will ever print — and you can replace any of them with your own.
The cards
Christmas bingo
Card 1 of 2 B I N G O Tin of chocolates Candy cane Batteries not included Paper crown Leftovers sandwich Nativity scene Silent Night Sleigh Somebody falls asleep Fairy lights Tangerine Wrapping paper everywhere FREE Robin Christmas cracker Jingle Bells Nuts nobody eats Cheese board Wreath Sellotape lost Carol singers Gingerbread man Sprouts Bad cracker joke Brandy butter Christmas bingo
Card 2 of 2 B I N G O Bad cracker joke Fairy lights Sleigh Somebody falls asleep Turkey Wrapping paper everywhere Walk after lunch Wreath Tangerine Repeat on television Christmas tree Advent calendar FREE Pigs in blankets Jumper with a reindeer Batteries not included Leftovers sandwich Sprouts Carol singers Candy cane Roast potatoes Gift receipt Cheese board The King’s speech Nuts nobody eats
Call sheet
Already shuffled — call them in this order, top to bottom, and tick as you go.
- Somebody falls asleep
- Turkey
- Jingle Bells
- Sprouts
- Roast potatoes
- Board game argument
- The King’s speech
- Fairy lights
- Carol singers
- Brandy butter
- Paper crown
- Stocking
- Tin of chocolates
- Nativity scene
- Walk after lunch
- Robin
- Christmas tree
- Candy cane
- Wrapping paper everywhere
- Batteries not included
- Sleigh
- Sellotape lost
- Reindeer
- Gingerbread man
- Repeat on television
- Bad cracker joke
- Tangerine
- Bauble
- Jumper with a reindeer
- Christmas cracker
- Mince pie
- Gift receipt
- Leftovers sandwich
- Cheese board
- Nuts nobody eats
- Snowman
- Wreath
- Silent Night
- Advent calendar
- Pigs in blankets
What is on these cards
Forty squares, split between the things you see and the things that happen. Half a bingo card of decorations is a card that is either marked in five minutes or not at all, so the list runs from the obvious — a tree, a wreath, a candy cane — through the food, and out into the parts of the day everybody recognises and nobody puts on a card: the cracker joke that lands badly, the tin of chocolates down to the coffee ones, somebody asleep by four.
Every square is something that can genuinely be called or spotted. That sounds obvious until you have played a version where one player holds a square nobody can ever mark, which turns a twenty-minute game into a twenty-minute wait for them.
You can replace the whole list. The box below is editable, so a family with its own traditions can put those in instead — one item per line, and the generator will use exactly what is there.
Playing it around a Christmas table
Two ways work. As a spotting game, everybody takes a card in the morning and marks squares as the day happens, which runs quietly in the background and needs no caller. As a called game, one person reads squares off a list at random after lunch and it is over in fifteen minutes.
For the spotting version, drop the free centre square: it makes a five-in-a-row far too easy when the marks accumulate all day anyway. For the called version, keep it — it gives everybody a shared start and it is what people expect.
With more than about eight players, print the cards before the day rather than during it. Thirty cards is a minute of printing and a long time to be standing at a printer while everybody waits.
Printing christmas bingo for a group
A five by five card takes 24 of the 40 squares here, so no two cards draw the same set — more different cards than anybody will ever print in all. Set the number to the number of players and print once, and "Christmas tree" will land in a different square on every card, or not appear on it at all.
Every card is checked against the ones already made, so thirty christmas cards means thirty different ones. If the list were ever too short for the number requested, the generator would say so and name both figures rather than quietly repeat itself.
The print stylesheet drops the page furniture entirely, so what comes out of the printer is christmas bingo cards and nothing else — no header, no navigation, no advertisement — two cards to a sheet unless you ask for one or four, and the call sheet last.
Common questions
How many Christmas bingo cards can I make?
As many as you have players. The forty squares here can make more different cards than anybody will ever print, so every player gets a genuinely different one — the generator checks for duplicates rather than assuming.
Can I use my own Christmas squares?
Yes. Edit the list in the box, one item per line, and generate again. Nothing you type is uploaded — the cards are built in your browser, so a list of family in-jokes stays on your own machine.
What size should Christmas bingo cards be?
Five by five for adults and older children, which is the size everybody recognises. Three by three or four by four for younger children, both of which finish much faster and need far fewer squares filled.