Christmas Carol Bingo Cards (Free Printable Song Game)

The word list

Forty carol titles and twenty lines from the lyrics, all from traditional carols that are long out of copyright. Trim the list to the carols your group actually knows, or keep only the titles for a quicker game.

How to play carol bingo

Carol bingo borrows the music already playing in December and makes a game of it. The caller hums, plays or sings a snippet, and the room has to recognize the tune before anyone can mark a square.

1. Hand out one card per guest and choose a caller who knows the old carols, or who has a playlist of them lined up on a phone.
2. The caller plays roughly ten seconds of a carol or hums its opening line. Titles are never spoken.
3. Everyone with that carol on their card covers the square. Lyric squares count as well: if the clip contains the words, it may be covered.
4. A full line, column or diagonal wins. The player calls out "Noel!" and the caller compares the card with the call list before handing over a prize.
5. For a second round try blackout, where every square has to be covered, and let the whole room sing along to each clip.

If your crowd does not know the carols by heart, announce the title after each clip; the game becomes a listening match and the quieter singers relax. The online bingo caller can draw the squares in random order on a screen.

Ways to play with different groups

Choir socials and church suppers

Use the titles only and let the pianist play the first phrase of each carol. Singers know most of them from three notes, so starting in the middle of a verse keeps it sporting.

Office parties

Play recorded carols through a speaker and keep the clips short. The lyric squares let people who cannot name a tune win by catching a familiar phrase.

Families with children

Shrink the grid to 3 by 3 and keep the best-known carols: Jingle Bells, Silent Night, Deck the Halls, Joy to the World and We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Music class

Give each small group one card. After a clip, a group claps the rhythm back or names the instrument they heard, then covers the square.

Tips for the caller

Prepare the clips before guests arrive. A playlist in the same order as the printed caller sheet means you never fumble with a phone while twenty people wait.

Decide how lyric squares are judged and say the rule aloud before the first clip. The simplest rule: a lyric square counts whenever the clip comes from that carol, whether or not those exact words were heard.

Vary the difficulty by where you start the clip. The opening bars are easy and a line from the third verse is hard, so mixing the two keeps keen singers and casual listeners even. Keep a prize for the best wrong answer, which is usually the biggest laugh of the night.

Printing the cards

Two cards per page gives squares roomy enough for longer titles like It Came Upon the Midnight Clear. Switch on ink saver if you are printing a set for a large choir, and use cardstock when the markers will be peppermints or buttons.

Print the caller sheet too. It lists every square in the shuffled order you will call, with a checkbox beside each one, so you can confirm a winning card in seconds.