How do I prepare and use Christmas I Spy party sheets?

What the Christmas I Spy pack includes and what you draw yourself

The sheets give guests a Christmas picture to study while they wait, for example before dinner. Younger children count objects, and readers look for smaller details. The pack does not include a finished illustrated puzzle. It gives you 13 easy questions, 13 harder questions, blank answer spaces, both answer keys and a team score sheet. You draw the picture.

For a dinner-table wait, Christmas activity placemats are another option. The scramble, jokes and would-you-rather questions are ready to use as text, while the reindeer dot-to-dot, maze and coloring border are optional extras you would draw yourself.

The pack's print button prints the page you see. It does not generate an illustrated puzzle. Other Party Whammy picture packs, such as the Halloween or Thanksgiving picture-search packs, are separate activities with their own contents. Don't expect them to match this one.

Draw a crowded Christmas picture that matches the answer key

Start with a 7-by-9-inch drawing frame and divide it into nine boxes with light pencil lines. The grid helps you spread objects across the scene. The answer-key totals apply to the whole picture, not to each box.

Sketch a room with a fireplace, couch, table, windows, a door wreath and several Christmas trees. Add an icy outdoor area for the penguins and snowmen. Overlap a few objects, but leave enough of each one visible to recognize and count it. Don't let the edge of the frame cut off so much of a counted object that players can't tell what it is.

Follow the key exactly instead of repeating every object several times. For example, draw seven candy canes on the trees and one more on the wreath. Draw six stars on wrapping paper and one separate star in the lower-left snowflake pattern, because those questions count different things. Draw five snowmen with scarves and put seven buttons across just two of them. The snowman with no carrot nose goes beside the sled. For the clock question, draw several clocks, set all but two to the same time, and write down where the two different clocks are.

Use the answer key as your drawing checklist

These counts and hiding places are drawing targets. They only work as an answer key once your finished picture matches them. If you change a count or a hiding place, update the question and the key together, and note the change on your host card.

• Host card: write where the two different clocks are.
• Host card: write where the other two mice are.
• Host card: note any changes to counts or hiding places.

Fit the picture and questions on the page and print

Put a name or team line at the top. Label the left column Easy: count and write and the right column Harder: find the details. Leave an answer line or box beside each question. You can print the blank answer spaces from the pack or copy them into your own layout. Black-and-white line drawings work for this activity. Copy paper or card stock will both do, but check that your printer accepts the paper you choose.

Printing works like other party games: count the players or teams, write down how many copies you need and keep host material separate. Our guide to printable party games covers that, but you still need to draw this pack's picture yourself.

Play and score two team rounds

Teams of three share one picture, one question sheet and one pencil. If you have only two guests, they can play individually or work together. For a larger group, make the teams as even as you can. The suggested ages are 3 to 10, with spoken help for younger children.

For the original mouse tiebreaker, teams need different pictures. They swap pictures and race to point to a mouse in the other team's scene. If everyone has the same picture, call it a shared win instead, because searching a picture you already know isn't a fresh challenge.

Example: planning a game for nine children

Illustrative example: nine children are playing. That number includes the birthday child and a sibling who joins in. The adults who are staying aren't playing, so they aren't counted. Nine children in teams of three makes three teams.

Start from who is actually coming, then mark who will play. The party guest-list planner helps you confirm attendees, including siblings and who is collecting each guest. Once you know the players, work out teams and copies.

Team play needs one set per team plus two spares, so print 3 + 2 = 5 sets. If the same nine children played individually, you would print 9 + 2 = 11 copies. Suppose one team gets 11 of the easy answers and 9 of the harder answers right. Their score is 11 + (9 x 2) = 29 out of 39.

Use the I Spy sheets while guests wait

You can take copies to a restaurant, on a flight or to a holiday dinner. Skip the scoring and stop whenever you need to. For a child who isn't reading yet, read one question at a time or let them look for just the large objects. Older guests who like a race can share one scene per pair and use the harder questions. Swapping identical copies won't give fast finishers anything new, so draw a second original scene if you want one for them.

For confident readers who finish early, a word puzzle gives them something new rather than the same scene again. Christmas word games in one pack are prepared separately, including a word-search grid, and each player needs a pencil.

Checklist for preparing your Christmas I Spy sheets

You can spread the work across a week. For example, sketch and test a week ahead, ink the picture and print a proof three days ahead, and print the full stack the day before. How long the drawing takes depends on how much detail you add.

Before you commit to drawing, consider the work involved: drawing a scene that matches the key, having someone test all 26 questions, and printing a proof. The week-long schedule above is only one way to spread that work out. If it doesn't fit, Christmas party games for families compares other games by the youngest players, the space needed and the supplies to have ready.

• Draw every object and hiding place in both keys, counting across the whole picture.
• Write the clock and mouse locations, and any changes, on the host card.
• Have someone answer all 26 questions using the finished picture.
• Label the easy and harder columns and leave space for answers.
• Check a printed proof for cut-off edges, details that are too small and questions that are hard to read.
• Print one copy per guest plus two spares, or one set per team plus two spares.
• Cut off any answer strips and keep the host key separate.
• Put out sheets, pencils and a timer (if you're scoring) before guests sit down.

Sources and further reading

• Christmas I Spy party sheets

Related questions

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