Fill Twixtmas Crimbo limbo lull with 101 pen and paper games

Dozens of games to fill Crimbo limbo lull

Now that we’re fully immersed in the Crimbo Limbo lull, leading British stationery brand, Pukka Pads, has pulled together a whopping list of 101 pen and paper games which are guaranteed to keep all the family entertained for hours.

The presents have been opened, all the turkey has been eaten and you’ve watched the same five Christmas films on loop since the start of December. The family is getting restless, and your Great Uncle is starting to make comments which at any moment are bound to disrupt the house’s festive cheer.

Don’t fear, the team at the leading British stationery brand, Pukka Pads, has pulled together a whopping list of 101 pen and paper games which are guaranteed to keep all the family entertained for hours.

All you simply need is a pen and some paper, meaning that you get to spend some quality time with loved ones having fun away from the screen.

Please note, Pukka can’t be held responsible for any family fall outs that come about as a result of an overly competitively relative.

1. Charades

Charades is great for getting all the family involved. It’s a game where players act out a word or phrase, syllable by syllable, until the other players guess the whole word or phrase.

2. Hangman

A game for two in which one player tries to guess the letters of a word. The other player records failed attempts by drawing gallows.

3. Noughts & Crosses

Another two-player game in which you seek to complete a row of either three noughts or crosses drawn in the spaces of a nine square grid.

4. Sudoku

A game to play solo well known for its brain training capabilities. A puzzle where players insert the numbers one to nine into a grid consisting of nine squares subdivided into a further nine smaller squares, in such a way that every number appears once in each horizontal line, vertical line, and square.

This is one to avoid if you’ve had a couple of Eggnogs!

5. Ddakji

A traditional South Korean game that recently featured in the record-breaking Netflix series, Squid Games. The game is simple, and the aim is for one player to make the other player’s paper tile flip over on the floor. If you do manage to flip your opponent’s card, you get to keep it.

6. Pictionary

Similar to charades but instead players draw their chosen word while the rest of their team tries to guess the word.

7. Word Watch

Wherever you are sitting, jot down as many words as you can see from your surroundings. Game 1: Come up with a short story with the words you find. Game 2: See if you can find a word for every letter in the alphabet. There are endless variations and categories you can come up with.

8. Mash

Predict your future with this simple game intended to determine your destiny by forecasting how many children you’ll have, your job and car etc. All players start by writing MASH at the top of their page and choosing 3 answers to the above listed categories. You then eliminate the different answers by choosing a number and deleting the answer you land on until you’re left with one final option.

9. Stop the Bus

A fun yet educational way to revise vocabulary and practise the alphabet with young children. Players create a table with different category titles such as animals, colours and countries and then chose a letter that the answer to each category has to begin with. Players then have to write down an item in each of the category columns that begins with the chosen letter. The first person to complete their table shouts “stop the bus!”.

10. Squares

It’s as simple as it sounds; this can be played on any scrap piece of paper by simply making as many squares as you can out of a grid of dots. The winner is the one with the most squares.

11. Fortune Teller Game

Similar to Mash but can predict whatever you want to know, your next holiday destination or something simpler like what’s going to be your next Christmas snack of choice, a mince pie or a chocolate…

12. Alien Drawing game

Create unique, yet weirdly wonderful aliens by taking it in turns to draw an alien’s body, legs, arms, face etc. and then folding the paper to keep the design secret as you pass it among the family, until the big reveal at the end.

13. Battleships

Recreate this board game favourite but on a piece of paper, no fiddly game pieces required. Each player draws two 10 x 10 grids, labelled along the sides with letters and numbers.

On the left-hand grid the player secretly draws rectangles representing their fleet of ships. During game the players take turns in making a shot at the opponent, by calling out the coordinates of a square (e.g. D5). The first player to lose all their ships loses the game.

14. Categories

Another grid-based game but this time players have to name objects within certain categories starting with a particular letter of the alphabet.

15. Who am I?

Each player writes the name of a famous person on a piece of paper and puts the names into a hat. Each player then picks a name and without looking places it on their forehead. Players then have to use yes or no questions to guess the identity of their chosen famous person.

16. Number Bulls & Cows

One player, the Chooser, thinks of a four-digit number and the other player, the Guesser, tries to guess it.

17. Blind Drawing

A group will describe their chosen item without revealing what it is - they are also now allowed to see what the ‘artist’ is drawing. At the end of the activity, the team whose drawing is closest to the actual item wins.

18. Finish the Story

This is a fun group activity of storytelling with a twist. This game is best played between 2 to 8 players. The aim is to create a complete story as a team. Going around in a circle each player will contribute one sentence to the story.

19. Balderdash

One player reads out a question to the others. They each write down a made-up, but believable answer and hand it to the person who reads the question. This person then reads out all the answers and the others must guess which is actually correct.

20. Bridges

Build bridges with folded sheets of paper and see how much weight they can hold using random household items like coins or the TV remote.

