holiday party ideas

November 25, 2006 9:56 PM

My girlfriend and I are hosting a holiday/apartment-warming party in a few weeks, and we're not sure how to entertain our guests beyond providing music and drinks. We hope everyone will get along and make conversation pretty easily, but just to be safe, we'd like some ideas on how to keep them occupied. Any suggestions? Thanks.
posted by mgrimm to Society & Culture (14 answers total)

White elephant gift exchange

Cookie exchange

Holiday movie drinking games
posted by chickletworks at 10:23 PM on November 25, 2006

Apples to Apples is a great game for get togethers for breaking the ice.
posted by tastybrains at 10:44 PM on November 25, 2006

I know it's straight out of Bridget Jones, but introducing your friends to one another with an interesting story or anecdote really does get conversation flowing. Plus, booze. Lots of booze.
posted by junkbox at 11:21 PM on November 25, 2006

Apples to Apples is a wonderful game for this, as tbrains said. Hoopla is also a gas. Booze-fueled board games are great for keeping folks engaged with one another - mighty hard to play without some measure of conversation. Save Settlers of Catan and the like for when more attention span is available.

Just got back from a big holiday party where folks stayed up late into the night passing Catchphrase around. Holding it when the buzzer went off meant a drink of beer and a turn in the goofy hat we were tossing round the room.
posted by EatTheWeek at 1:21 AM on November 26, 2006

food? seems to me people always lighten up relax and get in the mood when confronted by a good spread.
posted by londongeezer at 1:49 AM on November 26, 2006

Dance Dance Revolution + 4 mats + booze = hilarious parties.
posted by ChazB at 3:36 AM on November 26, 2006

Make up a bunch of slips of paper with different (movies | 80's pop stars | Hollywood personalities | sitcom characters | whatever) on them, tape one to each person's back when they come in and have each person try to figure out who is on their back by asking questions of the other guests.

It forces interaction and, if you make up the slips with the right sorts of 'answers' on them, it primes people's brains nicely for conversation AND puts out pretty broad topic seeds.

Also, and perhaps more importantly, no holiday party is complete without making some Santa's Beard cocktails.

1 part brandy
1 part light creme de cacao
2 parts prepared egg nog
shake with ice, light sprinkle of nutmeg on top.

MM!!
posted by dirtdirt at 5:21 AM on November 26, 2006

Seconding Catchphrase and booze.
posted by craven_morhead at 6:41 AM on November 26, 2006

A fun little game I have played at a Holiday party last year: everybody gets a piece of green or red construction paper. The guest must hold the paper behind their back (no peeking), and rip the paper to fashion a Christmas tree shape. Best tree wins a prize. It may sound juvenile but it was a lot of fun.
posted by LoriFLA at 7:19 AM on November 26, 2006

I would like to suggest whatever you do, you make it something that can be easily declined, like board games. Some people don't like icebreaker games or even board games, so making it possible to avoid playing without looking like an asshole would be quite a gift to those guests. But honestly, drinks, cookies, and music at a reasonable level should be plenty.
posted by dame at 11:49 AM on November 26, 2006

Pictionary with a whiteboard (dry erase) board is a lot of fun. You can find the whiteboards and dry erase pens fairly cheaply at an office supply store. It's fun with 2 or 3 big teams and you can modify the rules a little if you want. We usually just prop the board up on a chair. It usually ends up being pretty hilarious, since a lot of people cannot draw, but can communicate somehow.
posted by gt2 at 2:15 PM on November 26, 2006

Do the guests mostly already know each other? If so, just add free alcohol and you're set.

If not, board games can help. I really Loaded Questions for this because getting to know other people is kind of built in to the game.

Also, I always try to make sure that everyone at the party knows at least one other person who's going to be there.
posted by Jess the Mess at 3:47 PM on November 26, 2006

Speaking of games, I have found Eat Poop You Cat to be really fun, and helpful in breaking the ice.
posted by kindall at 5:43 PM on November 26, 2006

Third Apples to Apples, and throw in a vote for Karaoke Revolution (PS2 or Xbox), especially with 2 mics for duets.
posted by fings at 7:15 PM on November 26, 2006