Need family friendly party games!

November 4, 2009 10:43 AM

Birthday Party for a 30 year old. Need ideas for short, 10-20 minute games/activities to do.

A dear friend is turning 30 years old and my sister is throwing her a party. We have the hall, food, and invitations set. My sister plans to do a Family Feud and/or $10,000 Pyramid style game show as well as a Roast of the birthday girl.

We still need to plan out prizes for those big games.. but we also need a handful (3 or so?) small games that we can keep the party goers busy with while we set up the larger games.

So I'm looking for ideas or websites for short party games. These games need to be family friendly (young and old will be there and the birthday girl is a very 'proper' type of person) and able to work with around 50 people.

on the cheap would be for the best, as well.

I'm sure there are a bunch of askmetas out there about this, as well as on the web - but my searching skills fail me.

Thanks!

posted by royalsong to sports, hobbies, & recreation (8 comments total)

We had one at a White Elephant Christmas exchange a few years ago that I really enjoyed, and you don't need everyone to participate to get enjoyment.

Grab five books or magazines. Open them up a random page, and pick a random word from each. Pass out notecards and pens, and give everyone five minutes to write a poem using those words. They can be free verse, iambic pentameter, haiku, whatever you like as long as it's a poem. At the end of five minutes, everyone puts down the pens and you take turns reading the poems aloud. They're short, funny, and even if you don't write one you can still listen to poems everyone else made.

For bonus points, collect the cards and make a little memory scrap book with them.
posted by Lifeson at 12:13 PM on November 4

No offense, but I'm cringing too at the thought of games....but that isn't what you asked.

Here is a link to a site where you can create Bingo Cards, I think on a variety of subjects. Maybe make one about the Birthday honoree?

http://www.halloweenbingocards.net/
posted by mazienh at 12:14 PM on November 4

This is an awesome question!

I like taboo. It's a simple word game, can be played with a bunch of big or small teams, and can be a filler game or can potentially last for an hour or more. You can buy sets of cards or you can draw up your own.

The jist is that one person from your team picks a card, and has to describe the word at the top of the card without saying the 3 - 5 words listed underneath. Which are, of course, the obvious words to describe the idea at the top of the card. For example:
Mount Everest
Mountain
Tall
Himalayas
Climb
Hike
Hill
... You get the idea I'm sure.

Another game which springs to mind is Celebrity. Divide everyone into teams. Take a few minutes to draw up the names of a bunch of famous people on slips of paper, then jumble them all together. In Round One, teams take turns for one person to pick a name and describe the person to their team mates. Then it's the next team's turn. Continue until all the names have been drawn from the hat (or other suitable receptacle). In Round Two, you have to describe the person using only one word. In Round Three, you describe the person using only mime.

This is an obvious suggestion, but pictionary is a lot of fun as well, is similarly flexible about team size and can last for as long as you want it to.

Charades is great whether you are a kid or not, and particularly if you eschew the traditional movie/TV show/book format (though that is still good). Let teams pick the situation for other teams to act out. Be really creative about suggestions of situations people have to act out. I remember getting really stumped miming the Rennaissance once.

1000 blank white cards might be slightly unmanageable with fifty people, but with smaller groups it is awesome and drawing the cards alone will keep people occupied for at least an hour. Provide many coloured pencils. People get really creative about the stuff they draw (and their application/invention of rules).

What's with the hating on games. Games are awesome
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 12:27 PM on November 4

Okay, two more for you.

Electric Shock: divide group into two equal teams sitting facing each other. The teams must hold hands. Place a chair with an object such as a bottle at one of the end of the line and have a Gamesmaster-type-person at the other. The closest person from each end looks at the gamesmaster while the other team members look at the bottle. The gamesmaster has his/her hands behind their back and randomly shows their hands with different numbers of fingers showing. If each hand shows the same number of fingers, the person looking at the gamesmaster starts an "electric shock" by squeezing the hand of the person beside them. The first person from a team to grab the bottle wins a point and everyone rotates one space. Prizes for the winning team, obviously.

"Who am I?" is sort of traditional family party fare. You know the deal: post-it notes on the forehead with the name of a well-known person; everyone wanders around asking yes/no questions to figure out who they are "Am I a woman? Do I live in Sacramento?" Etc.

Sorry, I noticed that you have a 10 - 20 minute time limit for these games (I must have skimmed the question's title; very bad form I know). I hope some of the suggestions above are still helpful.
posted by the cat's pyjamas at 12:50 PM on November 4

Pinata! Put in candy, candy jewellery, glow necklaces, stupid hats, etc.

Provide a pile of paper and lots of markers and ask everyone to write the birthday girl a note or letter or make her a card. You can prompt them with questions like, illustrate a funny story about you two, name 5 things you like about her, draw her most embarassing moment, whatever. Then slip all the artwork into some variation of a book like this- a portfolio book with clear pocket pages (you can find them at art supply stores, a 20-page book that allows for 40 page views back to back might run you $8).

A photo slideshow is a nice addition to parties like that. Just plug a projector from the office into your laptop and let your photo program run the album as a slideshow. Make sure to find a few pics of her as a little kid, and match them with similar pics of her as an adult, and put them side by side in photoshop, then saving the composite images as jpegs. I did this for a friend's birthday and everyone loved it- the then & now slides were the most fun. Email her friends from highschool and college to get pics that maybe she's never even seen before.
posted by twistofrhyme at 1:03 PM on November 4

A questionnaire on how well people know the person!

1. Which bone did [Birthday Person] break when she was 10?
2. What year did she graduate from college?
3. Who was her first employer after graduation?
4. What was her major?
5. What was the name of her imaginary friend?
6. What is her favorite color?

and so on.

We did this at a friend's bridal shower. It was actually really fun and amazing which people go which things right or wrong. The winner received some sort of simple prize and had fun laughing at the funny things people wrote in if they didn't know the answer.

This can be kept very age appropriate by the questions you ask and can made easier/harder with multiple choice options.

Victorian Parlor Games might also be fun, especially for someone described as proper.
posted by zizzle at 1:09 PM on November 4

Please don't roast the birthday girl. In the hands of a professional a roast can be funny. In the hands of well meaning friends and family, a roast is hurtful and totally unfunny.

Something that was done at a party that I attended: Everyone was given a nice piece of paper and a pen and asked to write a favorite memory of the friend. The papers were gathered and put in a binder for the Birthday Girl at the end of the party. This was the gift that the Birthday Girl raved about for years after. Not all the memories were funny, not all of them were flattering, but they were shared privately so there was no embarrassment.
posted by TooFewShoes at 2:15 PM on November 4

I was going to suggest "Who Am I?" as well. But instead, I'll just add a minor tweek...

Instead of post-it notes on the forehead, buy a package of "Hello. My name is..." stickers, write the names on, and stick them on the guest's back. Easier to deal with, and no (inadvertent) cheating.

And, yes, games are awesome!
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 10:45 AM on November 5