21. Nim

Super simple but super addictive! Players are challenged to take turns in removing dots from one of several rows. Players start by drawing several rows of dots on a piece of paper. A good start is three rows of 5, 7, and 9 dots.

The players now take turns in crossing out (or erasing) one or more dots from a single row. They must remove at least one dot, and they can remove any number up to the entire row. The first player unable to move loses.

22. Sim

First draw a board consisting of six dots arranged in a hexagon, with each dot connected to every other dot by a line. Players take turns colouring an uncoloured line. The first player forced to complete a triangle in their own colour loses the game.

23. Lasso

Draw a grid of dots on paper. Taking turns players start at one dot, draw a line to any other dot and circle it. Lines must stay within the confines of the grid.

You may only circle a dot that has not yet been used and your line may not bisect any other line. When there are no available moves left, the last person to draw a lasso wins.

24. Unscramble

Write a list of 10 words, but instead of spelling them correctly, mix up the letters and challenge your opponents to unscramble them. The first player to unscramble all the words wins.

25. Words within a word

Write out a long word and set a timer for 3-5 minutes and everyone has to try to find as many smaller words as they can using only the letters in the chosen word.

26. Paper Toss

How many balls of scrap paper can you get into an empty waste bin. It’s as simple as that.

27. Apple Tree

This is a less-macabre version of Hangman, you draw a tree with seven apples instead of gallows.

28. Paper drop

Get a group to sit in a circle, one person stands in the middle of the circle holding a piece of paper.

They must drop the piece of paper and at the same time call out the name of another person in the circle, this person must try to catch the piece of paper with two fingers before it hits the floor.

If the paper hits the floor, they must reveal an unknown fact about themselves before dropping the paper and calling out someone else’s name. If they catch the piece of paper, they keep it and do not have to reveal a fact. The winner has the most pieces of paper at the end.

29. Doddles

Draw any shaped line and your component has to uses the line to make picture.

30. Peaceful War

Draw four squares on each end of the paper to represent your fortress. From there, play rock, paper, scissors to decide who gets to make a move.

For each move, you can draw shields to protect your grounds or draw tanks and other weapons to ‘take down’ each other’s fortress. Let your imagination run wild – this game can literally go on forever.

31. Paper airplanes

We don’t need to explain this one!

32. Alphabet Game

Think of a word for each letter of the alphabet. The fastest wins.

33. Word Square

Draw a 4 x 4 square and take turns calling out a letter. As each letter is called out, players must write it somewhere on their grid. The goal is to make as many four-letter words as possible.

34. Pen & Paper telephone “Gossip”

Everyone draws a picture at the top of their paper and passes the paper to their left. Then each player captions the picture and folds it so only the last sentence shows.

The paper is passed again, and the next player draws a picture to fit the sentence. This continues until the paper is full. The paper is then unfolded to reveal a funny story.

35. Connect 4

Players take turns in marking squares on a grid and the first player to get four squares in a row wins.

36. SOS

SOS is played on a grid of squares of any size, usually 3 x 3. Two players attempt to label sequential squares either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally with SOS.

Once a player succeeds, they take another turn and continue until they cannot create any more.

37. The Name Game

A twist on charades, this time acting out famous people.

38. Flick Football

Create a goal and see how many paper balls you can score in 1 minute.

39. Contour Drawing

Contour drawing is an artistic technique where the artist draws their opponent without taking the pen off the page!

40. Art Director

To begin, the Art Director conceals their sheet of paper from the group and begins to draw a picture bit by bit.

Then, as they continue their drawing, they must instruct the group as to how to draw the concealed picture. The aim is to have the same drawings at the end.

41. Word Ladders

A word ladder puzzle begins with two words and to solve the puzzle one must find a chain of other words to link the two, in which two adjacent words differ by one letter.

42. Scrambled Word Ladders

The same as above but instead you change the letter order.

43. Pangrams

A pangram is a sentence using every letter of the alphabet at least once. Two players have to choose a topic and then try to come up with a sentence before one another.

44. Obstruction

This game is played on a 6 x 6 gris. One player is 'O' and the other is 'X'.

Players take turns in writing their symbol in an empty cell.

Placing a symbol this then blocks all of the neighbouring cells from both players, and this is indicated by shading them in. The first player unable to move loses.

45. 24

Two players each secretly write two numbers between 1 and 10 on a piece of paper. They then simultaneously reveal the numbers and try to reach exactly 24 by combining the numbers using only addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and brackets. The first player to announce a solution wins.

46. Number Countdown

One player secretly writes two large numbers (25, 50, 75, or 100) and four small numbers (from 1 to 10) on a piece of paper.

The other player secretly writes a three-digit target. After revealing the numbers and target, both players then have to try and get as near to the target as possible.

47. Function Game

The Chooser thinks of a rule that converts one number into another. The Guesser then tries to guess the rule by testing it with different numbers.

48. Word Bulls & Cows