Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt: A Printable List Sorted by How Easy Each Display Is to Spot
Here are two printable lists: 20 light displays to spot from a car and 20 to spot on foot. Each list runs from 1-point displays you can confirm at a glance to 3-point ones that need a particular detail. Open a list in the card maker, set one team per car or walking group, and print a tick-box checklist in each team's color.
Open the driving list Open the walking listThe two lists are written for different vantage points. From a moving car you see rooflines and big lawn pieces; walking, you also see porches, mailboxes and window candles, which are too small to spot from the road. Doing both on the same night? The card maker holds up to 40 items, which is exactly 20 + 20: load both lists together.
How the points work
The points rise with how specific an item is: a general kind of decoration scores 1, a particular color, shape or character scores more. They are our rating, not a count of what is common in your town.
| Points | Rule | Example from the lists |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | A common kind of decoration you can confirm at a glance | A house with lights along the whole front roofline |
| 2 | Needs a specific color, shape, size or position | A house with only blue lights |
| 3 | Needs a particular detail or combination; you may have to stop and look | Lights spelling a word such as JOY, NOEL or PEACE |
The driving list is worth 37 points and the walking list 40. Each item also has a short what counts rule in the host's answer key, so you can settle the arguments ("that's white, not blue") from the back seat.
The driving list (20 items, 37 points)
These are things big enough to read from the street at low speed: rooflines, inflatables, lawn figures and lights you can see in a window. Nothing on it needs you to stop the car.
| # | Spot this | What counts (for the host) | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | A house with lights along the whole front roofline | Lights run the full length of the front roof edge | 1 |
| 2 | A lit Christmas tree in a front window | Indoor tree, lights on, visible from the street | 1 |
| 3 | An inflatable snowman | Any blow-up snowman, standing up | 1 |
| 4 | Icicle lights hanging from a gutter | Strands that hang down in uneven lengths | 1 |
| 5 | Lights wrapped around a tree trunk | Any yard tree with lights spiraled up the trunk | 1 |
| 6 | An inflatable Santa | Any blow-up Santa, standing up | 1 |
| 7 | A wreath on a garage door | Lit or unlit; it must be on the garage, not the front door | 1 |
| 8 | A house with only blue lights | Every light you can see on the front is blue | 2 |
| 9 | A lit reindeer on a lawn | Wire, wicker or inflatable; one reindeer is enough | 2 |
| 10 | Net lights draped over bushes | A grid of lights laid over a shrub or hedge | 2 |
| 11 | A projector covering a house in moving dots or snowflakes | Light that moves across the wall, not strings of bulbs | 2 |
| 12 | White lights and colored lights on the same house | Both kinds on the front of one house | 2 |
| 13 | A light-up gift box on a lawn | A lit box shape with a bow | 2 |
| 14 | An inflatable taller than the front door | Compare it with the door frame behind it | 2 |
| 15 | A lit star on a roof or on top of a yard tree | Star shape, lit, above head height | 2 |
| 16 | A lit penguin or polar bear | Any lit or inflatable penguin or polar bear | 2 |
| 17 | A lit sleigh | Any sleigh shape, lit up; reindeer not required | 3 |
| 18 | Lights spelling a word such as JOY, NOEL or PEACE | Letters made of lights; a printed sign does not count | 3 |
| 19 | An arch or tunnel of lights over a path or driveway | People could walk underneath it | 3 |
| 20 | An inflatable that is not a holiday character at all | A dinosaur, a sports mascot, a cartoon animal: the host decides | 3 |
The walking list (20 items, 40 points)
This list adds the details you only see well on foot: what is on the porch, the mailbox, the path and the windows. Tick them from the public side and stay off lawns and driveways.
