Christmas Would You Rather: The Family Game

Christmas would you rather is the simplest game you'll play this December: two options, one vote, and no sitting on the fence. Read the dilemma, pick a side, and the votes of everyone who played before you show up instantly. It sounds harmless, right up until you have to choose between a real tree that sheds needles until Valentine's Day and a flawless fake one you've been dragging out of the garage since middle school.

This would you rather Christmas edition gathers 150 dilemmas about everything the season puts you through: the gift you have to love in front of the whole family, the cousin who asks why you're still single somewhere between the ham and the pie, the sweater your grandma knitted two sizes too small that you wear all night anyway, the cookies for Santa you quietly finish at midnight. Some questions make you grin. Others land exactly where it stings, and the best ones manage both. Every dilemma was written so that neither answer is the easy one. If you hesitate, good, that's the whole idea: both options cost you something, and what you're willing to give up says a lot about you.

A Christmas would you rather game that starts in three seconds

No box, no twenty-minute rules speech, nothing to download. Open the page, vote, watch the percentages land. That's what makes it one of the easiest Christmas games for family nights: one person reads the Christmas would you rather questions out loud, everyone commits to a side, then you compare with players around the world. Whole Christmas Eves have hinged on thirty relatives in a tiny house versus three people in a huge one. It doubles as Christmas would you rather for kids: they answer with a confidence that leaves the grown-ups thinking, and every question is safe to read at the table in front of Grandma.

Playing solo works just as well. Think of it as a Christmas this or that with real stakes and no right answers: no score, no timer, just your gut against everyone else's. Finding out you're one of the rare few who would open presents at midnight rather than wait for Christmas morning tells you more about yourself than a stack of personality tests.

Then there's what your answers give away. Eating the exact same Christmas dinner every year for the rest of your life, rather than never tasting your favorite dish again, sums up your whole relationship with tradition. Spending Christmas alone in the city of your dreams instead of with everyone you love in a town you can't stand is how you weigh the people around you. The game never judges. It just hands you a number: this many players think like you, this many don't. You come for the laughs and stay to compare.

Getting the most out of all 150 dilemmas

Start with the gifts if you want quick laughs, keep the family dilemmas for when everyone finally sits down, and save the questions about Christmas magic for late in the evening, once the little ones are asleep. It travels well, too: a few rounds at the office party, a warm-up before the gift swap, a tiebreaker for the ugly sweater contest.

Unlike most games you'll dig out for the season, this one never plays the same way twice. The votes shift every day, and the answer you give tonight might betray you next December. The 80 questions listed below are a first taste of the full pack. Pick one, vote, and let Christmas would you rather do the rest.

