If you haven’t been living under a rock, you’ve probably seen an episode of Jeopardy at some point. I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands. It’s one of the most watched shows on TV, and I’ve meant to get around to creating my own version of the game before but just never had the chance. This year is the year! This Christmas Jeopardy game is played just like the actual game show except no real money is involved. And if you’re not super familiar with how the game is played don’t worry, I’ll break it down for you in this post! This would be a really fun addition to any sort of Christmas party whether you need office party games, games to play with students in a classroom (I have a version that’s good for teens!), or just something new to do with your family! It’s one of my new favorite Christmas party games! You could even pair it with this Christmas Family Feud game, Christmas danger words, and/or some Christmas minute to win it games for the ultimate Christmas game show showdown! That sounds pretty magical if I do say so myself.
DIY Jeopardy Board
The first thing you need to do is create a Jeopardy board of some sort. In the past when I’ve played, I’ve done things like written numbers on a chalkboard and just crossed them off as questions were asked or drawn numbers on a foam board so that I could take it with me. This time I thought it would be fun to have everything look actually like the Jeopardy screen and be able to take the questions down when they were answered, so I made a post-it note Jeopardy board. Did you know you would print on post-it notes? I figured this out about a year ago and have been obsessed with doing it since. I created a set of printables for you to create your very own post-it note Jeopardy board at home if you want, complete with Jeopardy categories that go with my questions and answer sets.
How to Make A Jeopardy Board
Start by printing out a copy of the blank Jeopardy printouts sheet (the one with the boxes). You can print as many as you want or just one and use that one over and over again (like I did). Then you’re going to add just standard 3×3 post-it notes to the boxes, sticky side down. You can use whatever color post-it notes you want. I just happened to have a couple of a bunch of colors, so I went with the rainbow look! Then put that paper back into your printer, making sure to load it correctly so that the post-it notes will be printed on. And make sure your post-it notes are all pressed down firmly so they don’t get caught in the printer. Print the first sheet of values and they’ll print right on top of the post-it notes. Repeat for the rest of the value sheets and the category cards that go with the game you’re playing. Hang all of those post-it notes either up on a wall (they won’t hurt the wall), on a foam board, or like a chalkboard or white board. If you want to do daily doubles on the post-its, you could also add a star or something under the post-it before you put it on the wall, but I didn’t want to write on mine so I can reuse them. And that’s it, you have your Jeopardy board all ready to go! When you’re ready for Double Jeopardy, just take down the categories (all of the value post-its will already be gone) and setup your Double Jeopardy board. I actually recommend just setting them both up on separate foam boards (or you could do one on one side and the other on the other side) so that when you’re ready for Double Jeopardy, you can just pull up that board!
How to Play Christmas Jeopardy
Depending on who you’re playing this with, there are a couple of different ways you could use these Christmas Jeopardy questions and answers.
1 – Divide into teams
The first thing you need to do is figure out your group size and the logistics of how to play with your group. If you’re playing with a small group or a medium group split into teams, give each team a buzzer. I recommend having teams rotate who is manning the buzzer every question or every few questions so everyone gets a chance. Or just have the buzzer available to the entire team and anyone can buzz in for the team. I love these buzzers because they make different sounds so it’s easy to hear which one buzzed in first (since we’re not as professional as the actual game show).
Start the Game
Start the game by reading the $200 question in the first column on your board (it might be different depending on how you laid out your categories). The first team to hit their buzzer gets to answer the question. If they answer correctly, they win the money for their team AND they gain control of the board and get to choose the next question. If they answer incorrectly, they lose the value of the question from their score and the other teams can then buzz in (the buzzing from the original question asking doesn’t count – they have to rebuzz) to try and answer the question. Teams only get one chance to answer the question and they don’t have to guess (since they’ll lose points if they answer incorrectly). If a team doesn’t buzz in within five seconds, no one gets to answer and you can tell them the answer to the question and the person who was previously in control of the board would choose another question.
Continue Playing
Whoever answers the question correctly wins control of the board, which means that they choose the next question. They have to choose both a question category (e.g., Movies) AND a value that they want. Remove that-post it note from the board once it’s asked so that people know which questions have not yet been answered. That’s why I love the post-it note Jeopardy board, it allows people to see quickly what’s left. Read the question that corresponds with the value and category they chose (e.g., Movies for $800) and start the process again – whoever buzzes in first and answers correctly wins those points. Keep going until you’ve gotten through all of the questions in the initial Jeopardy round then setup the board and play Double Jeopardy.
Daily Doubles
If you’d like to use Daily Doubles, there are daily doubles indicated in the questions and answers for each game set. If someone choose a question that is a Daily Double only they will be participating in the question (this doesn’t work great for large groups but is good for small and medium ones!). The contestant who chose the daily double chooses how much money they’re going to wager on the question. They can wager any amount of money (in increments of $200) up to the amount of money they currently have. So if they have $2000, they can wager anywhere up to $2000. If they have $10,000 they can wager up to $10,000. That person gets asked the question and if they answer correctly in five seconds, they win the amount they wagered. If they get it incorrect, they lose the amount they wagered (and yes, you can go negative).
Final Jeopardy
The last part of a game of Jeopardy is called Final Jeopardy and it’s one single question. While I have included this in my game sets, it’s totally optional if you actually want to do it or not! I don’t recommend doing this for a large group of people just for the sake of time and having to go through individual answers. For final Jeopardy, you are going to read players the category only. Once you read them the category, they should write down how much they want to wager based on the category. They can wager up to the amount they have in their bank! Once they’re written down their wagers, read them the question and give them one minute to write down their answer to the question. Play the Jeopardy theme song music here if you want to spice things up! When the time is up, tell them the answer of the question and see what people answered and what they wagered. If they got the question correct, they win that amount. If they got it incorrect, they lose that amount.
How to Win Jeopardy
The winner is the person at the end of all three rounds with the highest number of money earned. Or if you’re playing with teams, the winner is the team with the most points. Don’t forget to give the winning player or team a prize – everyone loves prizes!
Christmas Jeopardy Questions and Answers
I’ve created two complete Christmas Jeopardy games complete with questions, answers, daily doubles, and final Jeopardy questions. One set is a little easier (though the questions can get challenging as you get to higher value questions) while the other is designed to be a bit more challenging. I think they’d both be good for teens or adults, probably not great for kids. I’m not going to list all 60 questions and answers here, you can download those at the bottom of this post, but here are a couple of examples of the Christmas Jeopardy questions and answers you’ll find in the download.
More Christmas Games
If you like this Christmas Jeopardy game, make sure to check out these other fun Christmas games!
Candy cane games – 10+ different candy cane games, perfect for having your own candy cane Olympics!Saran wrap game – wrap prizes and coal card challenges in layers of saran wrap then play to unwrap! Christmas charades – a Christmas version of a classic party game!Gift exchange games – creative ways to change up your gift exchange this year!Christmas kisses trivia game – a fun game that’s great for a big group no matter what age!
Download the Christmas Jeopardy Game
Enter your first name and email address in the form below to get the printable PDF. You will receive a link to download the PDF to your email within minutes. If you’d prefer to not provide your email, you can purchase a copy in my shop here! If you do not see the form, click here to get to it. If you do not see the email immediately after you fill out the form, make sure to check your promotions, spam, and junk folders! As a reminder, the PDF will include:
DIY Jeopardy Board printables and instructionsAdult (more challenging) Jeopardy game with 30 questionsTeen (less challenging) Jeopardy game with 30 questions Final Jeopardy and Daily Double Questions for both games
