Christmas Anagram Challenge

Christmas Anagram Challenge

This game takes some preparation, but cutting out the letters is quite therapeutic amidst all the hustle and bustle of Christmas! With a bit of thought you can tailor the game to suit anything from one child to a large family group of mixed ages.

A family group game:

You will be dividing your players into teams, either keeping age groups together (children in one team, parents in another, and grandparents in a third, for example) or mixing up ages and abilities. You will need to play how you will split your teams in advance and find a container or envelope for the clues and letters for each team.

Print out our Christmas anagram challenge. Choose a selection of words for each team. If you have mixed up ages, you might like each team to have the same words. If you have different age groups playing together, you can give the easier words to the children and the harder words to the adults. The more words you include, the more difficult the game. Each team should have the same number of words.

For each word you have chosen, print and cut out the appropriate letters and clue card. Put them into the team's container as you cut them.

Hand the clues and letters to the team, tell them how many words they must make, and challenge them to find them as quickly as possible.

We have 28 words and clues in our Christmas anagram challenge - enough to play comfortably with 4 teams using 7 words each. One card appears twice - once with UK spellings and once with US spellings.

Variations:

Play with one child or a small group of children:
Give each child a word and a clue and ask them to solve the anagram. Gradually build up to harder words.

Make it a puzzle rather than a game:
Pass some time with your child by giving them a number of words and clues and just letting him / her work out the answers. Start with 3 or 4 easy words.

Make a file folder game:
Instead of the clue cards, find and cut out a picture of an angel, stocking, tree, reindeer and so on. Stick the pictures to a file folder and ask the child to find the right letters and spell out each word. For younger children you could draw the correct number of blank boxes to help them, or even stick on the first letter.

A much harder game:
Simply jumble up the letters and don't provide clues. Tell the team how many words they should find in total.

A racing game to play with children:
Give each child the letters for the same words - perhaps 3 or 4. Call out the clue (or even the word itself) and the children must race to spell it out with the correct letters.