| # | Spot this | What counts (for the host) | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Electric candles in a window | Flameless window candles, one is enough | 1 |
| 2 | A mailbox wrapped in garland or lights | Garland, ribbon or lights on the post or the box | 1 |
| 3 | Candy-cane lights along a path | At least two lit candy canes marking a walkway | 1 |
| 4 | Lights wrapped around a porch railing | Railing or banister on the outside of a house | 1 |
| 5 | A nutcracker, an elf or a snowman figure on a porch | A figure on the porch or steps, not on the lawn | 1 |
| 6 | A wreath with lights on it | The wreath itself is lit | 1 |
| 7 | Lights that blink or change color while you watch | Watch for ten seconds from the sidewalk | 2 |
| 8 | A lit tree in an upstairs window | Second floor or higher | 2 |
| 9 | A yard figure that moves | A waving Santa, a nodding reindeer, a spinning windmill | 2 |
| 10 | A porch light with a red or green bulb | The porch light itself, not a strand | 2 |
| 11 | A decorated yard tree that is not a pine | A palm, a maple, a fruit tree: anything without needles | 2 |
| 12 | A star made of lights hanging in a window | Star shape, inside the glass | 2 |
| 13 | A snowman made of wood, wire or paint | Any snowman that is not inflatable and not made of snow | 2 |
| 14 | A lit sign with a name on it | “Santa Stop Here”, a family name, “Merry Christmas” | 2 |
| 15 | Lights in a shape that is not a tree | A dog, a heart, a train: a lit shape you can name | 3 |
| 16 | A sign counting down the days to Christmas | Shows a number of days left | 3 |
| 17 | A row of luminarias along a path | Paper bags or lanterns lit from inside, at least three | 3 |
| 18 | A display with a radio station sign | A sign telling you to tune in for music | 3 |
| 19 | A pet-themed decoration | A dog in a Santa hat, a cat with a bow, a lit paw print | 3 |
| 20 | Two houses side by side with matching lights | Same color and same style on both houses | 3 |
Several cars or groups: one colored checklist each
A light hunt is a find-it list: every team gets every item and can find them in any order. In the card maker, set Teams to the number of cars (up to 8). Every team gets the same list in its own color, so the sheets do not get mixed up when you compare scores at the end.
?teams=3: Find-it list is selected, the preview map numbers the 20 items, and Team Red's cards start below it. The Team Blue and Team Green tabs hold the same items in their colors. Open this example in the card maker.Press Print checklist to get one page per team: a tick box for every item, its points, the total and a "Found by" line. Clue cards are not needed for this game; the checklist is what goes in the car.
Agree a tie-break before you leave, for example "most 3-point items wins".
Safety on the night
- The driver does not play. NHTSA's definition of distracted driving includes "talking to people in your vehicle" as well as phones and screens (NHTSA, Distracted Driving). So a passenger holds the sheet and keeps the score, and nobody asks the driver to look at a display. If you want to look at something properly, park legally and look then.
- Watch for people on foot. You may share the street with people walking to see the same lights. NHTSA's tips for drivers say to "exercise extra caution at nighttime or in bad weather, since pedestrians can be harder to see and may appear suddenly" (NHTSA, Pedestrian Safety).
- Walking groups stay on the sidewalk. The same NHTSA page says to walk on sidewalks whenever they are available and, where there is none, to walk facing traffic and as far from it as possible. It also says children under 10 should not cross the street alone.
- Look, don't touch. Every item can be ticked from the street or the sidewalk. Nothing on either list needs you to step onto a lawn, touch a display or knock on a door.
Make the list fit your neighborhood
Some items will not exist where you live. A street with no inflatables, or a warm town where nobody has icicle lights, simply has fewer points on offer. Before you print, delete the items you know you will not see. The total on the checklist updates when you do. You can also add local landmarks, such as the house that does the big show every year, as 3-point items of your own. Nothing is uploaded: the list stays in your browser.
Next steps
- Planning the rest of the holiday? Six Christmas scavenger hunt formats compares the light hunt with present hunts, photo hunts and team races.
- Back home and still keen? The Christmas scavenger hunt clues are an indoor trail that can end at a present.
- Open the walking list for two groups or start from scratch in the card maker.
Sources
- NHTSA — Distracted Driving — https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving, read November 10, 2026
- NHTSA — Pedestrian Safety — https://www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/pedestrian-safety, read November 10, 2026