80 Christmas would you rather questions

• Get exactly what you asked for, with zero surprises or be surprised by every gift, but never get to ask for anything?
• Give a handmade gift that took you three weeks or give a gift you ordered online that shows up on the 27th?
• Pretend to love a terrible gift in front of the whole family or admit to the whole family that you forgot your mom's gift?
• Get socks every year, but really nice socks or get a different gift every year, but always slightly off?
• Regift something and pray nobody recognizes it or give a gift you bought at a gas station at 10 pm on Christmas Eve?
• Stay up all night on the 23rd wrapping gifts for the whole family or give every gift in its store bag, with no wrapping at all?
• Have a real tree that drops needles until March or have a perfect fake tree you've had for fifteen years?
• Untangle sixty feet of Christmas lights alone, with no music or let someone else untangle the Christmas lights and watch them break three bulbs?
• Decorate the entire house by yourself in one night or let your mother-in-law decorate your house however she likes?
• Have a tree so tall it bends against the ceiling or have a tree so small it has to sit on a stack of books to look bigger?
• Have Christmas lights that blink all night in your bedroom or have Christmas lights that go out the moment your guests arrive?
• Have a tree decorated only by the kids, with every ornament at the bottom or have a tree decorated only by the cat, with every ornament on the floor?
• Cook Christmas dinner for twelve people or wash all the dishes after Christmas dinner for twelve people?
• Have a dry turkey with perfect gravy or have a perfect turkey with no gravy at all?
• Eat the same Christmas dinner every year for the rest of your life or never eat your favorite Christmas dish again?
• Sit down to eat at noon and leave the table at 6 pm or sit down to eat at 8 pm and leave the table at 2 am?
• Have a whole Yule log cake to yourself, but eat it alone in the kitchen or have just one slice of Yule log cake, but at the table with everyone?
• Have unlimited chocolates, but only the ones nobody wants or have just one chocolate, but the one everyone is fighting over?
• Sit next to the uncle who talks politics all through dinner or sit at the kids' table for the whole dinner?
• Tell the whole family about your year or listen to the whole family talk about their year without getting a word in?
• Have an aunt who asks every Christmas "So, are you seeing anyone?" or have an uncle who asks every Christmas "So, does your job pay well?"
• Hear "You've grown so much" for the twentieth year in a row or hear "You've changed" without knowing if it's a compliment?
• Stand up and give the Christmas toast in front of everyone or sit through a Christmas toast about you, not knowing where to look?
• Be the one who takes the family photo and is never in it or be in every family photo, but always stuck in the worst spot?
• Be Santa for one night a year, delivering to the whole world or be an elf all year, making toys but never delivering them?
• Have a flying sleigh you can only use on Christmas Eve or have a loyal reindeer all year that refuses to fly?
• Have Santa read last year's wish list out loud to your family or have Santa stick a list of everything you did wrong this year on the fridge?
• Have to come home through the chimney all of December or have to sleep in the sleigh parked outside all of December?
• Live at the North Pole all year with the elves or live in a postcard Christmas village with tourists every single day?
• Be the red-nosed reindeer, mocked but essential or be an ordinary reindeer, respected but never mentioned?
• Have a snowy Christmas, but be stuck inside the house or have a sunny Christmas far away from your whole family?
• Get snow every Christmas, but always on the 26th or never get snow, but receive a snow globe every year?
• Build a snowman with the kids without any gloves or stay warm inside while the kids beg you to come play all afternoon?
• Walk two miles through the snow to get to Christmas Eve dinner or sit in traffic for three hours to get to Christmas Eve dinner?
• Get snow once a year, but always on December 25th or get lots of snow every year, but never on December 25th?
• Be the one who scrapes the windshield every December morning or be the one who waits in the freezing car while someone scrapes the windshield?
• Spend Christmas Eve with thirty people in a tiny house or spend Christmas Eve with three people in a huge house?
• Open gifts at midnight while fighting to stay awake or open gifts in the morning after a whole night of waiting?
• Have a Christmas Eve party that ends at 10 pm or have a Christmas Eve party that ends at 4 am?
• Show up to Christmas Eve two hours early and help with everything or show up to Christmas Eve two hours late and miss the start of dinner?
• Spend Christmas Eve in matching pajamas, with your aunt posting the photos online or spend Christmas Eve in formal wear and cook the whole dinner in it?
• Be the one who organizes the whole Christmas Eve or be the one who does nothing and gets noticed for it?
• Hear Christmas songs everywhere starting November 1st or never hear a single Christmas song again?
• Sing a Christmas song solo in front of the whole family or perform a dance routine to a Christmas song in front of the whole family?
• Hear the same Christmas song on repeat in every store or hear a different Christmas song every day, sung by your neighbor?
• Know every word to every Christmas song, but have to sing every single time or never remember the words to Christmas songs, but sing really loud anyway?
• Sing off-key at Midnight Mass or sing perfectly in tune, but alone in a silent choir?
• Have a music box that plays all night long or have a kid who learns the recorder just for Christmas?
• Watch the same Christmas movie every Christmas Eve for life or never watch a Christmas movie again?
• Live in a Christmas rom-com, with snow and a happy ending, but zero surprises or live in a Christmas action movie, explosions guaranteed, with no idea if you survive?
• Have snow fall at every big moment of your life, even in summer or have Christmas music start at every big moment of your life, even in meetings?
• Be the hero who saves Christmas in a holiday movie or be the grump who finally smiles in a holiday movie?
• Watch a Christmas movie with your family talking through it or watch a Christmas movie alone and cry the whole time?
• Watch a Christmas movie with someone who knows every line by heart or watch a Christmas movie with someone who asks a question every two minutes?
• Open every door of your advent calendar on December 1st or wait until December 24th to open every door at once?
• Have Christmas twice a year with half the gifts or have Christmas every other year with twice the gifts?
• Have a very long December and a very short Christmas or have a very short December and a Christmas that lasts a week?
• Look forward to Christmas like an eight-year-old, but feel let down every Christmas morning or expect nothing from Christmas anymore, but be pleasantly surprised every year?
• Do all your Christmas shopping on December 1st or do all your Christmas shopping on December 24th?
• Have an advent calendar with a chocolate every day, picked by your aunt or have an advent calendar with a kind note every day, written by your boss?
• Get all your gifts on January 15th or get all your gifts on December 1st and nothing on the 25th?
• Take down all the decorations on the morning of December 26th or keep the tree up until the end of February?
• Go back to work on December 26th or go back to work on January 2nd, along with everyone else?
• Return a gift to the store with your aunt's receipt or keep a bad gift for ten years just to be polite?
• Have a dry tree waiting on the curb all of January or have a potted tree you have to keep alive all year?
• Work at the Christmas market all of December, but never get to taste anything or visit the Christmas market every night, but never get to buy anything?
• Have a tiny Christmas market right outside your door or have the most beautiful Christmas market in the world, three hours away?
• Buy an overpriced hot chocolate after waiting in line for 45 minutes or get a lukewarm hot chocolate, but with no wait?
• Walk the whole Christmas market without buying anything or buy something at the first stall without checking out the rest?
• Get stuck alone at the top of the Christmas market Ferris wheel in the freezing cold or get stuck at the top of the Ferris wheel, nice and warm, with a very chatty stranger?
• Wear the same ugly Christmas sweater to every December party or wear an elf hat all of December, even at work?
• Buy your Christmas Eve outfit that same morning, at the only store still open or wear last year's Christmas Eve outfit, the one everyone already saw in the photos?
• Wear an itchy Christmas sweater that everyone loves or wear a super soft Christmas sweater that everyone thinks is ugly?
• Wear Christmas socks with bells that jingle with every step or wear matching Christmas pajamas with the whole family, photo included?
• Be overdressed on Christmas Eve or be the only one in sweatpants on Christmas Eve?
• Have believed in Santa until you were eighteen or have never believed in Santa, not even at four?
• Be the one who tells your little brother the truth about Santa or be the one who lies for ten years to keep the Santa secret?
• Explain to your nephew how Santa gets in without a chimney or explain to your nephew why Santa has the same handwriting as Mom?
• See Santa just once, with no proof or have a photo of Santa that nobody believes is real?
• Believe in Christmas magic, but lose all common sense in December or keep your common sense, but never get that magical feeling from a Christmas tree again?