Zombie Dice does have the expansion with Santa Claus in it -which would make it holiday themed 
We sing Jingle Bells - badly. The men do it (including all the boys - plus my daughter because she’s the only girl) for the women. They wear Santa hats and sing VERY badly. Its a hoot.
We pile in the car, crank up the Christmas music and go look at Christmas lights. Kinda like what That Don Guy suggested.
When I was younger and didn’t have kids, we would all wait until 12:01 a.m. Christmas Day to open gifts, even into my late 20s. It wasn’t so much that we couldn’t wait until the next day, but we had a really good time talking.
We’ve also had the same dinner for 20+ years. It’s kind of a pain in the ass, though - takes 3 of us all day to make the damn thing. It tastes awesome, though.
I adore this!
One we did is just for the immediate family is the Advent chain. On December 1st my parents and brother and I sit around after dinner cutting strips of red and green construction paper (about an inch wide along the short edge of the paper) then laboriously begin making them into alternating links (with tape or a stapler) until we have a chain 25 links long. We would hang it over the wide archway to the dining room and every night before bed my brother and I would take turns snipping off a link ceremoniously. By the night before Christmas you’re left with one link, which I assume Santa takes with him or something. I forget.
Very enjoyable thread. I think I’ll buy Christmas crackers this year and start a new family tradition! Any recommendations on nice ones? Or are they all similar? I’m near Chicago, if that helps.
Right off the bat I thought of bowling, with everybody wearing their most over-the-top Christmas sweaters. Sounds like fun.
Play the board game Aggravation. I defy anybody, no matter how drunk/staid/mad-at-somebody they are, to not at some point leap out of their chair and yell “Noooooo!”
We like it.
As board games go, Pictionary was always popular with our family. It moves reasonably quickly, allows for variable numbers of players, and is suitable for a large range of ages/skill levels. We also always really enjoyed Jenga.
If you have a decent number of people, it’s probably worth going online and finding the ones where everyone gets a whistle and a bit of sheet music, and you can all play a song together. Fun even if it doesn’t work!
As far as traditions, I like the “pickle gift” Christmas tradition if you don’t mind your tree getting worked over. You get a pickle ornament (and they come in different sizes, ie. difficulty levels), hide it somewhere in the tree, and whoever finds it gets the extra gift you’ve bought for the purpose. Usually we buy something weird for it.
I agree. Or you can sing non-carols, too. Maybe doing some rounds.
Christmas Follies? to follow spoons (Could be fun!) (use special spoons, not the everydays)
Direct your guests /players to bring a prop, bad hat or granny dress, snorkel and fins…
y a know…
claim to play an instrument bring that too!
Put on 30 sec skits, ala martin short or crazy comic
sing your heart out, embarass the kids,
tell silly jokes, puns, give ityour best shot. Everyone laughs!
Anna Quindlen once wrote about how her family took turns reading a chapter of Dickens’s Christmas Carol. Some deep-voiced male always got the first chapter: “Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that…”
I’m not sure if that would work for the kids, though.
Or maybe you could just sing Christmas carols?
Once we outgrew gifts “From Santa,” my mom started to get silly with the gift tags. The year she gave me a video of “Pretty in Pink,” the From was “Ugly in Blue.” Or when she gave me “Fresh Lilac” perfume, it was From “Stale Roses.” It’s always fun to try to guess from the From what the gift is. She’s better at it than I am; she always figures mine out!
And there was a gift box that she’s been using since my brother was a baby that finally bit the dust last year (at 41 years old, it did pretty well). It was shaped like a toy soldier/nutcracker.
We have played “see some” since the kids were little, the trick is drive around [remember in Australia it is summer] and the first one to spot some christmas lights and yells “see some” gets a bit of chocolate or lolly. Silly, pointless but lots of joyous fun.
How about a jigsaw puzzle?
I know, right?! 
In my family we go for a hike after opening gifts - it gets the kids out of the house, burns up some of the late morning/early afternoon, works up appetite for dinner, and when we get home checking out new toys and gifts is exciting again instead of having the “is that it??” attitude they have right after opening presents. We are in CA so maybe wouldn’t work everywhere with true winter, but we go even if it’s raining.
Since my parents died, our family tradition is to ignore Christmas altogether. And that is a much happier tradition than before.
Chinese food, then go to the movies?
Sicks Ate and Dendarii Dame, a jigsaw puzzle is a great idea. We used to do them as kids and loved it, and it would be something people could do passively throughout the day.
I’d actually love to read A Christmas Carol aloud, as a35362 suggested, but there’s zero chance my family would put up with that. I couldn’t get away with reciting *The Red Wheelbarrow *to this group without eyerolling and groans, much less a whole story. Alas, I’m the sole literature lover in the family.
If I could get participation, I’d love to break out the ol’ guitar and get everybody to help me write our own Christmas song. My friends and I wrote goofy songs all the time in college–purely for our own amusement, mind you–and it was a blast.
Boyo Jim, I’m sorry Christmas has been so bad for you. Wishing you a Merry Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not
The Hobbit
Monsters, Inc. in 3D
Les Miserables